IMF chief Christine Lagarde will be questioned by a French magistrate on Thursday over her role in a 285-million-euro ($366 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Lagarde risks being placed under formal investigation at the hearing for her 2007 decision as Sarkozy's finance minister to use arbitration to settle

Credit rating firms say they could further downgrade the ratings of highly indebted euro zone countries, putting their bonds at risk of being pitched out of global indexes and reversing a fall in their borrowing costs. The view from the rating firms contrasts with the sanguine attitude of investors who, flush with central bank cash

An FBI agent shot and killed a Florida man with suspected links to the Boston Marathon bombings early on Wednesday, NBC News reported. NBC said the suspect was being questioned and was originally cooperative, but was fatally shot after attacking the agent. The Orlando Sentinel said a friend had identified the dead man as 27-year-old

An 18th century silver Rococo coffee pot is expected to become the most valuable piece of English silver ever sold at auction when it goes up for sale in July, auction house Christie's said. The ornate George II pot made in 1738 by one of the greatest silversmiths of his day, Paul de Lamerie, is

Hundreds of youths have set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue services in poor immigrant suburbs in three nights of rioting in Stockholm, Sweden's worst disorder in years. On Tuesday night, a police station in the Jakobsberg area in the northwest of the city was attacked, two schools were damaged and an arts

Italy's new government, already sinking in opinion polls and riven by internal disputes, on Wednesday lays out its plans to address one of the main causes of public anger – soaring unemployment among young people. But the left-right coalition's room for manoeuvre even to address this pressing problem is restricted by Europe's second-biggest debt, the