A second round of Syria peace talks got off to a shaky start on Monday, with the two sides complaining about violations of a local ceasefire and an Islamist offensive respectively in separate meetings with the international mediator.

• February 11, 2014

Syria's deputy foreign minister said on Friday the government would take part in a second round of peace talks on Syria's civil war in the Swiss city of Geneva, state media reported.

• February 7, 2014

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he was confident Syria would meet a June 30 deadline to eliminate its entire chemical weapons program under a US-Russian plan.

• February 6, 2014

An initial agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program was "not perfect" but bought time to try to secure a comprehensive deal, U.S. officials said on Tuesday in response to sharp criticism from Congress.

• February 5, 2014

Russia said its ally Syria would soon ship more chemical weapons abroad for destruction after being accused of dragging its feet, while activists said civilians in Aleppo were fleeing deadly barrel bomb raids by President Bashar al-Assad's air force.

• February 5, 2014

Google has offered further concessions to address regulatory concerns about its search technology, the European Commission said on Wednesday, effectively settling a three-year investigation and avoiding a fine of up to $5 billion.

• February 5, 2014

Russia said its ally Syria would soon ship more chemical weapons abroad for destruction after being accused of dragging its feet, while activists said civilians in Aleppo were fleeing deadly barrel bomb raids by President Bashar al-Assad's air force.

• February 4, 2014

China has unveiled new rules telling officials not to cover up what should be publicly available information using the excuse it is a state secret, in what state media said was a move towards greater government transparency.

• February 3, 2014