International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi scrambled to keep diplomacy alive on Wednesday, bringing forward to Thursday a meeting with senior U.S. and Russian officials backing opposing sides in Syria's war.

• February 12, 2014

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

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will begin a trip this week to China, South Korea, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department said on Sunday, at a time of high tensions in Asia over China's increasingly assertive territorial claims.

• February 10, 2014

The U.N. nuclear agency said on Sunday that Iran had agreed to start addressing suspicions that it may have worked on designing an atomic weapon, a potential breakthrough in a long-stalled investigation into Tehran's atomic activities.

• February 10, 2014

China's Foreign Ministry called on Spain on Friday to prevent the launch of further lawsuits which seek to probe alleged Chinese rights abuses in the restive region of Tibet.

• February 7, 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

An east-west struggle over Ukraine turned nastier as Moscow accused the United States of fomenting a coup and Washington pointed a finger at Russia for leaking a recording of U.S. diplomats discussing how to shape a new government in Kiev.

• February 7, 2014

Russia signaled on Wednesday that it could toughen demands for gas payments from Ukraine if Kiev fails to fulfill existing agreements, increasing pressure on an ex-Soviet neighbor gripped by an economic and political crisis.

• February 6, 2014