FRANKFURT (AFP) - The European Central Bank held its key interest rates steady, as expected Wednesday, leaving eurozone borrowing costs where they have been since December even as the sovereign debt crisis deepens.The ECB's policy-setting governing council voted to leave the rate for its main refinancing operations unchanged at 1.0 percent at its regular policy meeting, held this month on Wednesda

South Korea and Finland have initialed a nuclear energy pact aimed at ensuring the peaceful use of atomic power and boosting bilateral cooperation in the field, Seoul's trade ministry said Monday.The agreement was reached at a bilateral meeting in Helsinki Friday between senior officials from South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Finland's Ministry of Employment and the Economy,

Thirty North Korean officials, once involved in inter-Korean talks, are believed to have been executed either by firing squad or killed in staged traffic accidents, a human rights advocacy group said Thursday.Amnesty International raised the suspicions in its annual report, citing unconfirmed reports in July. The alleged purge suggests that North Korea used the officials as scapegoats for soured i

TOKYO (AP) -- Fitch has downgraded Japan's credit rating to A-plus with a negative outlook, reflecting risks from its ballooning government debt.Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that the downgrade and negative outlook underline growing risks for Japan from high and rising public debt.Japan's gross government debt is projected to hit 239 percent of its economy by the end of this year, by far the highest

BEIJING (AFP) -- Beijing said Tuesday it was investigating the seizure of 28 Chinese fishermen by armed North Koreans, as it gave its clearest indication yet that state forces may have played a role.The men were seized as they fished in waters running between China and North Korea on May 8, and held for 13 days before they were released at the weekend, according to earlier reports.Neither country

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea is warning that it will keep developing its nuclear program if the United States continues to ``stifle'' the country.A Foreign Ministry spokesman made no direct threat Tuesday of a nuclear test but said North Korea feels compelled to strengthen its ``nuclear deterrent'' in the face of U.S. hostility.However, the spokesman said North Korea is open to dialo

ATHENS (AFP) -- Greece will have to hold fresh elections after talks on forming a new government broke up Tuesday without agreement, socialist Pasok party leader Evangelos Venizelos said."We are going again towards elections, in a few days, under very bad conditions," Venizelos said, while a statement from the president's office noted simply that efforts to form a government had failed.The talks t

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia's president has urged North Korea to keep communication channels open to prevent misunderstandings with other countries.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed tensions on the Korean peninsula Tuesday with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of North Korea's parliament.Kim is traveling in the region, apparently to drum up outside investment.His visit

BEIJING (AP) _ China criticized British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday for meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it amounts to support for Tibet's independence from Chinese rule.The British government ignored Beijing's objections in going ahead with Monday's meeting in London, and doing so "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people," meddles in China's aff

NEW YORK (AFP) - Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is countersuing the New York hotel maid whose accusation of sexual assault last year brought down his glittering political career.The countersuit, signed Monday and made public Tuesday, seeks at least $1 million plus undetermined punitive damages from the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who is accused of "falsely and maliciously asserting" sh

ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- NATO on Tuesday invited the Pakistani president to next week's summit in Chicago, as Islamabad looked poised to end a nearly six-month blockade on NATO supplies for Afghanistan, officials said.NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said President Asif Ali Zardari would take part in the second day of the summit which will focus on Afghanistan, where coalition combat troops are planning t

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's government on Tuesday defended plans to let civil servants work from home during the London Olympics, insisting staff will not use it as an opportunity to shirk their normal duties.From July 21 -- six days before the opening ceremony -- until the Paralympic closing ceremony on September 9, ministries will allow staff to work from home to avoid the widely anticipated bottle

European Union finance ministers agreed on a plan to force banks to hold more capital in a deal that gives the U.K. full powers to implement its so-called Vickers banking agenda.U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels he won assurances from other nations that the U.K. will be able to follow through on its banking agenda, which will forc

South Korean football chiefs said Tuesday they had renewed an attempt to have Brazilian midfielder Eninho of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors granted South Korean citizenship as part of World Cup preparations.The Korea Football Association (KFA) said it sent a formal request to the Korea Olympic Committee (KOC) which rules on major decisions concerning sport.Last week the KOC rejected a request for the play

NEW YORK (AFP) -- Facebook on Tuesday bumped up the price it plans to charge for shares at its stock market debut, giving the leading social network a value that could top $100 billion.Facebook will price its initial public offering (IPO) from $34 to $38 per share, instead of the previously proposed $28 to $35 range, according to paperwork filed early Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Co

OSLO (AFP) - A man set himself on fire on Tuesday outside the Oslo courthouse where Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for killing 77 people in twin attacks last July, police said.The man, whose identity was not revealed, suffered serious injuries, Norwegian police said."The man crossed the street and set himself on fire," Kjell Jan Kvarme, head of police security operations outside the courthouse

JAKARTA (Yonhap News) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has invited Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to visit his country in a letter delivered by the communist nation's number two leader, the Jakarta government said Tuesday.Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state, extended the invitation to Yudhoyono during a bilateral meeting at the presidential palace in Jakarta earli

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The eurozone logged zero growth in the first three months of the year, the EU said Tuesday, narrowly avoiding recession after a 0.3-percent contraction in the last quarter of 2011.The estimate from the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat surprised analysts who had predicted a 0.2-percent decline in economic output across the 17-nation currency area from January to March.The figure,

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria promised to stop fighting in time for Thursday's deadline for a cease-fire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan but reserved the right to respond to any aggression, a significant hedge against any end in the fighting that has convulsed the nation for more than a year.The statement came Wednesday as Annan was in Tehran to seek support for his faltering plan to stop the country'