Palestinian government employees across the West Bank were on strike on Wednesday over unpaid salaries, with the protest expected to continue into Thursday. Thousands of staff at ministries, schools and health facilities failed to show

Read More

Almost $13 million in equipment designed to upgrade Afghanistan's creaking power grid has been left mothballed in storage for lack of an installation plan, a US watchdog audit revealed Tuesday. In addition, the State Department's

Read More

Three top officials in the State Department resigned Wednesday in the wake of a scathing report which slammed "systemic failures" and "management deficiencies" in the Benghazi attack, US media said. Assistant Secretary Eric Boswell, head

Read More

The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.40 percent to close at 57,650 yuan ($9,300) a tonne on Wednesday. Copyright Reuters, 2012

Copper slipped on Wednesday due to uncertainty over the outlook for demand, increased by a fall in the number of US house building projects being started in November, while investors also kept a close watch

Read More

Oil prices rose on Wednesday as expectations a battle over the US budget will be resolved spurred optimism about crude demand in the world's top consumer. Concerns about the risk of a US recession if

Read More

Cotton rose for a third day on Tuesday as technical and fund buying pushed fibres prices to two-month highs. The most-active March cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.10 cent, or 0.13 percent,

Read More

Tokyo rubber futures edged higher on Wednesday, hovering near its strongest level in seven months, as the yen weakened and Japanese stocks rose on growing expectations of easier monetary policy under a new government. The

Read More

Wednesday's Rotterdam vegetable oil prices at 1700 GMT. SOYOIL EU degummed: euro tonne fob ex-mill December 2012 869.00 -13.00 January 2013 869.00 -13.00 February 2013/April 2013 874.00 -12.00 May 2013/July 2013 858.00 -10.00. RAPEOIL Dutch/EU:

Read More

Wednesday's Rotterdam vegetable oil prices at 1700 GMT. SOYOIL EU degummed: euro tonne fob ex-mill December 2012 869.00 -13.00 January 2013 869.00 -13.00 February 2013/April 2013 874.00 -12.00 May 2013/July 2013 858.00 -10.00. RAPEOIL Dutch/EU:

Read More