Luxembourg

US-Russian deal on nukes could build momentum, trust on other key nuclear issues. Nearly a year after President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered negotiators to work on a new treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals, the two countries say they are finally close to completing a deal.

Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will be among the big names missing when the Tour of Catalunya provides an early season tester to the stage race specialists this week.

Blase about triple-A: Will US lose its top credit rating? Bigger worry: Investor indifference. It's the financial equivalent of a high medal count at the Olympics or a seat on the U.N. Security Council ? a triple-A credit rating, the seal of approval that lets investors know a country's bonds are safe.

Google likely to win EU ad battle, but experts say the fight with brand-owners will go on. Google looks likely to win a European high court battle over how it uses keywords in advertising ? but legal experts say the issue is likely to keep rattling the search giant.

French is on the rise in Africa but the language of Moliere is still losing ground to English in global venues, the Francophonie group of countries warned ahead of a weekend gathering.

Greece should be prepared to declare itself insolvent if it cannot repay its debts, a director of the German central bank said in remarks published Friday, signalling a hard line against help for heavily indebted EU countries.

EU financial chief says banks should pay into a fund to wind up troubled banks. The European Union's finance executive called Friday for banks to pay into a fund that could be drawn upon in case of collapse, an effort to shield taxpayers from the fallout of future crises.

SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - Google Inc <GOOG.O> could win a widely expected victory next week in Europe's top court and still face many more battles over keyword advertising, the backbone of its Internet business model.

The comments of a retired US general that openly gay troops were to blame for the massacre at Srebrenica have angered the Dutch. The comments of a retired US general that openly gay troops were to blame for the massacre at Srebrenica have angered the Dutch. Marine Corps General John J. Sheehan, the former Supreme Allied Commander for NATO, made his remarks Thursday at a key Senate panel looking into repeal of ?don't ask, don't tell,? the 1993 policy that bans open gay service. Sheehan told senators that the integration of gay soldiers by various European countries ? Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands included ? was to blame for a loss of combat readiness. ?They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialize their military ? that includes the unionization of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality. That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war,? he said. Sheehan went on to explain that the Dutch peacekeeping force assigned to protect the Bosnian ?

Retired general says gays made Dutch army weak, partly to blame for 1995 genocide in Bosnia. A retired U.S. general says Dutch troops failed to defend against the 1995 genocide in the Bosnian war because the army was weakened, partly because it included openly gay soldiers.

Winners in 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest. The 2010 World Cheese Championship Cheese Contest concluded Thursday with the crowning of the world champion in Madison, Wis. Here's a list of the top three finishers, along with the winning cheese producer in each of the 79 categories judged. The list includes the state or country of origin.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU finance ministers backed plans on Tuesday by countries in the euro area to help debt-stricken Greece financially if it becomes the first state in 11 years of monetary union to seek such aid.

Europe insisted Tuesday that a contingency plan to save Greece from bankruptcy with emergency loans was only prudent foresight and unlikely to be enacted, as Athens pushed for concrete details.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU finance ministers backed plans on Tuesday by countries in the euro area to help debt-stricken Greece financially if it becomes the first state in 11 years of monetary union to seek such aid.

European finance ministers were on Tuesday poring over last-resort eurozone plans to rescue Greece if necessary with billions of euros in crisis loans at dissuasively high interest rates.

European finance ministers were on Tuesday poring over last-resort eurozone plans to rescue Greece if necessary with billions of euros in crisis loans at dissuasively high interest rates.

The world's biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal said Tuesday it plans to build a 130-million-dollar steel plant in Kurdish northern Iraq in partnership with the Turkish company Dayen.

European finance ministers will on Tuesday be given the fine-print of a eurozone plan to rescue Greece with billions of euros in crisis loans if budget surgery hits complications.

Euro finance ministers on Monday agreed to terms under which they would offer a multi-billion-euro rescue for Greece, whose debt crisis has presented risks for the European single currency.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Finance ministers from the 16-country euro zone agreed on Monday to mobilize financial aid for Greece rapidly if needed but revealed little of how their standby plan for the debt-stricken nation would work.