A senior cleric challenged Iran's historic nuclear deal with world powers on Friday, echoing a cautious early assessment of the accord by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an arch-conservative who has the last word on matters of state.

• July 17, 2015

China's defense minister told the head of Japan's National Security Council on Friday that Japanese legislation that could see troops sent to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two would "complicate" regional security.

• July 17, 2015

Iran's security hawks have begun sniping at their country's historic nuclear deal, emboldened a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described some of the world powers that signed it as "untrustworthy".

• July 16, 2015

The Greek debt crisis has shown up the fragility of the euro zone and the need for stronger integration within the currency bloc, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

• July 16, 2015

India and Pakistan began accession to a regional security group led by China and Russia on Friday after two days of summits which President Vladimir Putin held up as evidence Moscow is not isolated in the world.

• July 16, 2015

The text of a nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers should be carefully scrutinized and legal procedures taken so the other side does not breach it, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his first public statements on the accord.

• July 15, 2015

President Barack Obama, seeking to sell the Iran nuclear deal to skeptical U.S. lawmakers and the American public, insisted on Wednesday that the landmark agreement was the best way to avoid a nuclear arms race and more war in the Middle East.

• July 15, 2015

European Union officials appeared to have defused a row with London on Wednesday, in which efforts to keep Greece in the euro zone risked fuelling demands in Britain to quit the EU altogether.

• July 15, 2015