NowMyNews

A measure of Australian consumer sentiment improved modestly in July as worries about family finances eased, a survey showed on Wednesday, though the depressing impact of an unpopular federal budget continued to linger. _0"> The survey of 1,200 people by the Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank ( id="symbol_WBC.AX_0"> WBC.AX ) showed the index of consumer sentiment rose a seasonally adjusted 1.9 percent in July, from June when it had inched up only 0.2 percent. The index still has not fully recovered from May's 6.8 percent dive which followed a budget of welfare reforms, cutbacks and increased charges for services. The index reading of 94.9 for July was down 7.1 percent on the same month last year and means pessimists still exceed optimists. The survey's measure of sentiment among supporters of the Labor opposition is down 25 percent on a year ago at 83.9. In contrast, the index for supporters of the Liberal National government has risen by 25 percent

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday that moving to a market-determined exchange rate will be a crucial step for China, as the two countries began annual high-level talks. _0"> "We support China's efforts to allow the market to play a more decisive role in the economy and rely more on household consumption to drive China's economic growth. Moving to a market-determined exchange rate will be a crucial step," he said. "We welcome this commitment and China's economic growth. A prosperous China that grows in a way that is consistent with international rules and norms will contribute to the strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy." (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton ; Writing by Ben Blanchard ; Editing by Dean Yates )

China's consumer inflation cooled slightly more than expected in June, pointing to lingering weakness in the economy which could prompt Beijing to launch further stimulus measures to shore up growth. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.3 percent in June from a year earlier, missing the market forecast of 2.4 percent in a Reuters poll and down from 2.5 percent in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. The producer price index (PPI) dropped 1.1 percent in its 28th straight month of decline, versus a market consensus for a fall of 1 percent, signalling that demand in the domestic economy remained lukewarm, despite some recent signs of stabilisation. "The weak inflation data leaves more scope for Beijing to step up use of targeted measures and even opens the opportunity window for blanket easing policy, such as an interest rate cut, to support economic growth," said Wang Jin, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai. Most economists believe

The Bank of Japan may slightly cut its economic forecast for the current fiscal year at a quarterly review of its estimates next week, sources familiar with its thinking said, reflecting soft exports and a bigger-than-expected slump in household spending after a sales tax hike in April. _0"> But the central bank will roughly maintain its upbeat price projections and stick to its view that the world's third-largest economy will continue a moderate recovery as the pain from the tax hike heals, the sources said on condition of anonymity. With no major change in the broad economic outlook, the BOJ is set to keep monetary settings unchanged at its two-day rate review ending on Tuesday. In its latest projections made in January, the BOJ expects the economy to expand 1.1 percent in the current business year that began in April, higher than a 0.9 percent rise forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll last month. The central bank may revise down the forecast slightly after data r

Ukraine expects to receive a second tranche of $1.5 billion from an International Monetary Fund's $17 billion aid package, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday. _0"> Yatseniuk said he was expecting to meet later on Wednesday a visiting IMF mission that has been examining Ukraine's economic performance since June 24. "We believe Ukraine has fulfilled the criteria which are written into our IMF program and we should complete discussions and successfully receive the second tranche," Yatseniuk told a government meeting. The ex-Soviet republic received a first tranche of slightly more than $3 billion in May. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing By Richard Balmforth ; Editing by Thomas Grove )

The Bank of Japan may trim its economic growth forecast for the current year next week, sources familiar with its thinking said, reflecting soft exports and a bigger-than-expected slump in household spending after a sales tax hike in April. But the central bank will roughly maintain its upbeat price projections and stick to its view that the world's third-largest economy will continue a moderate recovery as the pain from the tax hike heals, the sources said on condition of anonymity. With no major change in the broad economic outlook, the BOJ is set to maintain its policy framework, under which it has pledged to increase base money by 60-70 trillion yen ($590-$689 billion) per year via aggressive asset purchases. The decision is expected at the end of a two-day meeting on July 15. "The economic contraction in April-June appears to be bigger than expected, so it won't be surprising if the BOJ cuts its growth projection," said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist

After weeks of political wrangling, Chile's Finance Minister unveiled changes to a tax reform bill late on Tuesday, including a larger increase in the corporate tax rate in exchange for concessions opposition lawmakers called for. _0"> The reform, a centerpiece of President Michelle Bachelet's administration, maintained an overall goal of increasing tax revenue by $8.2 billion, equivalent to 3 percent of gross domestic product. Corporate taxes will now gradually increase to 27 percent by 2017 from a current 20 percent, according to the agreement between the minister and the Senate's five-member Finance Committee. In the bill as initially presented to Congress, corporate taxes were to increase to 25 percent. "We've reached a historic agreement ... we've managed to move forward on the most complex and profound tax reform in the last 30 years," said Finance Minister Alberto Arenas from Congress in the port city of Valparaiso. With the tax reform

The Federal Reserve has begun detailing how it plans to ease the U.S. economy out of an era of loose monetary policy, indicating it will end its asset purchases in October and appearing near agreement on a plan to manage interest rates in the future, according to minutes of the last Fed policy meeting. The minutes from the June 17-18 meeting indicate the Fed envisions using overnight repurchase agreements in tandem with the interest it pays banks on excess reserves to set a ceiling and floor for its target interest rate. Though no decisions have been announced, the discussion has become detailed enough for Fed officials to contemplate the proper spread between the two - mentioned in the minutes as 20 basis points. The minutes showed the Fed participants also "generally agreed" that monthly bond purchases would end in October, with a final reduction of $15 billion in monthly purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. Fed officials expressed overall c

Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is seeking to acquire two lenders to create the country's biggest bank, a source familiar with the deal said, a move that is likely to push larger rival Maybank and others in the region to bulk up too. CIMB, the nation's second-largest bank, is likely to offer an all-stock deal to buy RHB Capital Bhd and Malaysia Building Society Bhd although details have yet to be hammered out, the source said. The source declined to be identified as the matter was not yet public. Shares in all three banks were halted pending the release of a material announcement. The proposal comes ahead of a planned partial integration of Southeast Asian economies that is due to begin by the end of next year, with countries in the 10-nation alliance keen to build national champions to bolster their banking systems. CIMB has been the most acquisitive of Malaysia's banks and a deal would be the last major move by CEO Nazir Razak, brother to the prime minister,

German retailer Metro is not interested in bringing together its Kaufhof department stores with the struggling Karstadt chain, its chief executive said. _0"> "Karstadt is still absolutely not an issue for us," Metro Chief Executive Olaf Koch told journalists at an event late on Wednesday. Speculation has long swirled about a possible merger between the two former giants of German retail and flared up again this week after the chief executive of loss-making Karstadt stepped down after only five months in the job, hinting at a lack of support from the firm's billionaire owner. Karstadt was rescued from insolvency in 2010 by Nicolas Berggruen, but unions have accused him of not investing enough in the chain, allowing Kaufhof to take market share. Department stores around the world have faced difficulties in recent years due to competition from e-commerce players like Amazon, prompting suggestions Kaufhof could buy Karstadt or a third party investor could buy an

Struggling British baby products retailer Mothercare, fighting off a takeover bid from U.S. group Destination Maternity, named its interim chief executive as its permanent CEO on Thursday. _0"> Mark Newton-Jones, who led online retailer Shop Direct for almost a decade, took over as interim boss in March, replacing Simon Calver who quit in February after a profit warning showed his plans to revive the group were faltering. Newton-Jones will take up his place on the Mothercare board on 17 July. "I am very much looking forward to leading the Mothercare group at such an important time in its development," he said. "We now need to put in place the building blocks to strengthen the UK performance and I believe there is then a tremendous opportunity to take this business forward." Destination Maternity has had two bid proposals for the British group rejected. (Reporting by Kate Holton , editing by James Davey)

A planned merger of the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has been shelved for the foreseeable future as terms for the politically sensitive move could not be agreed, sources told Reuters on Thursday. Having been mooted for a number of years, a merger of the DFM and the ADX seemed to take an important step closer last year as investment banks were hired to advise on a tie-up - a move revealed by Reuters last October. The state-backed deal, seen as one of the biggest changes in the country's financial industry in recent years, was expected to energize financial markets in the United Arab Emirates, making it easier for investors to operate across the markets, stimulating trade and attracting more foreign investment. However, despite a number of key impediments being overcome since then, talks have stalled and a deal is now unlikely to happen any time soon. "It's been shelved," said one Abu Dhabi-based banking source aware of the ma

South Korea's central bank kept its policy interest rate steady for a 14th consecutive policy meeting on Thursday, a widely expected move reflecting its confidence in a sustained recovery, despite recent signs of softening. _0"> The decision came in the face of speculation among bond traders that remarks by the finance minister-nominee asserting an urgent need to boost domestic consumption was a veiled demand for the Bank of Korea to cut interest rates. The Bank of Korea's monetary policy committee left its base rate unchanged at 2.50 percent, a media official said without elaborating. Governor Lee Ju-yeol is due to hold a news conference from 11:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) All but two of the 26 analysts surveyed by Reuters late on Tuesday forecast the Bank of Korea would leave its base rate unchanged at 2.50 percent at Thursday's meeting. Separately, the Bank of Korea is due to release revised economic growth forecasts for 2014 and 2015 later in the day. Its previous

Here are some factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Thursday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch of their accuracy. _0"> INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL * GLOBAL MARKETS-Fed relief lifts Asian stocks, dollar slips * Oil drops on weak U.S. fuel demand, returning Libya supply * Gold up on softer dollar; India budget eyed for import duty cut * MIDEAST STOCKS-Qatar, Egypt lead gains; UAE consolidates * Luxembourg approves bill paving way for sukuk this year * Head of Libya investment fund steps down over political law * BNP pleads guilty again in $9 bln U.S. sanctions accord * De Mistura succeeds Brahimi as U.N. Syria mediator - diplomats * Iran says offers ways to ease impasse over underground nuclear plant * Refugee agency says more than 35,000 people displaced by Yemen fighting * Syrian government forces squeeze insurgents in Aleppo TURKEY * Turkish Airlines shares rise on Lufthansa long-haul talks * Turkey's Turkiye Finans

The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media: _0"> * German lender Commerzbank AG is expected to pay between $600 million and $800 million to resolve investigations into its dealings with Iran and other countries under U.S. sanctions, sources familiar with the matter said. For the deals of the day click on For the Morning News Call-EMEA newsletter click on (Compiled by Aastha Agnihotri in Bangalore)

The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time. Most officials at the June meeting also indicated that they expect an interest rate hike to come next year. ( on.wsj.com/VLc1vo ) * IBM on Wednesday pledged to spend $3 billion over five years on semiconductor research. The money will be directed toward two major tasks: tackling technical obstacles to the miniaturization of circuitry on conventional silicon chips and developing alternative materials and technologies to keep boosting computing speed while consuming less energy. ( on.wsj.com/1nffCfJ ) * The Education Department says it was unaware of the dire state of Corinthian Colleges Inc's finances before it moved June 12 to restrict access to fede

For highlights of India's budget: (Reporting by Tommy Wilkes) _0">

Miro Cerar may be a newcomer to politics, but he is already a household name to the 2 million people of Slovenia, the euro zone state whose fragile economy he will have to nurture if he wins an election on Sunday. The son of one of his country's greatest sportsmen is front runner to become prime minister and take on the task of dragging Slovenia, once seen as a model for post-Communist prosperity, out of financial crisis and economic malaise. Slovenia narrowly avoided having to seek an international bailout for its banks late last year. Sunday's parliamentary election is rattling investors' nerves again, this time over the fate of measures the outgoing government agreed with its EU partners to steady Slovenia's finances and remake an economy roughly 50-percent controlled by the state. A bespectacled law professor and adviser to parliament, Cerar, 50, takes his celebrity from his father Miroslav Cerar, a two-time Olympic pommel horse champion in the 1960s when Slove

Greek yields dipped on Thursday as the aid recipient readied an issue of three-year bonds in its second debt sale since its default, taking advantage of a European Central Bank promise to make long-term loans to banks. The sale is expected to raise 3 billion euros and follows a five-year bond sale in April, which marked one of the fastest market comebacks by a sovereign following a debt restructuring. It is also signalling Greece's gradual emergence from a debt crisis that started in 2010 and spread to other countries in the euro zone at its peak in 2011 and 2012, when Athens imposed heavy losses on private bondholders. Although Greece is expected to come out of a six-year recession in 2014 and is running a budget surplus excluding interest rate payments, the renewed interest for its bonds has a more powerful force behind it. The ECB's ultra-easy monetary policy has pinned yields on top-rated bonds at record lows and pushed investors towards riskier assets to maximise retu

Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturov said on Thursday he supported returning indebted miner Mechel to financial health within the framework of bankruptcy law or by creating a managing company, RIA Novosti news agency reported. _0"> On Wednesday state-owned development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) said it would not take part in a bailout of Mechel, extinguishing hopes for a convertible bond scheme that was seen as its most likely lifeline. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Alessandra Prentice)

Greek bond yields extended their rise on Thursday with traders citing investor disappointment with initial demand for a new three-year bond Athens is selling via a syndicate of banks. _0"> Order books for the bond have topped 3 billion euros, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters service. When Greece sold a five-year bond back in April orders reached over 20 billion euros. Bailed-out Greece is aiming to raise up to 3 billion euros from the new bond, its second bond sale after it defaulted in 2012. Greek 10-year bond yields were up 14 basis points on the day to 6.25 percent, underperforming the rest of the euro zone debt market. Yields on bonds issued by peer Portugal were up 13 bps at 3.94 percent, remaining under pressure amid concern over a proposed debt restrcturing by a holding company of the founding family of Banco Espirito Santo (BES), the country's largest listed bank. (Reporting by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Marius Zaharia; Editing by John Geddie)

Harbinger Capital Partners has sued Dish Network Corp and its chairman, Charles Ergen, for at least $1.5 billion, accusing them of trying to strip the hedge fund of its control of bankrupt wireless company LightSquared. The lawsuit, filed in a Colorado federal court on Tuesday, said Ergen had engaged in fraud and violated a federal anti-racketeering law. LightSquared LP filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. Its Chapter 11 case has been marred by a long-running battle between Ergen, who became LightSquared's largest creditor during the bankruptcy, and Phil Falcone's Harbinger, which spent billions of dollars building the company's wireless network. Dish and Ergen engaged in "an illegal scheme involving mail and wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, tortious interference, and abuse of process," said the complaint. "Defendants wrongfully and deceptively created chaos in the bankruptcy proceedings so that Harbinger would lose control of the LightSquared board.&quo

Hansa Group, a German supplier of chemicals for detergents and body care products, said on Wednesday it had filed for insolvency under its own management, after having reviewed future restructuring options. _0"> The company added it expects that the insolvency court "will act very quickly to appoint a provisional administrator". (Reporting by Christoph Steitz , editing by David Evans)

Texas power company Energy Future Holdings has postponed indefinitely court hearings aimed at keeping its fast-track bankruptcy on course after a judge questioned the company's approach. The company said in a filing on Tuesday that it was postponing hearings scheduled for Thursday and Friday at which it was hoping to win approval to borrow $1.9 billion to help finance its plan to exit bankruptcy early next year. In April, Energy Future Holdings filed one of the largest U.S. bankruptcies with a plan to split the company in a bid to restructure more than $40 billion in debt. The company also postponed a July 18 hearing when it hoped for approval of an RSA, or restructuring support agreement, which would commit the company and certain creditors to a schedule and a restructuring outline. The company said it would use the time to discuss potentially beneficial developments with creditors and outside parties. It also said it would consider July 1 comments from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

The Detroit Institute of Arts collection may be worth as much as $4.6 billion, but a sale of art works would raise less than $2 billion to pay the bankrupt city's creditors, according to a report released on Wednesday. _0"> Michael Plummer, an art expert hired by the institute and the city to evaluate the collection and ways to raise cash from it, concluded that litigation and market conditions would depress prices. Liquidating the most valuable works would eventually force the museum to close, in his opinion. "Rather than being a source of cash to creditors or a burden on the current city, in fact, the DIA is the single most important cultural asset the city currently owns for rebuilding the vitality of the city," Plummer reported. Some of Detroit's hold-out creditors have been pushing the city to sell or monetize art works to increase settlement payments in the city's plan to adjust $18 billion of debt and exit the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected PricewaterhouseCoopers' request to dismiss a $1 billion lawsuit accusing the auditor of providing bad accounting advice that contributed to the October 2011 collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd, a brokerage run by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero rejected PwC's argument that the MF Global's bankruptcy plan administrator, which brought the lawsuit, "stands in the shoes" of the company under the "in pari delicto" legal doctrine, and cannot recover because Corzine and other officials were also to blame for the collapse. Marrero has yet to review other PwC arguments for dismissal, including that the administrator had no authority to sue and did not show that the accounting advice was a "proximate" cause of MF Global's bankruptcy. A PwC spokesman had no immediate comment. The auditor's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The March 28

Syria's Western-backed opposition, the National Coalition, elected Hadi al-Bahra, chief negotiator at the Geneva peace talks, as its new president on Wednesday after a three-day meeting in Istanbul. _0"> The United States and other key powers have designated the National Coalition as the main body representing the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but it has little power inside Syria where disparate militant groups outside its control hold ground. Bahra, a U.S-trained industrial engineer, has close ties to regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, as did his predecessor Ahmad Jarba, who stood down after serving the maximum two six-month terms. "We will not give up the fundamentals of the revolution and our demands are freedom and human dignity," Bahra told a news conference in Istanbul on Wednesday evening. Bahra's election is unlikely to have any impact on the situation in Syria or within opposition ranks for now, though France - the first Western

A cargo train used by Mexicans and Central Americans to travel toward the U.S. border derailed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, stranding about 1,300 migrants, emergency services said. _0"> Many of the migrants aboard were young people and nobody was injured when the train nicknamed "the Beast" came off the tracks, a spokesman for local emergency services said. Since last October, more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors, most from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, have been caught illegally crossing the southwest border of the United States. Children say that they are fleeing violence at home and hope that they will be able to stay in the United States. Several days of heavy rain in southern Mexico may have caused the train to derail, authorities said. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Lisa Shumaker )

China's top prosecutor has ordered greater transparency in publicising corruption cases involving senior officials, state media reported, as the government steps up efforts to win the public's confidence in its battle on pervasive graft. _0"> Such information should be released in a timely way rather than on a case-by-case basis as tends to happen now, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Wednesday, citing an order from the Supreme People's Procuratorate. "The public will be informed in a timely manner of cases such as suspected duty-related violations by provincial-level officials and those behind serious accidents or major food and drug safety scandals," it cited the notice as saying. "Information to be published should include the suspects' identities, the crimes they are suspected of, basic facts and latest developments in cases during investigation, arrest and prosecution," Xinhua added. Pictures and videos will also be rel

Japan on Thursday denied as "sheer misreporting" a front page newspaper story that North Korea had provided a list of some 30 Japanese survivors still living in the isolated country, including known victims of state-sponsored kidnapping. _0"> The Nikkei business daily said North Korea produced the list at a July 1 meeting in Beijing to discuss North Korea's plan to resume investigations into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s. North Korea agreed in May to reopen the probe, prompting Japan to ease some sanctions. "I'm aware of the report, but nothing like that happened during the meeting or during a recess," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference. "It's sheer misreporting." The Nikkei, citing sources, said Tokyo had matched about two-thirds of the names on the list with domestic records of missing persons. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the abduc

The Pakistani military has seized control of 80 percent of Miranshah, the capital of the remote tribal region of North Waziristan, where the military launched an operation against Islamist militants last month, a general said on Wednesday. Previously, the city was largely under the control of the Taliban and militants used it as a base to prepare bombs and plan attacks, said General Zafarullah Khan, the top commander in rugged North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. "North Waziristan had transformed into a hub and safe haven for terrorists of all colors and creeds," he said during a media trip to Miranshah. "But with the operation, 80 percent of Miranshah and the adjoining areas has been cleared." The offensive in North Waziristan began on June 15, following months of failed negotiations between the government and the militants. Taliban attacks continued during the talks. A brazen assault last month on the airport in the southern city of Karachi killed 34.

China has dismissed as meaningless a proposed referendum on democracy in its southern gambling hub of Macau, a poll that would follow in the footsteps of a similar informal vote in nearby Hong Kong. _0"> Three activist groups said on Monday they would stage a referendum among Macau's 600,000 residents to coincide with the widely expected re-election by a local council of local leader Fernando Chui in August. China denounced the June poll in Hong Kong, underscored by a march by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the right to freely elect their local leader in 2017. Five student leaders were arrested after a later sit-in. The former British colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, followed two years later by the Portuguese-run enclave of Macau, now the world's biggest gambling center. Both enjoy wide-ranging autonomy and free speech not permitted on the mainland. "An administrative region has no authority to establish a system of refere

Miro Cerar may be a newcomer to politics, but he is already a household name to the 2 million people of Slovenia, the euro zone state whose fragile economy he will have to nurture if he wins an election on Sunday. The son of one of his country's greatest sportsmen is front runner to become prime minister and take on the task of dragging Slovenia, once seen as a model for post-Communist prosperity, out of financial crisis and economic malaise. Slovenia narrowly avoided having to seek an international bailout for its banks late last year. Sunday's parliamentary election is rattling investors' nerves again, this time over the fate of measures the outgoing government agreed with its EU partners to steady Slovenia's finances and remake an economy roughly 50-percent controlled by the state. A bespectacled law professor and adviser to parliament, Cerar, 50, takes his celebrity from his father Miroslav Cerar, a two-time Olympic pommel horse champion in the 1960s when Slov

Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 27 wounded in clashes with pro-Russian separatist rebels in the east of the country, the military said on Thursday. _0"> Government forces have recently gained the upper hand in the three-month conflict against separatists in the Russian-speaking eastern regions in which more than 200 government troops have been killed as well as hundreds of civilians and rebel fighters. But though government forces pushed the rebels out of a stronghold in Slaviansk at the weekend, the heavily armed separatists have dug in in Donetsk, a city of 900,000 people, and remain active in and around Luhansk on the Russian border. The government's "anti-terrorist operation" said that one soldier was killed late on Wednesday when rebels fired machine-guns at a truck carrying soldiers at Muratova near Luhansk. "The vehicle was ambushed. In the course of the fighting one serviceman was killed and three were wounded," it said in a s

China and the United States have agreed to enhance cooperation on counter-terrorism and military-to-military relations, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi said on Thursday. _0"> Yang was speaking at the end of annual high-level talks between the two countries. (Reporting by Michael Martina, Writing by Sui-Lee Wee, Editing by Dean Yates)

Britain said on Thursday it would rush through emergency legislation to force telecoms firms to retain customer data for a year, calling the move vital for national security following a decision by Europe's top court. Communication companies had been required to retain data for 12 months under a 2006 European Union directive but this was thrown out in April by the European Court of Justice on the grounds that it infringed human rights. Britain's coalition government said the scrapping of that directive could deprive police and intelligence agencies of access to information about who customers contacted by phone, text or email, and where and when. Prime Minister David Cameron said it was vital these powers were not compromised at a time of growing concern over Britons travelling to Iraq and Syria to join militant Islamist groups. Those concerns prompted the government to take the unusual step of announcing fast-track legislation which, under a deal brokered behind closed d

Iraqi security forces found 53 corpses, blindfolded and handcuffed, south of Baghdad on Wednesday as Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders traded accusations over an Islamist insurgency raging in the country's Sunni provinces. Officials said dozens of bodies were discovered near the mainly Shi'ite Muslim village of Khamissiya, with bullets to the chest and head, the latest mass killing since Sunni insurgents swept through northern Iraq. "Fifty-three unidentified corpses were found, all of them blindfolded and handcuffed," Sadeq Madloul, governor of the mainly Shi'ite southern province of Babil, told reporters. He said the victims appeared to have been killed overnight after being brought by car to an area near the main highway running from Baghdad to the southern provinces, about 25 km (15 miles) southeast of the city of Hilla. The identity and sectarian affiliation of the dead people was not immediately clear, he said. Sunni militants have been carrying out att

Significant differences remain between six world powers and Iran in negotiations over its nuclear program, an Austrian newspaper quoted British Foreign Minister William Hague as saying. _0"> Wiener Zeitung said a spokesperson for Hague had provided his remarks via email on Wednesday and they were published on Thursday. The quotes appeared identical to a statement Hague made on July 2 about the Iran nuclear negotiations, which resumed last week and continued in Vienna on Thursday. Hague said a deal was far from certain but that all possibilities should be exhausted in a final round of talks now taking place in Vienna, according to Wiener Zeitung. Iran and the powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China - aim to reach a long-term deal to end the decade-old standoff by a self-imposed July 20 deadline. Some diplomats and analysts believe an extension may be needed in view of the still-wide gaps in negotiating positions. "Achieving an agreement

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive to a sceptical audience in Afghanistan this week to try to resolve a deepening crisis over a disputed presidential election which has stirred ethnic tensions in the fragile country. Afghanistan has plunged into political chaos in recent months as a protracted election process to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai has run into a deadlock between two leading candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. Preliminary results from the June 14 second-round run-off put Ghani, a former World Bank official, in the lead with 56.4 percent of the vote, but Abdullah has rejected the count and his aides have threatened to set up an alternative administration. Kerry is expected to arrive in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday to try to mediate between the feuding camps, according to Abdullah, although U.S. officials have not confirmed the trip. Kerry is currently in neighbouring China. Ghani's camp, confident in its victory, is wary of