BUDAPEST (Reuters) ―The EU and IMF on Friday cut short talks with Hungary aimed at paving the way for aid discussions, pressuring the government to amend a controversial central bank bill or face possible financing problems next year.Hungary’s center-right government, which broke ties with international lenders in 2010 and pursued unorthodox policies to boost the economy, said in a U-turn last month it would reopen discussions with the IMF and EU amid a deepening eurozone debt crisis, which put

 

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Bankruptcy proceedings remain on the cards for troubled Swedish car maker Saab after former owner General Motors Corp. said Saturday that proposals presented so far to salvage the troubled brand are unacceptable and won’t be supported. Trollhattan-based Saab, bought by Dutch group Swedish Automobile NV in 2010, faces a court-hearing Monday to determine whether it will exit bankruptcy protection. That means that if Saab doesn’t present a viable survival plan, bankruptcy proceedi

BEIRUT (AP) ― The Arab League has given Syria until Wednesday to allow observers into the country or else it will likely turn to the U.N. Security Council for action to try to end the deadly violence against regime opponents, Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday.Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani said in Qatar that Arab foreign ministers will hold a “decisive and important” meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to decide on next steps. He said there is near unanimity on taking the Arab League’s pl

 

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ― Zahora Jasim lost two brothers to bombs and gunmen in the years of turmoil and violence that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Now, as the troops leave for home, the Baghdad housewife fears her country’s troubles are not over and wonders, like many Iraqis, if their fragile democracy will slide back into sectarian strife. “The only images I have in my mind from these nine years are the deaths of my brother and his wife, of being forced from our homes, and the death of anothe

MOSCOW (Reuters) ― Russia’s offer of a new U.N. Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria is a pragmatic step by a country increasingly isolated in its support for a widely discredited leader.The shift allows Russia to look less recalcitrant without giving ground on its opposition to sanctions or foreign military interference, which it has vociferously opposed since the NATO operation in Libya.With the death toll mounting in bloodshed the world blames mostly on Syrian President Bashar

NEW YORK (Reuters) ― Six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sued by U.S. regulators on charges of misleading investors about the mortgage finance companies’ exposure to risky home loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.The case is one of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s biggest actions against high-level financial industry executives, although the regulator did not specify a dollar amount for damages in the alleged fraud. Many lawmakers consider Fanni

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States, facing a rising China but a tighter budget, expects to station several combat ships in Singapore and may step up deployments to the Philippines and Thailand, a naval officer said.The United States has been increasingly vocal about defending freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where tensions over territorial disputes between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations have been on the rise.In an academic article forecasting the shape of the U.S. Navy in 202

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Bankruptcy proceedings remain on the cards for troubled Swedish car maker Saab after former owner General Motors Corp. said Saturday that proposals presented so far to salvage the troubled brand are unacceptable and won’t be supported. Trollhattan-based Saab, bought by Dutch group Swedish Automobile NV in 2010, faces a court-hearing Monday to determine whether it will exit bankruptcy protection. That means that if Saab doesn’t present a viable survival plan, bankruptcy proceedi

North Korea has agreed to suspend its enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons, local reports said Saturday. Citing an unidentified diplomatic source, Yonhap News reported the two countries reached the agreement during recent talks held in Beijing. The sides “reached the agreement based on North Korea’s pledge to implement initial measures of denuclearization that include a suspension of its uranium enrichment program,” Yonhap said. The United States, in return, has agreed to provide up to 240,

TEHRAN (AFP) ― Iran is to insert its first domestically produced uranium fuel into its Tehran reactor by mid-February, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published by the IRNA state news agency on Thursday.“Within the next two months the first fuel plate which is produced with the 20 percent enriched uranium will be placed in Tehran’s research reactor,” Salehi, who previously headed Iran’s nuclear organisation, was quoted as saying.His statement was an excerpt from a longer inter