Senior U.S. and Chinese officials will hold annual trade talks in Beijing next week, China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday, as the world's two largest economies try to iron out an array of long-held tensions.

• December 13, 2013

Western powers should stop meddling in Ukraine's affairs and manipulating the "opinions of the people" about a trade pact with the European Union, China's official government newswire said on Friday.

• December 13, 2013

President Vladimir Putin conceded for the first time on Thursday that Russia's economic problems were home-grown and vowed not to abandon the spending promises he made on returning to the Kremlin last year.

• December 12, 2013

Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov will meet a top European Union official in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a trade pact that Ukraine's president last month backed away from signing, provoking a political crisis.

• December 12, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a new attempt to woo Ukraine on Thursday after the European Union and United States stepped up efforts to pull Kiev out of its former Soviet master's orbit.

• December 12, 2013

Battalions of Ukrainian riot police withdrew on Wednesday from a protest camp after moving against demonstrators overnight in the authorities' biggest attempt yet to reclaim streets after weeks of protests against President Viktor Yanukovich.

• December 11, 2013

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich gave no ground on Tuesday to protesters who want Kiev to move closer to the European Union, insisting his government needs to deepen trade ties with Russia instead.

• December 11, 2013

Japan will set up a new amphibious military unit and deploy unarmed surveillance drones in its southwest, where it faces a row with China over disputed islands, according to drafts of the nation's latest defense plans seen on Wednesday.

• December 11, 2013