Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) has agreed to buy Hong Kong's flagship English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in the most politically sensitive acquisition by the e-commerce giant to date.

• December 11, 2015

Russia says it has for the first time struck Islamic State targets in Syria with missiles fired from a submarine.

• December 8, 2015

Oil prices plummeted to their lowest levels since the depths of the global recession in February 2009 as investors braced for a flood of Iranian oil in an already glutted market.

• December 8, 2015

Russia, Iran, and Iraq have quashed a plan reportedly being eyed by Saudi Arabia to lift sagging global oil prices through collective cuts in oil output.

• December 7, 2015

Britain joined U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State in Syria on Thursday, but Vladimir Putin issued bitter new denunciations of Turkey for shooting down a Russian plane, demonstrating the limits to international solidarity.

• December 3, 2015

Oil-producing countries looked unlikely to reach a deal to lift languishing prices at a meeting on Friday after Iran, Iraq and Russia swiftly rejected a surprise proposal that appeared to have been floated by Saudi Arabia.

• December 3, 2015

Russia's entry into the war in Syria has changed the balance on the ground, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview on Czech Television, and he predicted that support from his main international ally would remain strong.

• December 1, 2015

The International Monetary Fund on Monday, as expected, admitted China's yuan into its benchmark currency basket in a victory for Beijing's campaign for recognition as a global economic power.

• November 30, 2015