Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Tehran on Friday to discuss improvement of economic and political ties after lifting of international sanctions because of Iran's disputed nuclear program, state TV said.

• January 22, 2016

For China, whose President Xi Jinping is already taking an increasingly muscular approach to claims in the East and South China Sea, the question of Taiwan trumps any other of its territorial assertions in terms of sensitivity and importance.

• January 17, 2016

Israel bristled on Sunday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe's nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defense aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future.

• January 17, 2016

U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump called for higher tariffs on Chinese goods if China does not stop allowing its yuan currency to devalue.

• January 15, 2016

The Philippines has asked the United States to hold joint naval patrols, a defense ministry spokesman said on Thursday, amid a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.

• January 14, 2016

Diplomats from Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States, and China held talks in Islamabad to try to draw up a plan for peace talks between in Afghanistan's government and the Taliban.

• January 11, 2016

The United States called on China on Thursday to end "business as usual" with its ally North Korea after Pyongyang defied world powers by announcing it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

• January 7, 2016

The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants says its air strikes have cut oil production by the group in Syria and Iraq by around 30 percent.

• January 6, 2016