The United States, its European allies and the U.N. chief slammed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday for a year-long assault on anti-government protests that has killed thousands and brought Syria to the brink of civil war. The Western powers also urged Russia and China, which have twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning the
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Several leaders of Russia's fragmented opposition urged the United States on Monday to remove a largely symbolic Cold War trade provision, in a rare display of unity. They included anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and other organisers of demonstrations against Vladimir Putin who recognise the need to refocus their protest movement away from the street after
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Art researchers and scientists said on Monday that a high-tech project using tiny video probes has uncovered evidence that a fresco by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci lost for five centuries may still exist behind a wall of Florence's city hall. "Together with art historians and scientists combining historical evidence and technology, this research team
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Turkey will begin drilling for oil or gas in northern Cyprus towards the end of March, the head of state energy company TPAO said on Monday. Any gas discovery in this area could raise the stakes in the negotiations over reunification of the island and possibly increase tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. EU-member Cyprus started
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Oil fell on Monday for the first time in four sessions, with Brent slipping towards $125 as global demand concerns took centrestage following weak Chinese exports, countering support from supply disruption worries in the Middle East and Africa and a brightening U.S. economic outlook. Traders took profit on oil after last week's gains as China
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Bulgarian consumer price inflation slowed to 2.0% on an annual basis in February from a final 2.3% a month earlier, mainly due to food prices, data from the statistics office showed on Monday. On a monthly basis, prices in February rose 0.9% from the previous month when they increased 0.2%, data showed. The centre-right government
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The dollar hit its highest level in nearly a month versus the euro on Monday after last week's upbeat jobs data suggested the U.S. economy may not be in dire need of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. The euro struggled after facing what traders described as a buy-the-rumour-sell-the-fact fall on Greece's bond swap
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Asian shares fell on Monday as investors paused to assess the effect of strong U.S. jobs data, which scaled back expectations of more easing ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting, while uncertainty over Chinese growth also weighed on sentiment. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index eased 0.8% after rising as much as 1.3% on
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Police stepped up security in the Macedonian capital Skopje on Sunday to stem ethnic violence threatening a precarious peace in effect since civil war was narrowly avoided a decade ago. No one has been killed in several days of violence, but more than a dozen people have been hospitalised as rival gangs from the Slavic-speaking
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Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will run unopposed for the leadership of the Socialists, party officials said on Sunday, as the political focus shifts towards a parliamentary election now that Athens has secured a bond swap deal. Venizelos, 55, won the backing of all the Socialist PASOK party's heavy hitters and looks a certainty to
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