PARIS (AFP) -- The ECB should cut interest rates further and the EU take bloc-wide measures to boost growth and ease the fiscal adjustment in the eurozone where crisis risks are intensifying, the OECD said on Tuesday.The OECD called for “a further easing in the euro area” despite the ECB having official rates at a record low 1.0 percent, given that inflation is set to decline to the central bank’s target of 1.9 percent next year.It warned that the ECB may need to intervene again to stabilize ban

BEIRUT (AFP) ― Street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in Beirut killed two people on Monday, a security official said, sparking concerns of a wider conflict in Lebanon.The violence erupted hours after reports emerged that troops had shot dead Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Wahid, a prominent anti-Syria Sunni cleric, when his convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint in north Lebanon on Sunday. Another cleric in the car was also killed.Washington expressed concern over the killings and urged restrain

VIENNA (AP) _ The chief of the U.N. nuclear agency says he has reached a deal with Iran on probing suspected work on nuclear weapons and adds that the agreement will ``be signed quite soon. ``Yukiya Amano says some details still need to be worked out. But he tells reporters that Iranian officials say that those will not stand in the way of signing the deal.Amano spoke Tuesday on return from Tehran

A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal Monday to hear his appeal.Joel Tenenbaum, 28, of Providence, Rhode Island, said he's hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount.``I can't believe the system would uphold a six-figure dama

TEHRAN (AP) ― The head of the U.N. nuclear agency pushed Monday for a breakthrough pact with Iran to resume inspections into suspected secret atomic weapons work and possibly set in motion further dealmaking when envoys from Tehran and world powers gather later this week in Baghdad.The mission by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano ― his first to Iran since taking the post in 2009 ― raised speculation about greater flexibility by Iranian officials as they struggle to balance th

About 6 percent of Oregon eighth-grade teens said they have engaged in the "choking game," researchers found. Sarah K. Ramowski, Robert J. Nystrom and Dr. Kenneth D. Rosenberg, all of the Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division in Portland, used data from the 2009 Oregon Healthy Teens survey. The survey was a cross-sectional weighted survey of 5,348 eighth-graders that questioned lifetime

A Canadian man who allegedly tried to steal a $20,000 diamond passed the gem nine days after he swallowed it, police said.A salesperson at a Windsor, Ontario, jewelry store alerted police when Richard Mackenzie Matthews, 52, allegedly swallowed the 1.7-carat diamond and two cubic zirconia gems, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday. The salesperson said Matthews tried to switch the diamo

A U.S. father’s prank on his child went wrong when the washing machine he’d placed his son in suddenly started to whir into action. CCTV footage at a launderette shows the man lifting the boy into the machine after seeing a sign reading “Junior wash $2.95.”The prank almost turned to disaster when the door locked automatically and the machine started to spin.The video shows the mother slamming her hands down on a table in desperation as the man fails to rescue his son. The toddler was eventually

Newly inaugurated French President Francois Hollande missed U.S. President Obama’s speech Monday at the Chicago NATO session on Afghanistan.French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Hollande was late because he was meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.Hollande, who has made clear he intends to keep his promise to France that French combat troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan

SANAA (AFP) - A Yemeni soldier packing powerful explosives under his uniform blew himself up in the middle of an army battalion in Sanaa Monday, killing 96 troops and wounding around 300, a military official and medics said.The suicide attack was the deadliest in the country's capital since newly-elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi pledged to oust Al-Qaeda militants from Yemen's mostly lawless

WASHINGTON (AP) ― On paper at least, European leaders agree: They need stronger growth measures to help their economies expand out of their government debt crisis. Figuring out exactly what those new steps might be will be the hard part. Persistent political divisions ― neatly bridged by a Group of Eight summit statement that advocates a mix of austerity and growth promotion ― and lack of money stand in the way of a comprehensive European growth strategy. Analysts said markets were likely to loo