Unidentified armed men fired in the air as they moved into a Ukrainian naval post in Crimea on Monday in the latest confrontation since Russian military groups seized control of the Black Sea peninsula.

• March 10, 2014

France expressed optimism on Friday over its ties with China in nuclear energy and aerospace in a sign of possible business deals when China's Xi Jinping makes his first trip as president to Europe in late March.

• March 7, 2014

European Commission President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that from a purely financial standpoint the crisis in Ukraine should not have much impact on the euro zone.

• March 6, 2014

U.S. stocks rallied on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 at a record high, as fears of a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine eased and Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need to use military force in the Crimea region for now.

• March 4, 2014

U.S. lawmakers are considering options such as imposing sanctions on Russia's banks and freezing assets of Russian public institutions and private investors because of Moscow's moves in Ukraine, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, the chairman of the Senate's Europe subcommittee, said on Monday.

• March 3, 2014

U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday alongside other risky assets globally as Ukraine and Russia prepared for possible war after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbor.

• March 3, 2014

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday that Russian action was a "potentially grave threat" to Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

• March 1, 2014

China's central bank delivered two major surprises to investors this week: it engineered a sharp decline in the yuan against the dollar and at the same time relaxed its tight grip on money markets that had kept interest rates firm.

• March 1, 2014