Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to hold snap parliamentary elections and could share power with a "healthy" opposition.

• September 4, 2015

Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers, meeting in Copenhagen on Thursday, called on Russia to immediately release an Estonian policeman who they say was "abducted" from his country and jailed for 15 years in a case that violated international law.

• September 3, 2015

British Prime Minister David Cameron resisted calls on Thursday to take in refugees in much greater numbers after the image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach raised the emotional temperature of the debate.

• September 3, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China produced a clutch of new deals on Thursday, but failed to secure funding for vital infrastructure projects, underscoring the limits to a relationship Moscow casts as a counterweight to the West.

• September 3, 2015

Russia staged a military parade on Wednesday to commemorate seizing a group of Pacific islands from Japan at the end of World War Two, a move likely to inflame tensions over a long-running territorial dispute with Tokyo.

• September 2, 2015

Moscow said on Wednesday it would react in kind to United States' widening of sanctions imposed on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, criticizing the move as straining relations and posing risks for international stability.

• September 2, 2015

Egypt will hold a long-awaited parliamentary election, starting on Oct. 18-19, the election commission said on Sunday, the final step in a process to bring back democracy that critics say has been tainted by widespread repression.

• August 31, 2015

The French Presidency says France, Germany, and Russia back plans for a complete cease-fire in eastern Ukraine from next week.

• August 30, 2015