Reuters: Top News

Spanish debt costs spiral as crisis deepens

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:25:28 +0100

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish 10-year borrowing costs neared the 7 percent danger level and Bankia shares hit record lows on Monday after the government, struggling to sort out its finances, proposed putting sovereign debt into the struggling lender.

Britain announces "pasty tax" U-turn

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:01:16 +0100

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Conservative-led government is to modify a levy on hot takeaway food after months of criticism that its planned "pasty tax" showed it was out of touch with ordinary people.

Radical cleric Abu Qatada loses British bail request

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:18:29 +0100

LONDON (Reuters) - A radical preacher accused of giving spiritual inspiration to one of the 9/11 hijackers on Monday lost a bid to be freed from the British prison where he is being held ahead of moves to deport him to Jordan to face terrorism charges.

Assad faces new international pressure after massacre

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:37:53 +0100

AMMAN (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad faces renewed international pressure to end the bloodshed in Syria but, with peace envoy Kofi Annan visiting Damascus, his government blamed Islamist militants for a massacre in which U.N. observers had implicated his army.

UK politicians "bowed" before Murdoch - deputy PM

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:04:37 +0100

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's political class competed to "bow and scrape" before media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Tuesday, in comments aimed at setting his Liberal Democrats apart from the country's two other main parties.

UK has changed for worse under Queen Elizabeth - poll

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:54:15 +0100

LONDON (Reuters) - Almost half of Britons believe Britain has changed for the worse during Queen Elizabeth's 60-year reign but most think that celebrations to mark her sixth decade on the throne will be good for business and Britain's character, a poll showed on Monday.

Egyptians torch Shafiq HQ as vote triggers violence

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:39:20 +0100

CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators furious that Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister made it into the run-off for Egypt's presidential election set ablaze his campaign headquarters on Monday, witnesses said, underscoring the divisive outcome of the country's historic vote.

Top Greek banks handed 18 billion euros support

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:50:41 +0100

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece handed 18 billion euros (14.39 billion pounds) to its four biggest banks on Monday, the finance ministry said, allowing the stricken lenders to regain access to European Central Bank funding.

New expenses row adds to Cameron's many woes

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:29:59 +0100

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's first Muslim woman to hold a cabinet post fought back on Monday against allegations she had made improper expense claims, the latest in a series of public relations disasters to hit her political patron, Prime Minister David Cameron.

Zimbabwe drops charges against BBC's Petroc Trelawny

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:32:59 +0100

HARARE (Reuters) - BBC radio presenter Petroc Trelawny, being treated in a Zimbabwe hospital for a fractured arm, will not be prosecuted and is free to fly home, his lawyer told Reuters on Monday.