A U.N. official dressed up as Santa Claus brought together children from Cyprus' estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on Friday, dishing out presents in a rare meeting between the island's two sides. Officials from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cyprus said the event staged inside the buffer zone separating north from south was a
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Oil fell below $36 on Friday to its lowest level in more than four years as the global economic slowdown overshadowed OPEC's record supply cuts. U.S. light crude for January delivery were down 51 cents at $35.71 a barrel by 1100 GMT. It earlier touched $35.62, the lowest since June 2004. London Brent crude was
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Unprecedented pre-Christmas discounting by Britain's store groups is helping to improve consumer confidence, a survey showed on Friday, but retailers remain gloomy about their prospects heading into 2009. Car dealer Lookers issued a profit warning, while rival H.R. Owen said it expected trading to remain "severely depressed" throughout next year. Fashion and homewares retailer Laura
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Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday, retreating for the third consecutive session as sinking oil prices continue to weigh on energy stocks, while investors eagerly await news of a potential bailout for stricken automakers. Highlights: * At 4:33 a.m. EST S&P 500 March futures were down 1.2 percent,
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General Motors Corp and Chrysler are close to securing emergency loans as part of a U.S. government aid package that would demand sweeping restructuring at the troubled automakers, according to sources familiar with the talks. Bridge loans to carry the companies for several months could be announced as early as Friday, said the sources, who
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The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said on Thursday after participating in a two-day "cyberwar" simulation. The game involved 230 representatives of government defense and security agencies, private companies and civil groups. It revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications and other issues, participants
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A group of Japanese lawyers and professors asked on Friday that Google Inc stop providing detailed street-level images of Japanese cities on the Internet, saying they violated privacy rights. Google's Street View offers ground-level, 360-degree views of streets in 12 Japanese cities and is also offered for some 50 cities in the United States and
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By Jim Loney Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Wall Street fraud scheme has hurt and embarrassed the Jewish community of Palm Beach, the Florida town of the mega-wealthy where the financier found so many of his investors. Madoff made his connections at the Palm Beach Country Club, an oceanfront hideaway founded by Jews excluded from
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Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday slashed its forecast for China's 2009 gross domestic product growth to 5 percent, from 8 percent, warning about the potential for increasing social tensions as the economy falters. Exceptionally weak activity data for November, released over the past week, has prompted a number of investment banks as well as
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By Rujun Shen and Eadie Chen China's dramatic economic slowdown is paying an environmental dividend, slashing emissions levels from the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter as its highest-carbon industries begin to contract. The question Beijing will soon face is how it will manage to sustain those curbs once growth is restored. Some say it's moving
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