Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Germany to increase spending to spur the eurozone's flagging economic recovery, and said that a number of structural reforms are needed to revive the bloc’s growth. "We think that public or private investment (in Germany) to finance infrastructure would be welcome," Lagarde told French daily Les Echos in an interview o [...]

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said the state-owned oil giant Rosneft could receive more than $40 billion in financial aid from the Russian government. The country’s largest crude producer may receive up to $40.6 billion (1.5 trillion rubles) in assistance from Russia’s National Welfare Fund. [...]

Argentina will receive the first tranche of yuan worth up to $1 billion in a massive currency swap with China before the end of this year. The deal will boost the troubled economy's foreign reserves. It comes as part of a loan worth $11 billion signed in July by Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during hisLatin America tour- shortly before t [...]

Surging support for Scottish independence saw the pound fall to a 10-month low. The head of the "Better Together" campaign, however, denies panic among the ranks despite a plan to grant Scotland more powers if Scots reject independence. The latest opinion poll, conducted by YouGov and the Sunday Times, put the pro-independence movement in the lead for [...]

Ukrainian and American naval forces are taking part in joint maritime drills dubbed Sea Breeze 2014, which began on Monday in the northwestern part of the Black Sea and will last till September 10. “Today in the north-west part of the Black Sea, we are beginning the joint Navy exercises of Ukraine and the US, known as ‘Sea Breeze 2014’. The exercises will continue until September 10. The [...]

Arms firms that provide core military components for drones deployed by the US to conduct covert strikes in violation of international law allegedly bought access to NATO's summit in Wales last week, a British human rights charity says. The defense companies concerned doled out up to £300,000 to ‘exhibit’ their military wares at the conference in Newport. Among the firms present were Gener [...]

America – its government, businesses, and people – are nearly $60 trillion in debt, according to the latest economic data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. And private debt – not government borrowing – is the biggest reason for the huge deficit. Total US debt at the end of the first quarter of 2014, on March 31 totaled almost $59.4 trillion – up nearly $500 billion from the end of t [...]

The widening gap between America's richest and the middle and working classes is unsustainable and is unlikely to improve a survey released on Monday by the Harvard Business School has found. The study which is called “an economy doing half its job” said that while large American companies were showing signs of recovery and were maintaining their competitive edge on the world stage, many mi [...]

The ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and self-defense forces is "still shaky, but holds," the OSCE stated. The fighters are still skeptical of the peace process, but they are hoping for the war to end. “People who have never seen this think war is like TV. You watch and forget because there’s some entertainment show later. Here, everything is reality. Here, people are dying in front of [...]

Major airlines saw stock shares nosedive on Wednesday, after media reports said that Russia could block flights over Siberia. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the reports are simply rumors. “I’m not an advocate of using the method of bans and creating real problems for passengers, ordinary citizens who have absolutely no connection to the actions of those who unleashed t [...]

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned Russia may shut its air corridors to Western airlines if the next round of European sanctions hit Russian energy companies. "If there are sanctions related to the energy sector, or further restrictions on Russia's financial sector, we will have to respond asymmetrically,” Medvedev said in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, published on Monday. [...]

The United States will soon release a long-awaited report detailing the findings of a Senate investigation into the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, and sources now say those tactics far exceeded what the world was led to believe. According to an article published on Sunday by the UK’s Telegraph, the American intelligence officers tasked with interrogating alleged Al-Qaeda memb [...]

Both Moscow and Kiev have similar thoughts on the resolution of the Ukraine crisis, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed in an interview with Russian media following the talks between Russian and Ukraine authorities in Minsk. On August 26, Presidents Putin and Poroshenko shook hands in Minsk, paving way for the contact group on the crisis in Ukraine to start work. On Friday, the B [...]

As the ceasefire in Ukraine gets off to a shaky start, the only way to rebuild the billions of dollars of damage in the nation's east is for the EU and Russia to work together, Lode Vanoust, former MP and deputy speaker of the Belgium parliament, told RT. First off, Kiev has now agreed to what appears to be a major concession, decentralization of power, which wasn’t even on the negotiating ta [...]

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, says the EU is to blame for the crisis in Ukraine as it forced the situation where Kiev had to choose between East and West. Now that France is joining sanctions against Russia over the alleged direct interference in the political crisis in Ukraine and Paris is considering suspending the €1.2 billion deal of two Mistral hel [...]

The latest opinion poll put the pro-independence movement in the lead for the first time, with 51 percent voicing their support just 11 days before the referendum on the issue. Prime Minister Cameron and Queen Elizabeth II expressed their concern. The poll was conducted by YouGov and The Sunday Times. The two-point lead has a margin of error, but the chances of a vote in favor have significantl [...]

Switzerland has reportedly decided it will not extradite National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US if he comes to testify against the NSA's spying activities, Swiss media said. In the document, titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” Switzerland’s Attorney General stat [...]

The cost of decommissioning Britain's nuclear sites, and particularly the Sellafield complex, has increased by billions of pounds with both regulators and the government being accused of incompetence by anti-nuclear campaigners and union leaders. The estimated cost of decommissioning the UK’s nuclear legacy over the next century has rocketed from £63.8 billion ($104.1 billion) two years ago [...]

Dozens of people gathered in the harbor of Saint-Nazaire in western France on Sunday to protest against the French government's decision to suspend the delivery of a Mistral warship to Russia. Some two hundred protesters gathered by the docked Vladivostok – the first of two Mistral-class helicopter carrier ships – holding banners that read, "Hollande wants to kill Saint-Nazaire. [...]

Britain has announced plans to erect a huge fence in the French port city of Calais. The steel fencing was previously used at a NATO summit. The move is part of the UK's campaign to deter illegal immigrants from entering the British Isles. Dubbed the "ring of steel," the barrier – which measures more than 12 miles long and nine feet high – was previously used at a NATO summit in South Wales [...]

Foreign Policy magazine – Russia’s fierce critic – met with the leader of Azov Battalion, an irregular force assisting Kiev to cleanse eastern Ukraine of “terrorists.” The group boasts fierce tactics, “values far from European,” and Nazi-like attributes. Azov, which has an estimated personnel of 500 people, is one of about 50 volunteer battalions formed by Maidan activists and ult [...]

Just two days after the President of Ukraine and Russia both expressed a desire to resolve the conflict in Ukraine peacefully, representatives from the two self-proclaimed republics in East Ukraine and Kiev’s government agreed to a ceasefire after meeting behind closed doors in Belarus. Interesting timing considering that on Wednesday, after his phone call with Poroshenko, President Putin p [...]