Syrian President Bashar al Assad told Russia on Sunday he was saddened by the crash of a Russian military plane on its way to Syria but the countries' fight against Islamist militants would not be affected.

• December 25, 2016

Chinese state media on Friday expressed alarm and warned of a "showdown with the U.S." after President-elect Donald Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line against China, to head a new White House National Trade Council.

• December 23, 2016

Rosneft's (ROSN.MM) plans for next year allow it to be flexible with production volumes, Russia's top oil producer said on Saturday, after Moscow clinched a deal with OPEC to cut production to bolster weak oil prices.

• December 23, 2016

Russia's Vladimir Putin said on Friday he was unfazed by President-elect Donald Trump's plans to boost the U.S. nuclear arsenal, praising Trump for being in touch with U.S. public opinion while branding the Democrats sore election losers.

• December 23, 2016

Britain's decision to leave the European Union is an opportunity to reform the bloc, giving more say to national governments and less to Brussels institutions, Poland's eurosceptic leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.

• December 22, 2016

The Baltic state of Lithuania, on the frontline of growing tensions between the West and Russia, says the Kremlin is responsible for cyber attacks that have hit government computers over the last two years.

• December 22, 2016

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden "has had and continues to have contact" with Russian intelligence services, according to a newly declassified U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee report released on Thursday.

• December 22, 2016

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said in a statement.

• December 21, 2016