For Italy's partners in Brussels and Washington, President Giorgio Napolitano was a guarantor of stability during the euro zone crisis. But for austerity-weary Italians turning increasingly against Europe, his image is more ambivalent.

• January 15, 2015

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged to support Bulgaria's efforts to wean itself off dependence on Russian energy at the launch of an annual strategic dialogue between the two NATO allies on Thursday.

• January 15, 2015

Russia's finance minister called on Wednesday for a cut in planned spending to weather an economic crisis, warning of a more than $45 billion drop in revenues this year if the average oil price is $50 a barrel.

• January 14, 2015

Bulgaria said on Wednesday it would extend a barbed wire fence along its border with Turkey by a further 130 km (80 miles) in an attempt to prevent a growing number of refugees, mainly from Syria, entering the European Union member state.

• January 14, 2015

China's Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd on Wednesday said four investors have agreed to contribute 24 billion yuan ($3.87 billion) over the coming two years as the first tranche of funding to build around 20 shopping malls.

• January 14, 2015

NATO's top military commander, General Philip Breedlove, said on Tuesday the defense alliance was looking at beefing up its exercises in the Baltic Sea region in response to a surge in Russian military maneuvers there late last year.

• January 13, 2015

Oil prices slid on Tuesday to their lowest in almost six years, but European shares rose as investors focused on expectations that policymakers would soon take action to prevent the euro zone slipping into deflation.

• January 13, 2015

Shelling hit a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, and fighting intensified around the international airport in the city of Donetsk as separatists tried to oust government forces.

• January 13, 2015