The leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Ali Talat, continue here today their discussions on governance and power sharing, as part of their effort to find a negotiated settlement. As President Christofias pointed out after Monday’s lengthy meeting with Talat, the objective is not to terminate the

President Barack Obama said on Monday there were no easy solutions to taming the soaring U.S. budget deficits and that it would require efforts by both Democrats and Republicans to make progress. "There aren't any magic solutions to it," Obama told U.S. television network ABC. "It's going to be a slow chipping away, and what

U.S. President Barack Obama, under pressure from deficit hawks, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, administration officials said on Monday. Obama will outline the spending hold-down in his State of the Union address on Wednesday and will spell it out in detail

Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.8 percent to a five-week closing low on Tuesday, with exporters hurt as the yen rose broadly after China implemented a previously ordered increase in reserve requirements for some banks. KDDI, Japan's No.2 telecom firm, tumbled 8.6 percent after it said it would pay $4 billion for a controlling stake in

Asian stocks fell on Tuesday as fears of further clampdowns on lending in China and a U.S. plan to freeze domestic spending sparked worries about the outlook for global growth. Highlighting fears that a global recovery may be sputtering, South Korea reported weaker-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter, which cast douts about consumption in Asia's

World stocks added to the previous week's fall on Monday, weighed down by Wall Street losses, uncertainty over U.S. bank plans and concern that Greece's debt crisis could spread. The dollar, which tends to rise in such circumstances, was generally weaker, with signs that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was moving closer to being

A partial recovery in banks and mining stocks offset weaker energy stocks to leave Britain's top share index flat in early trade on Monday as investors reassessed the implications of proposed curbs on banks from the White House. By 0926 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 5.50 points at 5,308.49 after it closed 0.6 percent

European shares fell on Monday, with energy firms on the back foot as crude oil prices retreated, but losses were limited by gains in banks as fears over a U.S. plan to curb risk-taking subsided. By 0935 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index shed 0.1 percent at 1,023.76 points, on track for the fourth-straight session

Stock index futures pointed to a rebound on Wall Street on Monday following last week's sharp sell-off, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.82 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.74 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.51 percent at 4:15 a.m. EST. Embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke edged closer to winning support for

China widened its attack against U.S. criticisms of Internet censorship on Monday, raising the stakes in a dispute that has put Google in the middle of a political quarrel between the two global powers. China has stepped up its defense of curbs on the Internet nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider,