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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve lowered a key U.S. interest rate by a modest quarter percentage point on Wednesday and hinted the move could be the last in a series dating to mid-September.
However, it kept its options open and financial markets saw some chance more rate cuts could be in store.
In announcing its decision, [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A buildup in inventories kept the economy afloat in the first quarter despite the weakest consumer spending since 2001 and the biggest drop in home building in more than 26 years, a government report showed on Wednesday.
The Commerce Department said gross domestic product or GDP expanded at a 0.6 percent annual rate [...]

Russia has warned it will retaliate if Georgia uses force against its breakaway regions.
Moscow has accused Georgia of preparing to invade Abkhazia, and says it is boosting Russian forces there and in the South Ossetia region.
Georgia has reacted angrily to the Russian move, which its prime minister called “irresponsible”.
The EU also urged caution, saying to [...]

The EU will sign a pact on closer ties with Serbia on Tuesday, according to the Slovenian EU presidency.
A spokesman said the Stabilisation and Association Agreement would be signed at 1600 (1400 GMT) after a deal agreed by Belgium and the Netherlands.
Both countries insist that Belgrade fully co-operate with the Hague war crimes tribunal before [...]

The UN secretary general has said that the world organisation will set up a top-level task force to tackle the global food crisis.
Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he agreed with UN agency chiefs on a series of measures for the medium and long terms.
Ban, who will lead the task force, said the first priority [...]

The government yesterday pledged to “sternly” apply the law to Chinese demonstrators who were violent during Sunday’s Olympic torch relay.
“This matter calls for legal and principled action because it is an incident that has hurt our national pride,” Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said during the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The Justice Ministry indicated that it would punish [...]

Investigators in China say preliminary enquiries have indicated that “human error” caused a pre-dawn crash between two high-speed passenger trains that killed at least 66 people and left hundreds of others injured.
The collision early on Monday took place near the city of Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong.
The accident left at least 400 injured, [...]

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, appears increasingly unlikely to regain control of parliament after results from 13 of 23 constituencies being recounted.
Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper on Saturday reported that the ruling Zanu-PF must win nine of the remaining 10 recounts to return with an outright majority.
“I am still to receive the figures from the constituencies [...]

Israel has dismissed a conditional six-month truce proposed by Hamas, saying that it was a ruse to allow the Palestininan group to recover from losses after recent clashes with the Israeli military.
Hamas offered to halt cross-border rocket attacks if Israel opened crossing points into the Gaza strip and ended military incursions.
“Hamas is biding time in [...]

NYIMU COUNTY, China (Reuters) - China is to hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom it blames for a wave of unrest, state media reported on Friday, as the Olympic flame arrived in Japan.
The move comes after concerted pressure from the West on China to talk to [...]