The chief executive of the troubled Bank of Cyprus, the country's biggest lender, was sacked by the central bank Wednesday just a day before the bailed-out island's banks were finally due to reopen.The firing of Yiannis Kypri was reportedly ordered by international lenders and deepened the crisis in Cyprus as authorities said they were finalizing controls aimed at preventing a run on the banks.The central bank said "indications are" the banks would reopen with restrictions on Thursday, but there

Libya is to free four foreign Christians arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi for proselytizing after more than a month in jail, an official said. The foreigners, a South African woman, a man with joint American-Swedish nationality, an Egyptian and South Korean, will be deported after their release, said Abdul Salam Barghathi, commanding officer of the Office of Preventative Security, a department of the Defense Ministry, in an interview in Benghazi. “To keep good diplomatic relations, they

North Korea said Wednesday that it will cut a military hotline with South Korea, the latest in a string of provocations that include the North's unilateral severance of an inter-Korean Red Cross hotline about two weeks ago."The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army solemnly declared that... Due to the reckless acts of the enemies, the north-south military communications which were set up for dialogue and cooperation between the north and the south has already lost its significance," the No

South Korea's front-line military unit had been briefly on its highest status of alert after discovering an "unidentified object" in a border fence that separates the two Koreas, but lifted the alert as they found no signs of intrusion from the North, a military official said Wednesday. A South Korean soldier threw a grenade at the object after discovering it while guarding a military post in Hwacheon, 118 kilometers northeast of Seoul, at around 2:30 a.m. earlier in the day, the official said.

The White House made clear Tuesday that it would not overreact to North Korea's military threats, saying the rogue nation is "following a pattern" to escalate tensions."We do look at this as part of a pattern, and we respond in the way that we always have," press secretary Jay Carney said at a press briefing. He was responding to North Korea's latest warning that its would put artillery and rocket forces on the highest level of combat posture against the U.S. and South Korea.Carney reiterated th

The ratio of South Korea's total debt to its economic output rose to a record high in 2012 as debt grew at a faster pace despite the slowing economy, central bank data showed Wednesday.The combined debt of households, companies and the government reached 3,607.3 trillion won (US$3.26 trillion) as of the end of 2012, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.The ratio of such debt against Korea's 2012 nominal gross domestic product (GDP) reached a record 283 percent last year, up from 278 percen

Ratcheting up hostile rhetoric against Seoul and Washington, North Korea announced a plan to hold a plenary meeting of its party "to discuss an important issue," its official media said Wednesday.According to the report by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of (North) Korea announced a day earlier its decision to convene a plenary meeting later this month.The meeting aims "to discuss and decide an important issue for

It's not over yet for Amanda Knox.Italy's top criminal court dealt a stunning setback Tuesday to the 25-year-old college student, overturning her acquittal in the grisly murder of her British roommate and ordering her to stand trial again.“She thought that the nightmare was over,” Knox's attorney, Carlo Dalla Vedova, told reporters minutes after conveying the unexpected turn of events to his client, who had stayed up to hear the ruling, which came shortly after 2 a.m. West Coast time. “But she's

The BRICS grouping of emerging powers reached a scaled-back deal on Tuesday to establish a development bank that had been seen as a rival Western-backed institutions."It's done," South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan told AFP after talks with his counterparts from Brazil, Russia, India and China."We made very good progress, the leaders will announce the details," he added, shortly before a summit in the South African port city of Durban began.The bank is likely to focus on infrastructure

An orphanage in Cambodia has been shut down after officials said they received complaints of abuse and suspected human trafficking at the facility.Authorities working with two non-governmental organizations said they removed 21 children from the unregistered Love In Action orphanage in Phnom Penh Friday, The Phnom Penh Post reported Monday.Five children escaped from the facility Feb. 26 and another seven on March 14, said Gratianne Quade, communications officer for SISHA, one of the non-profit o