Because Economics is Sexy...

(Reuters) – Russian and the United States sought to shield improving ties from fallout in a Cold War-style espionage case on Wednesday, while a key suspect went missing after jumping bail in Cyprus.
WORLD | RUSSIA
After initially attacking the U.S. announcement of the arrest of 10 spy suspects as “baseless and improper” — raising [...]

(Reuters) – With a series of quips and nimble sidesteps, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan deflected tough Republican questions on her views and judgment on Wednesday and sailed toward likely Senate confirmation.
POLITICS
During three days of hearings, Kagan coolly turned aside Republican criticism she would be a rubberstamp for President Barack Obama’s political agenda, without [...]

(Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a landmark overhaul of financial regulations but the Senate put off action until mid-July, delaying a final victory for President Barack Obama.
POLITICS
Still, the 237 to 192 vote in the House marked a win for Obama and his fellow Democrats, who have made the most sweeping [...]

Still a teenager, Liberian Lovetta Conto makes jewelry that is worn by the likes of Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry.
But Conto, 17, is no pampered Hollywood fashionista. She grew up in a Ghanaian refugee camp. And rather than using precious stones in her designs, Conto makes her jewelry from the casings of bullets fired during [...]

Germany’s chancellor has insisted that Europe’s leaders are making good progress in talks with the US about how to bolster fragile economic growth.
Angela Merkel told journalists at the G8 summit in Canada there was “mutual understanding” with President Barack Obama over deficit reduction plans.
[Source]

English archaeologists said Friday they are trying to figure out why 97 babies were buried around a Roman-era villa that may have been used as a brothel.
Because childbirth in Roman times was more dangerous than it is today, infant mortality was high and infant burials are common at Roman villas.
[Source]

Venezuela has nationalised a fleet of oil rigs owned by a US-based company which had been shut down in a dispute over payments.
In a statement the Venezuelan government said that seizing control of the 11 rigs was the only way to get them restarted after a year of idleness.
[Source]

Several thousand Egyptians, joined by top opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, protested on Friday what they call authorities’ systematic use of torture in the largest demonstration yet sparked by the alleged beating death of a young man by police this month.
The death of Khaled Said has become a rallying point for pro-reform activists and rights workers [...]

The former Société Générale trader Jerome Kerviel was a pawn in a mind-boggling financial system that pushed him to take risks, his lawyer Olivier Metzner argued on the last day of his trial.
Casting Mr Kerviel as a humble “Breton boy” who was corrupted by SocGen, a bank that thrived on risk, Mr Metzner told the [...]

Africa is often depicted as a place of war, disease and poverty, with a begging bowl extended to the world. A new report paints a much more optimistic portrait of a continent with growing national economies and an expanding consumer class that offers foreign investors the highest rates of return in the developing world.
In a [...]