The Syrian army pressed its offensive against rebels, bombarding the city of Douma near Damascus, and Turkey said it had scrambled warplanes after Syrian helicopters flew near its border. Turkey's armed forces command said the fighters took off on Monday when Syrian transport helicopters were spotted flying near the frontier, without entering Turkish air space.

  Bob Diamond squares up to critical British lawmakers on Wednesday, a day after quitting as Barclays' chief executive over the Libor interest rate scandal, potentially dragging the Bank of England, government and rival banks deeper into the affair. Diamond's testimony to a parliamentary inquiry could prove politically explosive; on Tuesday, Barclays published a 2008

Cyprus, which applied for an EU bailout last week, acquired 1.79 billion euros ($2.3 billion) worth of shares in the island's second-largest lender, in a previously announced move to help it meet minimum capital levels depleted by heavy exposure to debt-crippled Greece. The finance ministry said on Monday it had bought the shares in Cyprus

U.S. home prices rose in May in a fresh sign the battered sector is stabilizing, data analysis firm CoreLogic said on Monday. CoreLogic's home price index gained 1.8 percent from April and was up 2.0 percent from a year earlier. Excluding distressed sales, prices fared even better, gaining 2.3 percent in May and 2.7 percent

  Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev unveiled a $1 billion bridge to a remote Far East island on Monday, seen as a symbol of the Kremlin's eagerness to retain influence in the region at any cost to counter the rise of China. "We must fully realize the Far East's potential, integrate this territory into the

The decline in motor vehicles registrations accelerated in the first five months of the year, with total registrations dropping by 25.6% to 12,276 in January – May 2012, from 16,489 in January – May 2011. Registrations of private saloon cars decreased to 11,814 from 9,135 in January – May 2011, recording a decrease of 22.7%.

Outbound travel from Cyprus was stable in May, with the number of residents returning from a trip abroad rising by 0.2% to 88,384 residents in May, compared with 88,171 in May 2011. Despite, or perhaps because of the crisis in Greece, there was an increase of 6.8% in the number of trips of residents to

Despite soaring unemployment the average earnings of the average Cypriot employee rose by 2.5% over the same period of the previous year in the first quarter of 2012 according to the preliminary estimates of the Statistical Service. Average monthly earnings were recorded at EUR 1,958, with males earning 22% more at EUR 2,139 and females

**But prices still up** Industrial production continued its decline in April, falling by 9.8% compared with April 2011. Within the overall industrial sector, manufacturing dropped by 8.7%. In January – April 2012 industrial production declined by 10.8% compared with the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, industrial turnover fell by 9.8% compared with the