Ending Taiwan's political standoff with mainland China is necessary to boost Taiwan's sagging economy and to help it integrate more effectively with the region, the island's president, Ma Ying-jeou, said.

• January 2, 2014

As U.S. and European banks drop out of commodity trading, Russian, Chinese and Gulf state firms are filling the gap in an attempt to exert greater control over the pricing of the raw materials on which their economies so heavily depend.

• December 30, 2013

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have gathered again in Kiev in a fresh show of force by the month-old anti-government protest movement.

• December 29, 2013

More than a million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits after an emergency federal programme expired on Saturday.

• December 29, 2013

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has signed a law on Uzbekistan joining the free trade zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

• December 29, 2013

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has signed a law on Uzbekistan joining the free trade zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

• December 29, 2013

Ukraine expects a $15 billion bailout package from Russia to be fully disbursed in early 2014, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Wednesday after Kiev received the first $3 billion tranche.

• December 26, 2013

Russia told Ukraine on Tuesday it had transferred the first $3 billion tranche of a $15 billion bailout, part of plans to keep Kiev firmly within Moscow's orbit and out of the European Union's embrace.

• December 24, 2013