China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty, state media reported on Saturday.

• December 21, 2014

European Union leaders warned Moscow they are ready to flex their combined muscle and "stay the course" in a long confrontation with Russia if President Vladimir Putin refuses to pull back from Ukraine.

• December 19, 2014

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Thursday that possible fallout from Greece's political showdown would not trigger a euro zone debt crisis like the one that pushed Italy close to default three years ago.

• December 19, 2014

European security watchdog the OSCE prolonged the mandate of its observer mission at two Russian checkpoints on the border with Ukraine by three months on Thursday, the longest extension so far.

• December 18, 2014

The European Union banned investment in Crimea on Thursday, halting European help for Russian Black Sea oil and gas exploration and outlawing European cruise ships from calling at Crimean ports.

• December 18, 2014

Russia has made constructive moves in recent days toward possibly reducing tensions in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.

• December 16, 2014

Canada is set to sign a deal with China to return ill-gotten assets seized from those suspected of economic crimes, the official China Daily reported on Monday, as Beijing works to track down corrupt officials who have fled overseas.

• December 15, 2014

NATO accused Russia of posing a danger to civil aviation in the Baltic region after Stockholm protested over a Russian air force jet it said had flown too close to an airliner and had turned off one of its location instruments.

• December 15, 2014