Lawrence Villamar

China's state banks make money far too easily and their monopoly on financial services has to be broken if cash-starved private enterprises are to get timely access to capital, state media cited Premier Wen Jiabao as saying on Tuesday.

The European Union cannot use the economic slowdown as an excuse to delay action on fighting climate change, the bloc's first-ever chief scientific adviser has warned.

New research suggests neutrinos that appeared to break one of Einstein's fundamental theories by travelling faster than the speed of light actually keep within the universal speed limit after all.

A four-year-old U.S. boy who announced to his teacher at school snack time that he wanted to share pulled nine bags of marijuana out of his jacket pocket, police said on Wednesday.

The German parliament's email system was hampered for several hours for more than 4,000 staffers and deputies when hundreds of workers responded to an errant email sent by one staffer named Babette to all 4,032 co-workers.

Singer Nancy Sinatra may have had boots made for walking, but she never attended Pottstown Middle School.

A ban on luxury spas at hotels and massage parlors in the Maldives was lifted on Wednesday under pressure from the country's key tourism industry a week after it was imposed as part of an effort to curb perceived vice.

Chile's government wants men in the South American country to take off their ties to help fight global warming, hoping the campaign will save on air conditioning as summer starts in the southern hemisphere.

Shirtless men clad in red sweatpants have been lining up for days in Singapore's prime shopping district, part of an advertising gimmick revealing not just muscle but also a gradual unpeeling of the city state's puritanical ways.

The world is forecast to grow hotter, sea levels to rise, intense weather to wreak even more destruction and the new deal struck by governments in Durban to cut greenhouse gas emissions will do little to lessen that damage.

It has been called the brick that built the universe, the angel of creation and the god particle.

A prototype passenger spaceship developed by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies arrived in Florida on Sunday for launch on a practice cargo run to the International Space Station, officials said on Monday.

Australia's dominant phone company, Telstra Corp, will be $5 billion better off working with the government's new high-speed broadband network than competing against it, an independent expert said, paving the way for shareholder approval.

Husband and wife songwriting team Marilyn and Alan Bergman have won three Academy Awards and two Grammys, but their biggest reward in a long career just may be writing for Barbra Streisand.

Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. was released after almost a year in prison Wednesday, and a TV network swiftly announced a reality show deal with him.

The safe-haven Swiss franc nursed heavy losses in Asia on Friday, having posted record one-day falls against the euro and dollar after the Swiss National Bank threatened to step up its fight to curb the franc's strength.

South American finance ministers could agree on Friday on ways to strengthen the Latin American Reserve Fund, or FLAR as it is known in Spanish, to protect regional economies from global volatility, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Thursday.

U.S. stock futures rose 1 percent on Thursday after a sharp drop on Wall Street overnight, limiting losses in Asian share markets, though the focus was shifting to how Europe reacts to a sovereign debt crisis that is now threatening its banking system.

The euro fell to fresh five-month lows against the yen in Asia on Thursday and looked set to stay under pressure as worries about the euro zone sovereign debt crisis spread to the region's banking sector.

U.S. stocks tumbled more than 4 percent on Wednesday, almost wiping out gains from a relief rally the previous day, as rumors about the health of French banks sparked concern that the euro zone's debt crisis could claim new victims.

U.S. stocks clawed back most of Monday's losses as a U.S. Federal Reserve promise of at least two more years of near-zero interest rates overshadowed its warning about slowing economic growth. The Fed's statement gave markets a glimmer of hope, with stocks' gains accelerating into Tuesday's close.

U.S. stocks soared in turbulent trading Tuesday, coming off the worst three day selloff since the financial crisis, as investors took in stride the Federal Reserve's pledge to keep interest rates near zero at least through mid-2013.

The Swiss franc hovered near record highs against the dollar and euro in Asia on Tuesday, having surged on the back of a global stock market rout as a crisis of confidence gripped investors.

Asian shares fell on Monday and the dollar languished near a record low against the Swiss franc, as investors took fright at a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, while gold powered to another record just short of $1,690 an ounce.

They are a rag-tag bunch, often working from home or tiny offices scattered round the world, from rural Texas to Beverly Hills and a suburb near Australia's Bondi Beach.

Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Friday repeated that he was closely watching yen moves, signalling Tokyo's readiness to continue with its yen-weakening intervention that media said reached a record 4 trillion yen ($50.6 billion).

The Swiss franc fell from record highs on Wednesday after the Swiss National Bank shocked the market with an interest rate cut, but the retreat should prove fleeting given mounting concerns about global growth.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday he has been having discussions with his Group of 20 colleagues about the global economic situation, which has been hit by U.S. and European debt fears.

The world's largest economy was headed toward an unprecedented default, and all Washington wanted to talk about was the manner in which the president had left a room.