Ukraine and Russia begin new gas crisis talks on Wednesday, but wrangling over Ukraine's upfront cash payments threatens to push a deal out of reach, even as temperatures have fallen below zero in Kiev.

• October 29, 2014

BP's (BP.L) third-quarter results took a hit from declining oil prices and a sharp drop in income from Russia as Western sanctions on Moscow led to a slump in earnings from the oil major's local partner, Kremlin-controlled Rosneft (ROSN.MM).

• October 28, 2014

Russia poses no direct military threat to the European Union but its intervention in Ukraine is a type of 'hybrid warfare' the bloc should fight using coordinated energy policy and media to counter "massive propaganda", Denmark's foreign minister said on Monday.

• October 27, 2014

Pro-Western parties will dominate Ukraine's parliament after an election handed President Petro Poroshenko a mandate to end a separatist conflict and steer the country further out of Russia's orbit into Europe's mainstream.

• October 27, 2014

parliamentary election in Ukraine offers a chance for peace in the country's east, a deputy Russian foreign minister said on Monday but warned that "nationalists" in the chamber could undermine the process.

• October 27, 2014

China's fight against deeply ingrained corruption will never end, the top official in charge of tackling graft said before a meeting intended to clean up business in the world's second-largest economy.

• October 25, 2014

Standing at the village polling station where she will oversee Ukraine's parliamentary election on Sunday, Irina Sobko points across a field of wilted sunflowers to a town controlled by Russian-backed rebels where she says there won't be any voting

• October 24, 2014

German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked ECB President Mario Draghi for spelling out to leaders at an EU summit that governments must play a role in boosting the faltering euro zone economy, and said it was their firm intention to do so.

• October 24, 2014