The European Union has imposed sanctions on the organizers of rebel elections in eastern Ukraine this month, the bloc said on Saturday, hitting the separatists and their organizations with asset freezes and travel bans.
France warned on Friday it would recognize a Palestinian state if a final international effort to overcome the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians failed, and proposed a two-year timeframe to end the conflict through a U.N.-backed resolution.
Ukraine's parliament approved Arseny Yatseniuk for a new term as prime minister on Thursday in a ceremony that countered reports of high-level disunity in a message to Russia over its backing of separatists in the country's east.
A Bulgarian imam and six others detained during a special operation by security forces earlier this week have been charged with supporting the ultra-radical militant group Islamic State, Bulgarian prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The United States voiced concern on Tuesday over a draft plan by two EU lawmakers to break up Google Inc (GOOGL.O), saying politicians should not influence the EU's antitrust inquiry into the world's most popular Internet search engine.
A no-confidence motion in the EU's new chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker had no chance of success after the Eurosceptic lawmakers who brought it traded insults with the bigger parties in the European Parliament on Monday.
Iran and six powers failed on Monday for a second time this year to resolve their 12-year stand-off over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, and gave themselves seven more months to clinch an historic deal.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Saturday of trying to use sanctions imposed on Moscow in the Ukraine crisis to seek "regime change" in Russia.
Britain's relations with the European Union took another knock on Thursday when its legal challenge to a limit on bankers' bonuses was rejected by an adviser to the bloc's top court.
The EU's top insurance watchdog on Wednesday warned against giving insurers strong enticements to invest in particular asset classes, saying this would run counter to prudent supervision.
The European Union has no intention of imposing sanctions on Israel if it takes steps to block a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the EU's new foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday.
Russia President Vladimir Putin said in a German television interview on Sunday that he is convinced it should be possible to find a way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine but added he was concerned about the threat of ethnic cleansing.
A few brief encounters between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin during an Asia-Pacific summit in China on Tuesday spoke volumes about the chilly state of relations between the United States and Russia.
A rare diplomatic charm offensive by North Korea appears to be over after it failed to halt a European and Japanese push for the United Nations General Assembly to support referring the hermit state to the International Criminal Court over allegations of human rights abuses.
Iran, the United States and the European Union began an unscheduled second day of talks on Monday over disagreements blocking the resolution of a confrontation over Tehran's nuclear programme, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to play a constructive role in ensuring that a shaky ceasefire in Ukraine holds.
The chief mediator between South Sudan's warring rivals said he was not eager to back penalties against them, even though fighting had broken out again and the United States was trying to impose international sanctions in the conflict-torn country.
Ukraine's prime minister once said he and the emergency government which took power after pro-European protests in February were on a "suicide" mission, fated to take unpopular decisions that would cut short their political careers.
Russia's border with eastern Ukraine has softened to the point of becoming completely porous, while an internal Ukrainian dividing line hardens, NATO's top general said on Monday, cautioning about the risk of another "frozen conflict."
Scotland will break away from the United Kingdom within 20 years, the defeated leader of the Scots nationalists predicted on Sunday, after a poll showed a majority of voters would back independence if another referendum were held today.
China and Russia have thwarted an international attempt to create the world’s largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica as both nations eye the region’s rich reserves of fish and krill.
