European Commission moves to ban top EU banks from market bets with their own money will run out of momentum once this year's health check on the sector shows it is in sound shape, the head of France's Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) said.

• February 12, 2014

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano faced fierce criticism on Monday over reports that he asked Mario Monti about replacing Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister months before his government fell at the height of the euro zone crisis in 2011.

• February 11, 2014

Some of the euro zone's lenders have no future and should be allowed to go under if they fail a health check, the bloc's new banking supervisor told the Financial Times, underscoring a tougher approach to banking oversight.

• February 11, 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 euro zone and its constituent parts will report fourth quarter economic growth numbers at the end of the week, offering policy makers at the European Central Bank a needed snapshot of the bloc's underlying strength.

• 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