Mainland Chinese shares closed at their highest levels in six months on Monday, as strength in insurers and brokerages helped benchmark indexes post their first annual gain in three years. China plans to allow eligible securities houses, insurers' asset management units and private equity funds to develop and manage mutual funds in a bid to
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The euro zone sovereign debt crisis is far from over even though reform measures designed to address the roots of the problem are beginning to bear fruit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year's address. In a taped interview to be broadcast on Monday evening, Merkel urged Germans to be more patient
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A comet blazing toward Earth could outshine the full moon when it passes by at the end of next year – if it survives its close encounter with the sun. The recently discovered object, known as comet ISON, is due to fly within 1.2 mln miles (1.9 mln km) from the center of the sun
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The Indian gang-rape victim whose assault in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests died in hospital on Saturday of injuries suffered in the attack, a Singapore hospital treating her said. "We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (2045 GMT Friday). Her family and officials
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U.S. Senate leaders are working to craft legislation by Sunday that averts the year-end "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, but many details needed to be worked out after a crucial meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday. U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell, termed the meeting
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A U.S. judge granted preliminary approval on Friday to Toyota Motor Corp's $1.1 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by consumers who lost value on their cars due to sudden, unintended acceleration. U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, scheduled a hearing in June for final approval of the deal, which was
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An unknown illness, suspected of being a norovirus, has sickened 194 passengers and 11 crew members aboard the luxury ship Queen Mary 2 cruising in the Caribbean, causing vomiting and diarrhea, federal health officials said in New York on Friday. Earlier in the week, 189 passengers and 31 crew members on the Emerald Princess came down
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President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were to meet on Friday for the first time since November with no sign of progress in resolving their differences over the federal budget and low expectations for a "fiscal cliff" deal before January 1. Instead, members of Congress are increasingly looking at the period immediately after the December
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Two former executives at an Icelandic bank which collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown were sentenced to jail on Friday for fraud which led to a 53 million euro loss, in the first major trial of Icelandic bankers linked to the crisis. All three of the small North Atlantic island's top banks collapsed in quick
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Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay his estranged wife Veronica Lario 100,000 euros a day as part of a divorce settlement, the daily Corriere della Sera said on Friday. The newspaper said the 36 million-euro-a-year settlement, reached after three years of negotiations, was filed with a court in Milan around Christmas.
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