The parent of Founder Securities, Credit Suisse AG's brokerage venture partner in China, said four of its executives were ordered to cooperate with an official investigation, stirring concerns as a dispute heats up with a major shareholder.

• January 6, 2015

The euro zone has new mechanisms in place that limit the threat of contagion, a spokeswoman for the German finance ministry said on Monday, in response to a question about whether the bloc could cope with a hypothetical Greek exit.

• January 5, 2015

Iran denied on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the United States to ship its surplus enriched uranium to Russia under new concessions aimed at clinching a comprehensive nuclear deal with six world powers.

• January 5, 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said on Monday that her government had not changed its position on the desirability of a Greek exit from the euro zone, saying the policy had always been to stabilize the bloc without losing any of its members.

• January 5, 2015

Israel will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israeli officials said on Saturday.

• January 3, 2015

The German government believes that the euro zone would now be able to cope with a Greece exit if that proved to be necessary, Der Spiegel news magazine reported on Saturday, citing unnamed government sources.

• January 3, 2015

Iran denied on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the United States to ship its surplus enriched uranium to Russia under new concessions aimed at clinching a comprehensive nuclear deal with six world powers.

• January 3, 2015

Russia's 2014 oil output hit a post-Soviet record high average of 10.58 million barrels per day (bpd), rising by 0.7 percent helped by small non-state producers, Energy Ministry data showed on Friday.

• January 2, 2015