A suicide car bomb targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 15 people including five Americans in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital for nearly a year, officials said. More »Kabul suicide bombing of NATO convoy kills 15
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 17 people were killed by bombs in markets in Baghdad and attacks in northern Iraq on Thursday, police said, adding to a surge of sectarian-tinged violence in the past four weeks. Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have mushroomed since security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, igniting clashes and fuelling worries of a slide back into all-out sectarian war. Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighbouring Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. ... More »Baghdad market attacks, shootings in north kill 17
The head of Georgia's influential Orthodox Church called Thursday on the authorities to ban a gay rights rally set to be held in the deeply religious country. More »Georgian Orthodox Church calls for gay rally ban
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Miners at South Africa's Anglo American Platinum will strike from Thursday evening over proposed job cuts, a union official said, driving its shares lower and sending the rand to a four-year low. "The night shift today is not going underground, and also the day shift tomorrow is not going to work," said the branch official of the AMCU union, who did not want to be identified. He could not say how long the action might last. ... More »Union to strike at South Africa's Amplats, rand drops
By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's tax authority was heavily criticised by a judge on Thursday, who nonetheless ruled its deal with Goldman Sachs worth up to 20 million pounds to the U.S. bank was lawful. High Court Judge Andrew Nicol dismissed a claim by campaign group UK Uncut Legal Action that the tax settlement with the bank in 2010 was an unlawful "sweetheart deal". But he criticised the way HMRC had decided how much tax Goldman Sachs should pay. ... More »UK judge says Goldman tax deal lawful, but "not glorious"
A UK Uncut protester is arrested in London in December during a protest to disrupt shop sales. Britain's High Court on Thursday rejected a challenge by a campaign group over the legality of a so-called ... More »UK campaign group loses Goldman Sachs tax case
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday held crisis talks with his defence and interior ministers over the kidnapping of policemen and soldiers in Sinai, as negotiations were underway to secure their release. More »Egypt's Morsi holds crisis talks over kidnappings
Eurosceptic hopes of a law to guarantee a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU have been boosted after a Commons ballot. More »EU Refendum: Tory Hopes Of Law Boosted
Jamie Dimon testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC last June. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of US banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase and one of the most prominent figures on Wall Street, ... More »Dimon faces vote on his leadership at JPMorgan
By Huw Jones and Dena Aubin LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Company balance sheets could swell by trillions of dollars under an international plan being pursued by two accounting bodies to show more clearly the cost of leasing everything from photocopiers to property. If the revised draft the International Accounting Standards Board and U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board issued on Thursday is adopted, tens of thousands of firms worldwide will have to add all leases over a year to their balance sheets. ... More »Global accountants stick to plan to get leases on balance sheets
It’s the grand final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday and in all likelihood the hot topic of conversation won't be about the music, the costumes or the singers. More »Eurovision Song Contest 2013: Political votes that WILL happen on grand final night
Bangladesh garment manufacturers said Thursday they would reopen hundreds of factories in a hub outside Dhaka, days after they were shuttered due to unrest over the country's worst industrial tragedy. More »Bangladesh garment hub to reopen after unrest
NIAMEY (Reuters) - U.S. military instructors in Niger will train African forces participating in a U.N.-backed offensive against al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali, senior military officers said on Thursday. The United States and several European nations have backed a French-led military intervention which since January 11 has driven militant insurgents out of the towns of northern Mali. Pockets of Islamist resistance remain in Mali's desert north. The U.S. ... More »U.S. instructors to train African troops for Mali in Niger
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's centre-right GERB, which won most parliamentary seats in Sunday's vote, wants the election result cancelled because of a "violation", its leader Boiko Borisov said on Thursday. GERB won 97 seats in the 240-member parliament and says support was hit by an announcement from state prosecutors on Saturday, when campaigning is banned before voting, that illegal ballots were found at a printing shop owned by one of its councillors. ... More »Leading Bulgarian party wants election result cancelled
The White House has released 100 pages of emails to try to end claims of a cover-up over the attack on the US mission in Benghazi last year. More »White House Releases Emails On Benghazi Attack
KABUL (Reuters) - - Two members of Afghanistan's NATO-led force were killed on Thursday when a suicide car bomber attacked their two-car convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, the force said in a statement. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said four ISAF civilian contractors were also among the dead but it did not provide information on their nationalities. (Reporting by Kabul Bureau; Editing by Robert Birsel) More »Suicide bomber kills two NATO troops in Afghan capital
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by June 20 whether to clear a bid by Delta Air Lines for a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic, which would help Delta to better compete with rivals United Continental and American Airlines. Delta unveiled the deal in December last year, which involves setting up a joint venture which will let the U.S. carrier and its British peer offer more flights at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport. ... More »EU regulators to rule on Delta, Virgin airline deal by June 20
By Yousri Mohamed ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Islamist gunmen abducted seven members of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday and want jailed militants released in exchange for the men, security sources said. Hardline Islamist groups based in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak to launch attacks across the border into Israel and on Egyptian targets. The gunmen kidnapped the men as they travelled between the towns of el-Arish and Rafah in the early hours of the morning. ... More »Islamist gunmen kidnap 7 Egypt security personnel in Sinai
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday that zero interest rates would not help the "Mittelstand" of small and medium-sized companies with their financial problems and the European Central Bank had acknowledged this. "Mittelstand companies' financing problems are a result of the crisis in confidence. Zero interest rates would not be of any help," he told a conference on Europe in Berlin. ... More »Germany's Schaeuble says zero rates wouldn't help business
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday central banks had pumped far too much liquidity into the financial markets and warned against zero interest rates. "We have way too much liquidity through central bank (provision) in the world. Interest rates are actually there to optimise the allocation of resources. But if the interest rate is zero, something is not right," he said at an event in Berlin. "If you have so much liquidity, that's a placebo and doesn't solve the problems." (Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Writing by Michelle Martin) More »German finmin calls excess market liquidity a "placebo"
By Parisa Hafezi ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Iran is prepared to pursue nuclear diplomacy with world powers before or after next month's presidential election in the Islamic Republic, its chief negotiator said on Thursday. Saeed Jalili, who is also a candidate in the presidential race, was speaking after talks on the nuclear dispute with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "We are ready to continue our talks with the (six powers) whenever they are ready, before or after the presidential election in Iran... ... More »Iran says ready for nuclear talks with world powers
By Laura Noonan LONDON (Reuters) - A wave of investor demand that has allowed Deutsche Bank and two other lenders to raise six billion euros (5 billion pounds)in new share capital in the past month is unlikely to prompt other European banks to go to their shareholders for more cash. More than four years after the financial crisis began, many are hesitating to take the plunge with further equity issues that are often unpopular with existing shareholders, while in Britain high politics have thrown up additional complications. ... More »Europe banks hesitate to join rush for new share capital
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has now documented the deaths of at least 145 people in a "sectarian massacre" earlier in May in the coastal city of Banias, the watchdog said Thursday. More »Syria's Banias massacre toll up to 145: NGO
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican Bank, a centre of scandals for decades, is to launch its own website and publish its annual report in an effort to increase transparency, its new president said. Ernst von Freyberg told the bank's employees of the changes, which should be in place by the end of the year, this week, according to Vatican Radio. ... More »Vatican Bank to publish its accounts, launch website
Cambodian rescue teams look for workers after a factory collapsed in Kampong Speu province, on May 16, 2013. A ceiling collapsed at a shoe factory killing at least two workers, police said, stoking concerns ... More »Cambodia shoe factory collapse kills two, prompts probe