The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition ruled out even indirect negotiations with Damascus before steps including a halt to Russian air strikes, contradicting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's insistence that talks will begin next week.

• January 22, 2016

Finland and Norway sought to ease migrant flows from Russia, as tensions over Europe's refugee crisis spread to the continent's northernmost frontiers.

• January 20, 2016

Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria are taking their toll on rebel forces, strengthening the hand of a defiant President Bashar al-Assad as the United Nations struggles to get peace talks off the ground.

• January 20, 2016

Polish President Andrzej Duda has called on NATO to deploy "substantial" numbers of troops and equipment in Eastern Europe to safeguard Poland and the region from a more aggressive Russia.

• January 19, 2016

Poland wants NATO to agree to deploy 'substantial' numbers of forces and equipment in central and eastern Europe to ensure the region's security in the face of a more aggressive Russia, President Andrzej Duda said on Monday.

• January 18, 2016

For China, whose President Xi Jinping is already taking an increasingly muscular approach to claims in the East and South China Sea, the question of Taiwan trumps any other of its territorial assertions in terms of sensitivity and importance.

• January 17, 2016

Israel bristled on Sunday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe's nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defense aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future.

• January 17, 2016

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday a new objective of Russian forces in Syria was to provide humanitarian aid.

• January 15, 2016