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When do you take the addict off the methadone? That's essentially the dilemma facing the U.S. Federal Reserve's 19 policy makers when they meet in Washington this week.   Since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. economy and everyone with a stake in it have become hooked on the massive amounts of stimulus injected by the U.S. central bank. Now, though, consensus is building among policy makers that the time is nearing to adjust their $85 billion-a-month asset purchase program, dubbed quantitative easing, but divisions remain over just when to start reducing the dosage. In recent weeks, even the program's most ardent supporters, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, have begun signaling a willingness to dial back the pace of bond buying before too much longer. Meanwhile, those who have never liked it insist the moment has arrived and worry the Fed's grip on markets is weakening the longer the program remains in full force. "We haven't taken st

North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the White House said that any talks must involve Pyongyang taking action to show it is moving toward scrapping its nuclear weapons.   The offer came only days after North Korea abruptly canceled planned official talks with South Korea , the first planned talks in more two years. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas. The North Korea National Defence Commission in a statement carried by KCNA news agency on Sunday said Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues, but no preconditions should be attached. "In order to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and to achieve regional peace and safety, we propose to hold high-level talks between the DPRK and the United States," said the spokesman for the North's National Defence Commission

Iranian president-elect Hassan Rohani, who won a landslide victory promising better relations abroad and more freedom at home, on Sunday paid his first visit since the vote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who will ultimately decide the pace of any change. Rohani, a mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, is an Islamic Republic insider who has held senior political and military posts since the 1979 Islamic revolution and maintained a good rapport with Khamenei, Iran's most powerful man.   Iranian media reported that Khamenei congratulated Rohani, wished him success, and gave him "the necessary guidance". Rohani's trouncing of his hardline rivals, who miscalculated the public mood and failed to overcome factional differences and field a single candidate, received a cautious welcome in Washington, although Israel warned against "wishful thinking" about Iran's future direction. While no reformer himself, Rohani gained the backing of the politically s

Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh. In Syria , rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month.   After months of deliberations, Washington decided last week to send weapons to the rebels, declaring that Assad's forces had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas. The move throws the superpower's weight behind the revolt and signals a potential turning point in global involvement in a two-year-old war that has already killed at least 93,000 people. It has also infuriated Russia , Cold War-era ally of Syria, which has sold arms to Assad and used its veto at the U.N. Security Counc

Sporadic clashes between police and protesters flared up in Istanbul overnight after a weekend in which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan sought to steal back the agenda, rallying his supporters and expelling demonstrators from an Istanbul park. Two union federations called a nationwide strike for Monday over the forced eviction of protesters from Gezi Park, a leafy corner of Istanbul's central Taksim Square and the focus of two weeks of fierce anti-government demonstrations that have spread to other big cities. Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists said they too would take part. Hundreds of thousands of Erdogan supporters gathered to hear the prime minister speak at an Istanbul parade ground on Sunday as riot police fired teargas a few kilometres away in the city center to disperse protesters. A defiant Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of unrest had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was be

Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein, chief executive of Liechtenstein's biggest bank LGT, said it was striking how fast opinions on tax evasion had shifted since 2008, when stolen data revealed hundreds of Germans had hidden assets in the principality. But the Prince, who runs the royal-family-owned bank, is not worried by an international push to fight tax evasion and expects Swiss and Liechtenstein banks to flourish if disputes over untaxed assets are settled quickly.   "The data theft of 2008 was the first example of that change of attitude but at least it put us ahead of the game. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he said in an interview. Discussing the outlook for Liechtenstein banking over a lunch of monkfish and asparagus at a luxury Zurich hotel, Prince Max was relaxed about the future. "People are focusing on the threats but there are more chances than threats." Secrecy has fostered an usually large banking industry in the tiny princi

A Swiss government plan to protect the country's banks from U.S. criminal charges has been thrown into doubt by a Swiss parliamentary committee's rejection of the proposed bill on Tuesday. _0"> Lawmakers are deeply divided over the plan to allow Swiss banks, suspected of helping wealthy Americans hide their money, to disclose data to U.S. prosecutors to help settle investigations into tax evasion.   Switzerland's upper house of parliament is set to vote on the draft law, designed to solve the issue without overturning Swiss banking secrecy laws, on Wednesday followed by the lower chamber next week, a schedule aimed at meeting a U.S. ultimatum. If the draft law succeeds, Swiss banks then have 120 days to hand over the internal information to U.S. authorities. Possible outcomes include the following: BOTH PARLIAMENT CHAMBERS PASS DEAL Amid fevered last-minute haggling in Bern, potential concessions could still help swing the bill in parliament, even after the