German business confidence unexpectedly rose for the first time in five months in November, defying Europe’s worsening debt crisis. The Munich-based Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, increased to 106.6 from 106.4 in October. Economists expected a decline to 105.2, according to the median of 40 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. “Although downside risks certainly remain, doomsday is not around the corner,” said Andreas Rees, chief German economist a

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― The European Commission decided on Thursday to haul Germany before the top EU court for failing to scrap a law that protects auto giant Volkswagen from potential takeover bids.The EU competition watchdog wants the court to impose fines on Germany for every day that it fails to cancel the law, which gives the administration or Land of Lower Saxony the power to block bids even though it is a minority shareholder in VW.The commission said the German government had failed to abide b

K-League in South Korea has lost one automatic berth in the top club football tournament in Asia, the continent’s governing body of the sport announced Friday.The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said three K-League clubs will automatically qualify for the AFC Champions League starting next year, down from four in the past three Champions League events. The AFC added that a fourth K-League team can join them if it wins a playoff round.According to the AFC, the top two teams at the end of the K

BALTIMORE (AP) ― The Baltimore Ravens sacked Alex Smith nine times in a 16-6 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday, giving John Harbaugh an emotional charge in the first NFL game featuring brothers as opposing head coaches.The Ravens (8-3) chased, hindered and battered Smith for much of the night despite playing without middle linebacker Ray Lewis, the team’s leading tackler and spiritual leader. Lewis was inactive for a second straight game because of a foot injury. The nine sacks tied a

LONDON (AP) ― Whatever Rafael Nadal tried to throw at Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday, the Frenchman always appeared one step ahead.Now Nadal is hoping he hasn’t left his passion for the game behind him.Tsonga qualified for the semifinals at the expense of Nadal, beating the second-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3 in a decisive round-robin match to join Roger Federer in the last four of the season-ending tournament.Nadal ― who suffered his worst loss ever to Federer

A top Russian TV network said Thursday it had sacked an award-winning news anchor who stunned viewers by inexplicably raising her middle finger after reading US President Barack Obama's name.The bizarre episode happened during a routine afternoon news programme hosted by private REN TV channel newsc

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ― The upcoming meeting of President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, the rival Palestinian leaders, will signal whether they’re truly ready to share power or largely going through the motions for political gains.Thursday’s talks in Cairo will be their first serious sitdown since the Palestinians’ corrosive split of 2007, when the Islamic militant Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas, leaving him with only the West Bank. Repeated attempts at reconciliation

President refuses to give in to sanctions; Tehran adopts resolution on ties with BritainTEHRAN (AFP) ― A defiant Iran said on Wednesday that it will not back down despite newly announced Western sanctions over its atomic drive, as it took the first steps to hit back at the measures.“The Iranian nation will not back down an iota, and will not allow the slightest move to encroach on the nation’s rights” in terms of its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech aired on state

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Newly found coins underneath Jerusalem‘s Western Wall could change the accepted belief about the construction of one of the world’s most sacred sites two millennia ago, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.The man usually credited with building the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary is Herod, a Jewish ruler who died in 4 B.C. Herod‘s monumental compound replaced and expanded a much older Jewish temple complex on the same site.But a