Russia will take counter measures if Washington imposes new sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday.

• December 14, 2014

Afghanistan's new President Ashraf Ghani vowed to shake up security in the capital Kabul in an angry speech on Sunday and denounced a recent surge in Taliban attacks on civilian and military targets as "un-Islamic". In recent weeks, Afghanistan has seen waves of suicide bombings and commando-style assaults by the Islamist insurgents, who are seeking to make territorial gains and to spread uncertainty as most foreign troops withdraw this month.

• December 14, 2014

U.N. talks on slowing climate change were threatened with collapse on Saturday after China clashed with the United States and led emerging nations to reject a compromise outline of an agreement.

• December 14, 2014

China on Friday opened a key section of a massive and ambitious plan to transport water from wetter central and southern parts of the country up to its arid north, including the capital Beijing, state media reported.

• December 12, 2014

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lashed out at India on Friday over a visit by the leader of Crimea, the former Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia, who accompanied President Vladimir Putin's annual summit delegation this week

• December 12, 2014

China has told its banks to lend more in the final months of 2014 and relaxed enforcement of loan-to-deposit ratios to expand credit, sources told Reuters, as Beijing prepares to release data that could confirm the relentless slowing of its economy.

• December 11, 2014

Russia is shocked by revelations about CIA torture in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and believes those responsible for abusing detainees should be brought to justice, a senior foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

• December 11, 2014

Special Report on South Stream as Gazprom Abandons the Project and Announces a New Gas Pipeline to Turkey
By Dr Jack Sharples, EGF Associate Researcher on the external dimensions of Russian gas and Lecturer in Energy Politics at the European University of St Petersburg

Special In-Depth Report on South Stream
Gazprom abandons project, proposes new pipeline to Turkey
On the 1st of December, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made a significant announcement: the South Stream gas pipeline project has been abandoned, and Gazprom is proposing a pipeline to Turkey as a replacement.
The in-depth report that follows provides background information on the South Stream project, and highlights the difficulties faced by the project long before the decision was taken to abandon it. The report then considers the merits of the proposed alternative – a pipeline to Turkey – before concluding with an analysis of the winners and losers from the decision to abandon South Stream. READ MORE

• December 11, 2014