Russia's Severstal CHMF.MM said it would sell two U.S. steel plants for $2.3 billion, withdrawing from the U.S. market at a time of rising tension between Russia and the West and turning its focus to its domestic business.

• July 21, 2014

The European Union should impose harder-hitting sanctions on Russia after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday, advocating an EU ban on future sales of military equipment to Moscow.

• July 21, 2014

Germany's foreign minister said on Saturday now may be Moscow's last opportunity to prove it is serious about peace in Ukraine as Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her call on Russia's Vladimir Putin to use his influence over pro-Moscow separatists.

• July 19, 2014

Israeli tanks and bulldozers dug in across a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier on Saturday, and Palestinian officials said military strikes had killed more than 300 people, most of them civilians.

• July 19, 2014

World leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over eastern Ukraine in a tragedy that could mark a pivotal moment in the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

• July 18, 2014

Israel intensified its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and warned it could "significantly widen" an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.

• July 18, 2014

Israel resumed air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, six hours after agreeing to an Egyptian-proposed truce that failed to halt Hamas rocket attacks.

• July 15, 2014

U.S. President Barack Obama told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday he wants U.S.-Chinese relations defined by more cooperation and a constructive management of differences during a phone call in which Iran and North Korea were discussed.

• July 15, 2014