U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the case on Sunday for completing nuclear diplomacy with Iran despite Israeli opposition, saying the United States deserves the benefit of the doubt on getting a deal that would prevent any need for military action to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions.

• March 1, 2015

Weakness in China's vast manufacturing sector, aggravated by high real borrowing costs and weak demand, appears to have driven the central bank to accelerate the pace of monetary easing to ward off deflation in the world's second-largest economy.

• March 1, 2015

Ukraine on Friday reported the first deaths in three days in east Ukraine and President Petro Poroshenko said Russia would pose a "military threat" even if a ceasefire holds.

• February 27, 2015

Bulgaria will support a new round of sanctions against Moscow if pro-Russian separatists are found to have breached a peace deal agreed for eastern Ukraine, Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov told Reuters on Friday.

• February 27, 2015

Ukraine has sent a small prepayment of $15 million to Russia for March natural gas deliveries, energy officials from the two sides said on Friday, after Moscow threatened to cut off supply.

• February 27, 2015

Snapshot analysis by Ben McPherson, Principal Editor, European Geopolitical Forum

In May 2014 an important initiative, the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, or CANWFZ, was enshrined by the actions of five nuclear states—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia—as they signed a Protocol agreeing to respect the non-proliferation framework. The idea has been discussed since at least 1993, when the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, proposed it at the UN General Assembly. READ MORE

• February 27, 2015

Germany is considering buying more tanks in the light of the Ukraine crisis and Europe's deteriorating relations with Russia, after years of drastic cuts left the military operating with just 75 percent of the heavy equipment it needs.

• February 26, 2015

Bank lending in the euro zone fell slightly in January but at a slower pace than a month earlier, suggesting the economy may be turning a corner as consumer morale picks up in the bloc's largest economies.

• February 26, 2015