South Korea can cope with a U.S. debt stalemate if it is brief, and welcomes any boost Japan can get from Abenomics - unless Tokyo is using that policy to weaken the yen, the country's finance minister said on Thursday.

• October 11, 2013

President Barack Obama and Republican leaders appeared ready to end a political crisis that has shuttered much of the U.S. government and pushed the country dangerously close to default after meeting at the White House on Thursday.

• October 11, 2013

China criticized U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday for giving tacit backing to the Philippines' stance in a tense maritime dispute, stressing again that it rejects Manila's attempt to seek arbitration.

• October 11, 2013

U.S. House of Representatives Republicans are considering signing on to a short-term increase in the government's borrowing authority to buy time for negotiations on broader policy measures, according to a Republican leadership aide.

• October 10, 2013

President Barack Obama refused to give ground in a fiscal confrontation with Republicans on Tuesday, saying he would negotiate on budget issues only if they agree to re-open the federal government and raise the debt limit with no conditions.

• October 9, 2013

As the U.S. government moved into the second week of a shutdown on Monday with no end in sight, a deadlocked U.S. Congress also confronted an October 17 deadline to increase the nation's borrowing power or risk default.

• October 7, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday he expected a "long and tortuous process" of world economic recovery, while China's economic growth rate of about 7 percent was "within a reasonable and expected range".

• October 7, 2013

Russia suspended imports of dairy products from neighboring Lithuania on Monday, turning up trade pressure on the European Union member weeks before it hosts a summit that could pull former Soviet republics further from Moscow's orbit.

• October 7, 2013