POLITICS

Core U.S. consumer prices rose by a less-than-expected 0.1 percent in July, showing stable prices that held the year-on-year rate of nonfood, nonenergy inflation to 1.9 percent for the second month in a row, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

Allies of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf have raised objections to a power-sharing deal he is negotiating with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, casting fresh doubt on the future of the embattled president.

The Indian government said on Thursday it had decided to form a panel to study a controversial nuclear deal with the United States, taking into account objections from communist parties who shore up the coalition.

Chinese demand has already fuelled booms in markets from copper to shipping, but the rise of the world's fastest growing economy is also driving up prices for another hot commodity: bilingual bankers.

China has found microscopic worms in wooden packaging from the United States and uncovered substandard U.S. vitamin pills and fish oil for children, Chinese media said on Friday in the latest volley of cross-border accusations.

U.S. President George W. Bush will outline reforms on Friday to help struggling subprime mortgage borrowers and his central bank chief will deliver a speech which will be pored over for hints of a looming rate cut.

President George W. Bush will propose reforms on Friday intended to help homeowners with subprime mortgages avoid default, his first public step to address a crisis that has created turmoil in financial markets around the world.

Hotels and airlines are bracing for softer demand as the economy shows signs of slowing, but the pain may not hit the travel industry for months.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has yet to decide whether to step down as army chief, a spokesman said on Thursday, as former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced he would return home from exile on September 10.

The U.S. Justice Department and other authorities have stepped up investigations into several large European banks for violating sanctions against Iran, Libya, Cuba and Sudan, the Financial Times reported in its online edition.

Thousands of Greeks besieged banks on Thursday, clamoring for state compensation for damage caused by the country's worst wildfires which burned on in some areas one week into the crisis.

Mattel has only itself to blame for a huge toy recall that has stoked global alarm about Chinese-made goods, state media said on Thursday, charging that a slew of foreign safety scares had exposed a protectionist agenda.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter, as strong business investment led the fastest pace of expansion since early last year, the government reported on Thursday. However, the rebound in growth is not likely to be sustained. Policy makers and analysts may scale back estimates for U.S. growth in the coming quarters due to disruptions in the financial markets worldwide from rising defaults in subprime mortgages.

Robust business investment helped push U.S. second-quarter growth ahead at an upwardly revised 4 percent annual rate, the government reported on Thursday, the fastest pace since early last year but one that is unlikely to be sustained.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, under fire from some for being slow to stamp out a smoldering credit crisis, takes the stage before global policy-makers on Friday in a test of his leadership with financial market worry at a fever pitch.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is not rushing to cut benchmark interest rates because it wants to break investors of the view that the central bank is there to bail them out, an article in the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

South Korea said the remaining seven Korean church volunteers held by the Taliban in Afghanistan were likely to be freed on Thursday, a day after 12 of their colleagues were released from an ordeal of nearly six weeks.

China has sent a notice to the World Health Organisation defending its food safety standards and sentenced another food and drug watchdog official for bribery, its latest moves to assure the world its exports are up to par.

U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to ask Congress for as much as $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a White House official.

Greek firefighters gained the upper hand on Wednesday over widespread forest fires that have killed at least 63 people and left the government shaken by accusations of incompetence.

U.S.-based Pizza Patrón's move to take Mexican currency at its stores initially sparked a backlash in January. But business has been booming.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for a second consecutive week, reflecting a drop in demand for home purchase and refinancing loans even as interest rates sank, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Taliban insurgents freed eight South Korean hostages in two separate batches on Wednesday, the first of 19 Christian volunteers the Taliban agreed to release.

A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc bond analyst pleaded guilty on Tuesday to helping lead a far-flung insider trading scheme involving tips about pending mergers and stolen copies of BusinessWeek magazine that netted more than $6.7 million in illicit gains.

U.S. consumer sentiment took its sharpest plunge in nearly two years during August while home prices swooned in the second quarter, according to reports that show a heavy toll from the housing crisis.

Mexico's economy, hobbled in recent months by a U.S. slowdown and less demand for exports, expanded 2.5 percent in June from the same month last year, modestly less than analysts had forecast in a Reuters poll.

The U.S. poverty rate fell for the first time this decade but more people are living without health insurance and the bulk of the nation's poor are children, government data released on Tuesday showed.

House prices suffered their worst decline since at least 1987 in the second quarter from a year earlier as the housing downturn has deepened, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.

Economic confidence among U.S. small business owners fell in August as a slowing housing market soured sentiment, and 41 percent said they had recent cash flow troubles, according to a survey released on Monday.