FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Lower investment banking revenues amid Europe’s debt crisis and a one-time writeoff pushed Deutsche Bank’s net profit down by a third to 1.4 billion euros ($1.85 billion) in the first quarter.The net profit figure compared to 2.1 billion euros in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected 1.66 billion euros.The company said revenues at the corporate and investment bank division, a key pillar of earnings, fell by 8 percent to 6.2 billion euros ($

LONDON (AFP) ― Britain was back in recession Wednesday after its economy shrank in the first quarter while Prime Minister David Cameron said the country was being buffetted by the European downturn.Gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent between January and March, after a 0.3-percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2011, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.That technically placed Britain in recession, which is defined as two successive quarters of contraction, amid a broader dow

MADRID (AFP) ― The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday urged Spain to push further ahead with banking reforms aimed at stabilizing its troubled financial sector.IMF inspectors concluded Spain needs “to continue with and further deepen the financial sector reform strategy to address remaining vulnerabilities and build strong capital buffers in the sector,” it said in a report.The conservative government that came to power in December has continued a clean-up of the banking sector prompted by

TOKYO (AP) ― Ichiro Ozawa, the veteran Japanese lawmaker who engineered the ruling party’s rise to power, was acquitted Thursday in a political funding scandal that has damaged his chances of becoming prime minister.The scandal also cost Ozawa his membership in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, though he continued to wield great influence as a political power broker. The acquittal means his membership could be reinstated, allowing him to exert even more sway.The 69-year-old was charged last

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) ― U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan called Tuesday for the rapid deployment of 300 cease-fire monitors in Syria but a top U.N. official said it will take at least one month to get the first 100 in place.U.N. Security Council powers called on the United Nations to speed up the deployment.Annan said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has still not fulfilled a promise to end violence and said the situation was “bleak” and “unacceptable.”The special envoy said he was “particularly

LONDON (AFP) ― Press tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s son got regular confidential updates from the British government over News Corp.’s bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB, a press ethics inquiry heard Tuesday.A string of emails from the Murdochs’ media empire, read out in a dramatic day of evidence at the Leveson inquiry, revealed the closeness and frequency of News Corporation’s contacts with advisors to culture minister Jeremy Hunt.James Murdoch, a top News Corp. executive, denied that Hunt ha

Almost 70 dwarves will soon live with dignity and comfort in a village in north-eastern India that is being set up with special homes adapted to their stature, a news report said Tuesday.A theatre personality in Assam state planned the village in the central Udalguri district, the IANS news agency reported."I have got land for the project 'Amar Gaon' meaning Our Villagein Assamese," Pabitra Rabha

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he knows what it's like to come out of college in debt and that's why Congress can't let student loan rates skyrocket.Obama took his campaign to get Congress to take action to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where 8,000 people jammed Carmichael Arena to hear him."Michelle and I, we've been in your shoes. Like I said, we didn't come from weal

A Ukrainian woman’s plastic surgery-induced transformation into a real-life Barbie doll has been dramatized by a Taiwanese animation company. Next Media Animation, a production company famous for satirical animated shorts depicting news events, created a short video depicting an animated version of model Valeria Lukyanova, 21, undergoing plastic surgery to emulate Barbie’s huge chest, tiny wais

Geological evidence suggests a tsunami described by the ancient historian Herodotus did indeed protect a Greek village from Persian invaders, scientists say.Researchers from Aachen University in Germany said sediment on the northern Greek peninsula where the ancient village Potidea and the modern town of Nea Potidea are located shows signs of massive marine events such as large waves, evidence of