President Barack Obama refused to give ground in a fiscal confrontation with Republicans on Tuesday, saying he would negotiate on budget issues only if they agree to re-open the federal government and raise the debt limit with no conditions.

• October 9, 2013

As the U.S. government moved into the second week of a shutdown on Monday with no end in sight, a deadlocked U.S. Congress also confronted an October 17 deadline to increase the nation's borrowing power or risk default.

• October 7, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday he expected a "long and tortuous process" of world economic recovery, while China's economic growth rate of about 7 percent was "within a reasonable and expected range".

• October 7, 2013

Russia suspended imports of dairy products from neighboring Lithuania on Monday, turning up trade pressure on the European Union member weeks before it hosts a summit that could pull former Soviet republics further from Moscow's orbit.

• October 7, 2013

Washington entered the fifth day of a partial government shutdown on Saturday with no end in sight even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up.

• October 5, 2013

Investors who behave conventionally are likely to get burned if the political standoff over the federal budget and the debt ceiling ends up forcing the United States to default.

• October 4, 2013

A prolonged U.S. budget standoff would hit global markets very hard, the Bank of Japan warned on Friday as it said it was ready to top up its existing massive stimulus if the recovery underway in the world's third-largest economy was threatened.

• October 4, 2013

Turkey's $4 billion order for a Chinese missile defense system is a breakthrough for China in its bid to become a supplier of advanced weapons, even though opposition from Washington and NATO threatens to derail the deal.

• October 3, 2013