China has told its banks to lend more in the final months of 2014 and relaxed enforcement of loan-to-deposit ratios to expand credit, sources told Reuters, as Beijing prepares to release data that could confirm the relentless slowing of its economy.

• December 11, 2014

Russia is shocked by revelations about CIA torture in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and believes those responsible for abusing detainees should be brought to justice, a senior foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

• December 11, 2014

Special Report on South Stream as Gazprom Abandons the Project and Announces a New Gas Pipeline to Turkey
By Dr Jack Sharples, EGF Associate Researcher on the external dimensions of Russian gas and Lecturer in Energy Politics at the European University of St Petersburg

Special In-Depth Report on South Stream
Gazprom abandons project, proposes new pipeline to Turkey
On the 1st of December, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made a significant announcement: the South Stream gas pipeline project has been abandoned, and Gazprom is proposing a pipeline to Turkey as a replacement.
The in-depth report that follows provides background information on the South Stream project, and highlights the difficulties faced by the project long before the decision was taken to abandon it. The report then considers the merits of the proposed alternative – a pipeline to Turkey – before concluding with an analysis of the winners and losers from the decision to abandon South Stream. READ MORE

• December 11, 2014

Euro zone ministers are considering extending Greece's bailout by six months to mid-2015, according to a document obtained by Reuters, but Athens said it was only willing to consider an extension of a few weeks to the unpopular program.

• December 10, 2014

Uzbekistan urged Russia on Wednesday to help protect Central Asia against what it said would be a rising threat from militant Islam as U.S. forces draw down their numbers in Afghanistan.

• December 10, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Rome on Sunday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on developments in Israel and the West Bank, the State Department said on Wednesday.

• December 10, 2014

Russia resumed gas flows to Ukraine on Tuesday after halting them six months ago in a dispute over prices and unpaid debts, Ukraine's gas transport monopoly said.

• December 9, 2014

British oil major BP (BP.L) plans to invest more than $12 billion in Egypt over the next five years, and to double its gas supplies to the local market in the next decade, the country manager of BP Egypt said on Tuesday.

• December 9, 2014