Germany's foreign minister said on Saturday now may be Moscow's last opportunity to prove it is serious about peace in Ukraine as Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her call on Russia's Vladimir Putin to use his influence over pro-Moscow separatists.

• July 19, 2014

Israeli tanks and bulldozers dug in across a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier on Saturday, and Palestinian officials said military strikes had killed more than 300 people, most of them civilians.

• July 19, 2014

World leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over eastern Ukraine in a tragedy that could mark a pivotal moment in the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

• July 18, 2014

Germany's Angela Merkel challenged Moscow's attempt to pin the downing of a Malaysian airliner on Ukraine, pointing to Russia as a source of separatists' weapons.

• July 18, 2014

Israel intensified its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and warned it could "significantly widen" an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.

• July 18, 2014

President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on some of Russia's biggest firms for the first time, striking at the heart of Vladimir Putin's powerbase by targeting companies closest to him over Moscow's failure to curb violence in Ukraine.

• July 17, 2014

New U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine will make it more difficult for Russian companies to refinance existing international loans and has dashed hopes that Russia's syndicated loan market is reopening, bankers said on Thursday.

• July 17, 2014

With talks between world powers and Iran over a broad nuclear accord at an impasse, Western governments are considering offering a significant easing of sanctions early on in the process to try to wring concessions from Tehran, diplomats say.

• July 17, 2014