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Tell the truth, Auschwitz survivor urges accused in Nazi trials | Reuters

BERLIN A Holocaust survivor said on Tuesday that four suspects accused by German prosecutors of being accessory to murder at Auschwitz must have known of the mass killings taking place at the camp because of the "unbearable stench" of burning bodies. Germany is holding what are likely to be its last trials linked to the Holocaust, in which more than six million people, mostly Jews, were killed by the Nazis

Explosion at Christian group building in Canberra, staff unhurt - media | Reuters

SYDNEY, A vehicle carrying gas bottles was driven into the headquarters of a Christian lobby group in the Australian capital of Canberra, causing an explosion, local media reported on Thursday.Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby Group, tweeted a photograph of a burned out van and said that no staff were injured. “A vehicle has rammed our office in Canberra & exploded all staff are safe,” he posted on Twitter "I do not know the condition of the driver

German police search migrant shelter near Netherlands border - media | Reuters

BERLIN German police have begun searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the truck attack in Berlin is believed to have lived, a newspaper said on Wednesday.Rheinische Post said the shelter is in the town of Emmerich, which lies some 140 kilometres (87 miles) north of the city of Cologne, near the border with the Netherlands. (Reporting by Paul Carrel; Writing by Joseph Nasr)

Headaches, insects and yachts; excuses for not filing British tax returns | Reuters

LONDON "My tax return was on my yacht ... which caught fire" - just one of the dozens of unusual excuses the British government's tax collector said it receives each year from customers who fail to complete their returns on time."A wasp in my car caused me to have an accident and my tax return, which was inside, was destroyed," was another, while several blamed children, partners or colleagues for inadvertently destroying their forms."It's easy to see that some excuses for not completing a tax return on time can be more questionable than others," said Ruth Owen, HMRC Director General of Customer Services."But there will always be help and support available for those who have a genuine excuse for not submitting their return on time," she added in a statement

Trauma of Islamic State rule follows Iraqi women out of Mosul | Reuters

By Stephen Kalin | KHAZIR, Iraq KHAZIR, Iraq One wrong word to an Islamic State fighter in Mosul last year was all it took to set in motion a harrowing chain of events for an Iraqi woman who became so traumatised that she trembled in fear even after escaping the group's control.The widowed mother was being vetted to receive a pension from the ultra-hardline Islamists a few months after they seized the northern city in 2014 and turned it into the Iraqi capital of their self-styled caliphate."I made the mistake of telling them my husband had been a victim of terrorism," she said in an interview on Tuesday at a government-run camp in Khazir, east of Mosul.

RBI rate panel focuses more on inflation, plays down growth worry | Reuters

By Suvashree Choudhury | MUMBAI MUMBAI Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee (MPC) has shifted its focus towards inflation while playing down concern about economic growth, minutes from its meeting this month showed on Wednesday.RBI's six-member MPC decided unanimously to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.25 percent on Dec. 7, instead of delivering a 25 basis points cut expected by a majority of analysts.The minutes showed that all members of the committee considered that the impact on growth of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation of large denomination bank notes would be transitory.They all expressed concern about the rising risk of inflation from global oil prices, as well as domestic non-oil and non-food inflation.The government announced on Nov.

Modi losing friends as anger grows over Indian cash crackdown | Reuters

By Rupam Jain | NEW DELHI NEW DELHI A leading political ally of Narendra Modi has abruptly distanced himself from the Indian prime minister's move to scrap high-value banknotes, as broad initial support for the radical monetary reform showed signs of crumbling.The shift by N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, came six weeks after Modi announced to a stunned nation that he would scrap 86 percent of the cash in circulation.While Modi remains by far India's most popular politician, any crack in his authority could have negative implications in state elections next year that will set the tone for his expected bid for a second term in 2019.Naidu's regional party is allied to Modi's nationalists and he heads a central committee set up to find ways to soften the impact on ordinary people of the crackdown against tax evaders, racketeers and bribe takers who rely on so-called "black cash"."I am breaking my head daily but we are unable to find a solution to this problem," Naidu told party workers on Tuesday in the city of Vijayawada. Modi, announcing the reform on November 8, cautioned that people would face temporary hardship

Economic 'shock' from Indian cash ban to last until March - Bibek Debroy | Reuters

By Tommy Wilkes and Douglas Busvine | NEW DELHI NEW DELHI The negative shock from India's ban on high-value banknotes will last until the end of March but improved growth next year should fully compensate for the loss, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Reuters.Bibek Debroy, a member of the government's main policy think tank, said on Wednesday the "demonetisation" drive would improve the fiscal position and urged the government to spend any extra revenue on public investment.By outlawing all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in the surprise Nov.

Nike's revenue beats estimates | Reuters

Nike Inc (NKE.N), the world's No. 1 footwear maker, reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by higher demand from Western Europe, Greater China and emerging markets. The company's shares were up 4 percent at $53.89 in after-market trading on Tuesday.

Bolivia says airline, pilot responsible for plane crash | Reuters

LA PAZ A Bolivian government investigation into the plane crash that killed dozens of Brazilian soccer players last month concluded that a Bolivian airline and pilot were directly responsible, Public Works Minister Milton Claros said on Tuesday.The pilot, Miguel Quiroga, was one of 71 people killed when a plane operated by the Bolivia-based charter apparently ran out of fuel and crashed on a wooded hillside near the Colombian city Medellin.