FIFA have refused Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba permission to leave China's Shanghai Shenhua on loan before the January transfer window. FIFA said they had received a request to be registered outside an open registration period from the former Chelsea forward, whose season in the Chinese Super League is over. The 34-year-old wants to keep
More
The British government is considering a new type of pension scheme to address the rapid disappearance of final salary pension schemes and encourage more people to save for their retirement. Pensions minister Steve Webb said on Thursday he wants to bridge the gap between the two traditional forms of pensions – defined benefit (DB), which
More
Ryanair will cut the number of routes it operates from Budapest by a third next year, the budget airline said on Thursday, as it seeks to wrestle favourable conditions from the airport operator. The move, which the airline said could still be reversed, comes months after Ryanair set up a base at Budapest following the
More
Roche has offered an olive branch to scientific critics in a bid to end a bitter row over blockbuster flu drug Tamiflu that has led to calls for a boycott of the Swiss drugmaker's products. Tamiflu has been approved by regulators worldwide and stockpiled by many governments in case of a global outbreak – but
More
Afghanistan needs to be more serious about fighting drugs after an "alarming" 18 percent increase in opium cultivation this year, the U.N. drugs agency said on Tuesday. The rise was mainly due to high prices and a failure of state agencies to work together to wipe out a trade that helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency,
More
Real Madrid iconic forward Cristiano Ronaldo has donated €1.5 million to Palestinian children in Gaza, the Arabic version of the club’s Classico network reports. The star forward gave his Golden Boot which he earned in 2011 to the Real Madrid foundation. The Spanish giants in their turn sold it at auction and will now
More
* Troika leaves empty-handed with no bailout deal in sight * Cyprus President Demetris Christofias was ridiculed in the local media on Thursday for saying that he did not know that the island nation’s bailout would cost 17.5 bln euros and that the first he heard of it was on Wednesday evening. The bailout, negotiated
More
A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last. Even after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in
More
British baby products retailer Mothercare narrowed its losses for the first half of the year as international sales growth and an improving UK performance helped boost business. The company on Thursday said it had made an underlying pretax loss of 0.6 million pounds ($956,100) in the 28 weeks to Oct. 13, compared with a loss
More
Argentina suffered a stinging blow late on Wednesday, when a New York federal judge, citing threats by the country's leaders to defy his rulings in a decade-old dispute over defaulted sovereign bonds, ordered immediate payment. In an ruling delivered just as the United States headed off for its Thursday Thanksgiving holiday, U.S. District Judge Thomas
More