Russia will tap into a rainy-day fund for most of the $15 billion bailout it promised Ukraine after Kiev scrapped plans for European Union deals that would have pulled it further from Moscow's orbit, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

• January 24, 2014

There is as high as a one-in-five chance that prices could start to fall in the euro zone, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist said on Tuesday.

• January 24, 2014

The first weeks of 2014 showed North Asia's manufacturing and export giants enjoying mixed fortunes, with South Korea and Japan starting the year positively, while China, the biggest of the trio, was still struggling to regain momentum.

• January 23, 2014

The UN mediator for Syrian peace talks, Lakhdar Brahimi, is to hold separate talks with rival delegations to assess their willingness to meet together.

• January 23, 2014

Ukrainian opposition leaders are due to meet President Viktor Yanukovych, a day after the first deaths in the protests that have gripped Kiev for two months.

• January 23, 2014

Iran's oil exports have picked up modestly in January for the third consecutive month, according to sources who track tanker movements, adding to signs that the easing of sanctions pressure on Tehran is helping its oil exports to recover.

• January 22, 2014

Ukraine's prime minister denounced anti-government protesters as "terrorists" on Wednesday, but in what appeared to be his first real move to end weeks of unrest President Viktor Yanukovich held talks with opposition leaders.

• January 22, 2014

China must increase spending on emission cuts and clean technologies by 2 trillion yuan ($330 billion) to do its fair share to halt climate change, a report by Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics said.

• January 22, 2014