French fashion house Christian Dior fired John Galliano on Tuesday after an online video clip circulated around the world showing its star designer shouting anti-Semitic abuse at people in a Paris bar. Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, who was signed to promote a Dior perfume, said in New York that she was "deeply shocked and disgusted"

Annual inflation in the Euro area1 was up to 2.3% in January 2011 compared to 2.2% in December 2010. At the same time, the annual inflation rate in Cyprus in January 2011 rose to 3.0%, compared to 1.9 in December 2010, figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union said Monday. Euro area1

Greece’s harmonized inflation rate was 4.9 pct in January 2011, up from a 2.3 pct figure recorded in January 2010, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Monday. The statistics service, in a report, said the harmonized consumer price index was down 1.0 pct in January from December 2010, after a decline of 0.8 pct recorded in

Britain will announce on Tuesday it is cutting funding to some international aid organisations and will put some others on notice that they risk losing funding if they do not improve their performance. In a major shake-up of its 6.5 billion pound ($10.56 billion) aid budget, Britain will also stop giving aid to more than

The Obama administration will press ahead with its fight against one federal employee's bid to obtain health insurance for her same-sex spouse, according to a government court filing on Monday. The decision by the U.S. Justice Department comes days after it announced that a federal statute defining marriage as a union between one man and

A sustained period of higher oil prices would significantly affect developing economies but is unlikely to derail their strong recovery since the financial crisis, a senior World bank official said on Monday. Andrew Burns, the World Bank's manager of global economics, said a surge in the oil price could dent economic growth in developing countries

Before blasting the first human into space in 1961, the Soviet Union fired off one last test flight of the tiny capsule that would carry Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his historic mission. The test capsule, Vostok 3KA-2, still scorched from re-entry, will be sold at Sotheby's in New York on April 12, the 50th anniversary

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were massed in the west of the country on Tuesday, residents said, and the United States said it was moving warships and air forces closer to Libya. Residents feared pro-Gaddafi forces were preparing an attack to regain control of Nalut, about 60 km (38 miles) from the Tunisian