PARIS (AP) -- Evidence that Europe's debt crisis is continuing to drag down economies both on the continent and in the U.S. pushed world stock markets lower Tuesday ahead of an emergency conference call about the crisis.A private discussion among finance ministers and central bank governors from seven of the world's most industrialized powers is expected later in the day. U.S. officials have said

   South Korea became the sixth most popular conference destination in the world in 2011, moving up two places from its ranking the previous year, the government said Tuesday, citing global industry data.   The number of international meetings held in South Korea last year was 469, about 4.6 percent of the total number of such conferences worldwide, according to the report by the Union of Internat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, suggesting steady gains in the job market.The Labor Department says weekly unemployment aid applications were a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the same as the previous week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 375,000.Applications for benefits surged in April to a five-month high o

TEHRAN (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but says that Britain has a "problem" with hosting him.Ahmadinejad was quoted on Thursday by the official IRNA news agency as saying he would like to be "beside Iranian athletes" in London but that the British are unwilling to have him there. He did not elaborate.Britain is in a

BERLIN (AP) -- The opening of Berlin's new 2.5-billion-euro ($3.18-billion) airport must be further delayed until spring of next year, the capital's mayor said Thursday, in a growing embarrassment for city officials.   The airport's planned June 3 opening was canceled at the last minute last week over unresolved fire safety issues but officials then said it could likely be opened this August. But

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first three months of this year. Stronger consumer spending was offset by cutbacks in government spending and business investment.   The Commerce Department said Friday that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the January-March quarter, compared with a 3 percent gain in the final quarter of 2011. Consumers spent at

   HELSINKI (AP) -- Standard and Poor's says it has downgraded Nokia's credit rating by one notch and warned that it may reduce it again unless it improves performance.   Friday's downgrade comes after huge losses in the Finnish company's first quarter and a report that Samsung Electronics Co. has overtaken it as the world's largest maker of mobile phones.   Last week, Nokia Corp. announced one of

   PARIS (AP) -- France's bleak economic outlook has returned to the forefront of the country's presidential campaign after new figures Friday showed the number of job seekers rose for the 11th consecutive month in March.   Francois Hollande -- the Socialist front-runner in the May 6 runoff election -- was quick to seize on the new data from the Labor Ministry showing the number of job seekers ros

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Four blasts within minutes rocked the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk Friday, injuring at least 27 people, including nine children, in what prosecutors believed was a terrorist attack, officials said.   Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova said the first blast occurred at a tramway stop in the center of Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 13 pe

 DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up across the street from a mosque in the Syrian capital Friday, killing at least five people and wounding 20, state TV said. Thousands of Syrians protested elsewhere to denounce persistent violence by President Bashar Assad's regime.   The explosion was the latest in a wave of blasts in Syrian cities in recent months, despite a diplomatic pus

The southeastern city of Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province won the right to host a global shooting competition in 2018, the International Shooting Sport Federation said Tuesday.The ISSF unanimously chose Changwon as the host of the 2018 World Shooting Championships during its general assembly in London.Rivals Slovenia’s Maribor and Qatar’s Doha yielded just before the vote.It will be the secon

Parliamentary panel adopts resolution urging China to stop sending N.K. defectors back homeThe Chinese government informed the South Korean foreign ministry Thursday that it will take more time interrogating over 20 North Korean defectors or illegal aliens in its custody. Beijing delivered its position through the South Korean embassy in Beijing and the Chinese embassy in Seoul, a foreign ministry official said Thursday. "As for the number of the aliens under probe, it seems to be less than 35,

GNP leader proposes public offering of bailed out firms’ shares without premiumRecently elected Grand National Party leader Hong Joon-pyo has proposed privatizing government bailed-out companies through a public offering of discounted shares with no management premium, prompting further populist controversy.If the so-called “citizen shares” are sold to low-income earners, some 6 million people are