With Germany onside, EU nears banking union deal
BRUSSELS/BERLIN - Germany signals it is ready to back plans for the European Central Bank to be made the chief supervisor of banks, raising the prospect of a breakthrough on the European Union's most ambitious financial reform. Full Article
Barclays names ex-FSA boss Sants as compliance chief
LONDON - Barclays has appointed Hector Sants, former boss of British regulator the Financial Services Authority, to oversee its compliance and relationship with governments and regulators as it looks to repair its battered reputation.
Unemployment claims fall unexpectedly
The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly in November and the number of people in work hit a record high, raising prospects the labour market will support a moribund economy. Full Article | Video
Kim Jong-un burnishes credentials with rocket
SEOUL/TOKYO - North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents. Full Article | Video
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Spain plans deeper pension reform
MADRID - Spain will soon intensify pension reforms, possibly accelerating an increase in the retirement age and restricting index-linking of pension payouts to meet European Union demands to fix the country's troubled public finances, Spanish officials say. Full Article
HSBC became bank to drug cartels
In February 2008, Mexican authorities told the CEO of HSBC's Mexico unit that a local drug lord referred to the bank as the "place to launder money", U.S. prosecutors said, as they announced a record $1.92 billion settlement with the British bank. Full Article | Video
Compromise emerges in Internet oversight talks
DUBAI - Hopes rise for a compromise agreement that would keep intrusive government regulation of the Internet from being enshrined in a global treaty. Full Article
Coolant safety row puts the heat on carmakers
FRANKFURT - When engineers at Mercedes-Benz tasked with field-testing a revolutionary new refrigerant watched it ignite in a ball of fire before their eyes, it took a while for the significance of their discovery to sink in. Full Article
India's industrial output soars
NEW DELHI - A big surge in manufacturing output pushed India's industrial growth to its highest in more than a year in October, a sign that Asia's third largest economy may have turned a corner that strengthens the central bank's case against a rate cut. Full Article
South Africans wish Mandela a speedy recovery
Dec 12 - South Africans wish former president Nelson Mandela well, as he spends his fifth day in hospital due to a lung infection. Sarah Sheffer reports.
Latest Headlines
A tale of two half-centuries
Imagine two 1962 studies of the following five decades. The Blind Guide - written in ignorance - is gloomy, but the Retrospective Guide is pretty cheerful. Communism fell and global poverty retreated. A blind guess for the next 50 years: the demise of finance as we know it. Commentary
Silvio Berlusconi rises from the dead (again)
Silvio Berlusconi's party is right when it says the situation in Italy is worse than a year ago. Berlusconi will be right, as well, if he judges that the parties of the left don’t rouse much enthusiasm in the electorate. And he may – just may – be right that his money, his media and the old Berlusconi magic might tip the scales toward him. Commentary
Dos and Don’ts of EU banking union
Conventional wisdom has it that the euro zone needs a banking union to solve its crisis. This is wrong. Not only are there alternatives to an integrated regulatory structure for the zone’s 6,000 banks; centralisation will undermine national sovereignty. Commentary
How could HP find a $5 billion gap in Autonomy’s value?
Hewlett-Packard paid $11 billion for UK software maker Autonomy. Now it effectively says it would have paid $5 billion less had it known about dodgy revenue recognition and hidden hardware sales. But the U.S. tech giant won’t explain its numbers. Breakingviews does some reverse-engineering. Commentary
Two-state Middle East solution hangs in the balance as Obama waits
U.S. President Barack Obama may have believed he had at least until his inauguration next month to renew efforts to forge a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But events since he won re-election have put fresh demands on the president. Commentary
Counterintuitive economics can help politicians
To claim that a government should borrow more when its debts are already too high seems ridiculous ‑ as ridiculous as suggesting in the 16th century that the earth moves around the sun or that humans evolved from monkeys. Commentary
The new face of terrorism
U.S. authorities repeatedly described the arrest of Colleen LaRose, known online as Jihad Jane, as a seminal event in the war on terror. But confidential documents and interviews reveal a far less menacing and, in some ways, more preposterous plot than what the government asserted. Full Coverage
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Laser beaming could make power lines obsolete
Scientists and engineers in the U.S. are using lasers to power aerial drones but say their technology could also replace conventional power lines to deliver electricity to homes. Video
Get to know a city in 48 hours
Want to mix business and pleasure? Local Reuters correspondents suggest two-day itineraries in city hubs and off-radar destinations in our latest batch of Travel Postcards. Full Coverage
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