Deutsche Bank confirmed Tuesday that it is facing a possible criminal investigation into spying allegations. According to media reports, the German banking giant is accused of spying on a small group of managers and a "critical shareholder" during a probe into possible breaches of data security. The Wall Street Journal reported that Deutsche Bank has dismissed two top executives since the inquiry started, which it says has raised concerns in "a society still coming to terms with East Germany's legacy ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised India's efforts to reduce carbon emissions Sunday, but India's environment minister said the country won't agree to "legally binding" limits on greenhouse gases. Clinton toured the ITC Green Center in Gurgaon, outside the Indian capital, with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, and she praised India's efforts to boost cleaner energy. She called the center a "monument to the future" and said the United States and India can work together to reduce industrial emissions blamed ...

At $1.95 trillion, China's international reserves are more than enough to fund America's entire budget deficit next year, which the U.S. Treasury estimates will reach $1.3 trillion because of the government's massive stimulus spending. There is no direct correlation between these two numbers, but they highlight a reversal of fortune. China now has the cash to cherry-pick the world's best assets, while America has no choice but to pawn its future to finance today's needs. As it is, ...

For a quarter of a century, Russia has been Europe's single biggest gas supplier, providing about a third of all the gas the European Union uses each year. But while the gas is cheap and plentiful, this arrangement has created an energy dependence that makes the E.U. vulnerable to Moscow's shifting moods. That was the case in January, when Russia tried to settle a payment dispute with Ukraine, its main transit country, by turning off the taps. In the ...

President Obama said Friday that leaders of the industrialized nations have agreed to continue fueling economic growth while strengthening regulatory measures but they also realize that full recovery is "still a ways off." Obama listed some of the achievements of the Group of Eight summit this week in Italy as the conference neared the end, and he stressed the need for collective action. In addition, the G8 nations agreed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, set goals for reducing ...

A spate of bomb blasts killed 38 people in Iraq on Thursday, days after U.S. troops handed security control to local forces. The Formula One Teams Association, which represents eight racing outfits, issued a statement explaining its new grievance with the FIA. It said its team managers attended the Sporting Working Group at the Nurburgring in Germany on Wednesday, having resolved its differences with the FIA over the future of the world's premier motorsport at crunch talks in Paris ...

Leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations are huddling with representatives of up-and-coming powerhouses to tackle global warming at an economic summit Thursday in Italy. U.S. President Barack Obama will lead the Major Economies Forum at the Group of Eight meetings in L'Aquila. The forum is a climate-centered group whose members represent the G-8 nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- along with Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Those nations account ...

Michael Jackson's dermatologist said Wednesday that he was not surprised to learn that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in the singer's home -- adding that he had warned Jackson about their danger repeatedly. "I'm very shocked by it, but I have to tell you it's not something that would be unheard of," Dr. Arnold Klein said in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live." Klein is the latest in a growing series of Jackson associates who have tied ...

Well, it was big. The biggest ever Probably not. Tuesday's memorial service for Michael Jackson was expected to set some high marks for viewership -- and it did. But, based on information gathered by various meter-readers, it was no moon landing or Princess Diana funeral -- events whose audiences, by some reckonings, pushed 1 billion viewers. In the United States, the Jackson memorial aired during the late morning and afternoon, when most people are working. Nielsen, the television ratings service, ...

Leaders of the world's most powerful economies pledged to seek huge cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions at a summit in Italy on Wednesday. The Group of Eight leaders said they would "join a global response to achieve a 50 percent reduction in global emissions by 2050 and to a goal of an aggregate 80 percent or more reduction by developed countries by that date." The goal mirrors one adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives last month. Despite the ...