President Barack Obama said he and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke agreed on Tuesday the U.S. economy is strengthening but has hit headwinds from Europe that demand pushing the pace of growth to get more Americans back to work. Ahead of Friday's June unemployment report that is expected to show a small rise in joblessness,

Moscow on Tuesday angrily rejected allegations by Washington that it had cracked an undercover Russian spy ring but U.S. officials said the Cold War-style cloak and dagger saga would not undermine a thaw in relations. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said U.S. police who arrested 10 suspected spies in four cities in the eastern the United

British house prices rose just 0.1 percent on the month in June, down from a 0.5 percent rise in May, the Nationwide building society said on Wednesday, in a further sign that the housing market recovery is cooling. House price increases have dipped from stronger rises of around one percent in March and April, Nationwide

Shanghai shares extended losses on Wednesday, following a slump driven by tight market liquidity as a major initial public offering loomed. The benchmark index was on course to post a nearly 27% decline for the first half of the year. Shares in Hong Kong also fell ahead of a public holiday on Thursday, with the

European Central Bank officials scrambled to reassure nervous markets on Tuesday that the expiry of nearly half a trillion euros of emergency loans would not hurt the banking system, though they acknowledged some individual banks might face strain. "The ECB and Eurosystem will do what is necessary to make sure the liquidity is there," Christian

The Bank of England should be careful not to tighten monetary policy too soon as inflation is likely to fall and the risk of deflation has not disappeared, policymaker Paul Fisher said in remarks published on Tuesday. Fisher said it was "unlikely that substantial inflationary pressure would be generated as the result of the recovery

British mortgage approvals were unexpectedly flat on the month in May, though both net mortgage lending and consumer credit grew faster than expected, Bank of England figures showed on Tuesday. The Bank of England said mortgage approvals numbered 49,815 in May, down fractionally from 49,828 in April and well below the 51,000 economists polled by

High levels of foreign currency (FX) lending have been and will remain a constraint on many bank ratings in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), according to a Moody's special comment. The report covers the three largest banking systems in the CIS — Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has encouraged the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu “to grasp the current political window of opportunity to reach a settlement”. The UN Secretary General held a meeting on Monday in New York, with the Turkish Cypriot leader, during which they discussed the Cyprus problem. Speaking after the