Ukrainian government forces prepared on Monday to withdraw artillery and heavy armoured vehicles within a proposed 30-km (19-mile) buffer zone after detecting a lessening of fire from Russian-backed separatists, a military spokesman said.

• September 22, 2014

Islamic State urged its followers on Monday to attack citizens of the United States, France and other countries which have joined a coalition to destroy the ultra-radical group.

• September 22, 2014

The Ukrainian city of Donetsk was rocked by blasts on Saturday, even as government forces and pro-Russian separatists prepared to create a buffer zone to separate the warring sides.

• September 20, 2014

After about 15 hours of flying and five hours of meetings, sleep finally caught up with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Baghdad. It was 6:04 p.m.

• September 17, 2014

Russian Parliamentary Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Tuesday any deliveries of weapons from NATO countries to Kiev would be abetting war crimes being committed in eastern Ukraine.

• September 16, 2014

A U.N. nuclear agency investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran will not be an "endless process", its chief said on Monday, pressuring Tehran to step up cooperation with the long-stalled probe.

• September 15, 2014

Surveying a ruined airport in the rebel stronghold of Luhansk, the ex-Russian paratrooper in trademark blue beret boasts that only "professionals" such as him can turn the tide in the conflict with Kiev in eastern Ukraine.

• September 15, 2014

Fighting flared near an airport in eastern Ukraine on Saturday in breach of a fragile eight-day ceasefire as the prime minister accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of planning to destroy his country.

• September 13, 2014