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

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

An international financial watchdog said on Friday member states should take action to ward off risks emanating from Iran and North Korea, which it said had failed to tackle money-laundering and financing of terrorism.

• October 25, 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

China said on Friday it would donate 500 million yuan ($82 million) to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to battle Ebola, its largest round of aid to help contain the spread of the deadly virus.

• October 24, 2014