WORLD

The European Union economy is recovering from the deepest and longest recession in its history, but growth is still fragile although risks in 2010 are broadly balanced, the European Commission said on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood said Wednesday that his department would conduct a 'complete review' electronics on Toyota vehicles in response to customer and lawmaker complaints of unintended acceleration.

Ben Bernanke may have cleared the hurdles to his confirmation for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, but that does not mean lawmakers will be any friendlier to him at high-profile hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Pakistan received on Wednesday $349.3 million from the United States as part of a fund to help the U.S. ally sustain efforts to fight Islamist militancy, a central bank official said on Wednesday.

Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Hirohide Yamaguchi said the central bank was ready to act to beat deflation, leaving room for more monetary easing amid a steady drumbeat of government pressure for BOJ steps to support the economy.

Afghanistan's main opposition on Wednesday criticized President Hamid Karzai's removal of foreign observers from a U.N.-backed electoral watchdog as autocratic and urged international pressure to ensure impartial elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court said a corporation's principal place of business is where its top executives work, typically at the corporate headquarters, rather than where its products or services are sold.

President Barack Obama will appeal to U.S. business leaders on Wednesday to back his push to create jobs as he defends his agenda against conservative critics seeking to paint him as a big spender.

A nationwide strike grounded flights, trains and ferries in Greece on Wednesday as thousands rallied in Athens to protest austerity plans aimed at wrenching Greece out of a debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone.

U.S. banks and investment firms transferred their political contributions to Republicans in 2009 as Democrats in Washington put the focus on big bonuses, huge profits and tight lending, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Toyota U.S. sales chief James Lentz said on Tuesday members of his family drive Toyota's cars and would continue to do so amid recalls that have tarnished the car maker's reputation.

Presidents and high-ranking representatives of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries agreed to create a new organization without the United States and Canada on Tuesday.

Toyota misled the public about the adequacy of auto recalls to address unintended acceleration in its vehicles, the lawmakers said Monday.

A modest job-creation bill advanced in the Senate on Monday as the chamber's newest Republican bucked his party and sided with Democrats on a $15 billion package of tax cuts and highway spending.

Fury over Greece using derivatives that masked its debt conveniently ignores the fact that euro zone countries and EU bookkeepers have approved other deals worth billions of euros for over 10 years.

Iran seized a Sunni Muslim rebel leader on Tuesday behind a bombing which killed dozens of people last year, and who Tehran says has links to al Qaeda and support from Pakistan, Britain and the United States.

A U.S. Navy warship prevented an attack on a Tanzanian ship and apprehended eight suspected pirates in the process, the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania said on Tuesday.

The Obama administration will hold Toyota President Akio Toyoda to his word that the carmaker is working hard to address all safety issues, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Tuesday.

Emission cuts pledges made by 60 countries will not be enough to keep the average global temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius or less, modeling released on Tuesday by the United Nations says.

A senior member of al Qaeda's Yemen wing who the Yemeni government said it killed has emerged on an internet forum, threatening to carry out attacks in the United States.

The United Arab Emirates has identified four more suspects who carried British and Irish passports in the Dubai killing of a Hamas commander, a source familiar with the investigation said on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama made a last-ditch bid to revive his stalled healthcare overhaul on Monday with a plan to make insurance more affordable and to bolster government authority to regulate premium hikes.

The liberal grass-roots group ACORN is reeling after scandals that have hurt its fund-raising ability and prompted its big New York and California chapters to quit and set up fresh organizations.

The Obama administration heralded new rules protecting U.S. credit card holders from certain fees and rate increases on Monday, even as Connecticut's Attorney General criticized the Federal Reserve for not using the rules to reverse earlier card rate hikes.

An Obama administration spokesman on Monday stressed the importance of independent authority for a proposed U.S. financial consumer watchdog and said where it was housed was another issue.

The number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan has reached 1,000, an independent website said on Tuesday, a grim reminder that eight years of fighting has failed to defeat Taliban insurgents.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized on Monday after experiencing chest pains, and his office said he was resting comfortably while doctors evaluated the situation.

NATO must boost security cooperation with Russia and streamline operations to face new challenges -- both military and civilian -- in coming years, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

Space programs, aircraft and ship maintenance, and helicopter upgrades are among $1.8 billion in priority weapons programs that were not funded in the Pentagon's fiscal 2011 budget, the military services told Congress in documents released Monday.