Новости за 08.05.2013

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Addressing an audience of dignitaries in Luxembourg in 2005, Bulgaria's then prime minister extolled the virtues of European Union membership, declaring his nation ready to take its place at the heart of the continent.

BAMA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected members of the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram armed with machineguns laid siege on the north-eastern town of Bama on Tuesday, freeing over 100 prison inmates and leaving 55 people dead, the military said.

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three Ohio women newly freed from a decade-long kidnapping ordeal huddled privately with loved ones on Tuesday as police scoured the Cleveland house where the captives had been held, seeking clues to how their confinement went unnoticed for so long.

LONDON (Reuters) - Retail sales plunged unexpectedly last month, hurt by an earlier Easter this year, although the underlying trend appears to be improving, the British Retail Consortium said on Wednesday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Standard Chartered said on Wednesday its first quarter operating profit was likely to be slightly lower than a year ago as an increase in hiring, and wages, pushed up costs.

MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia and the United States agreed to bury their differences over Syria and to try to convene international talks with both sides in the civil war to end the carnage that is inflaming the Middle East.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday accused the United States of sowing discord between China and its neighbours after the Pentagon said Beijing is using espionage to fuel its military modernisation, branding Washington the "real hacking empire".

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan injured his head after falling off a mechanical lift raising him onto a stage at a rally on Tuesday four days before national elections, party and medical officials said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - People involved in negotiating a European banking union are discussing entrusting the European Commission or the euro zone's bailout fund with winding down ailing banks rather than creating a separate authority, a German newspaper said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea vowed on Tuesday to keep up their guard and not reward bad behaviour by North Korea, which President Barack Obama said had won no benefits or prestige from recent war threats.