PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande will aim to balance French concerns over Russia's human rights record with a push to boost trade ties during a debut Moscow visit on Thursday that could prove a diplomatic obstacle course. An encounter in Paris last June between the newly-elected Socialist Hollande and Russia's Vladimir Putin bristled with tension, unlike the cozy meetings between Putin and Hollande's conservative predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac. ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has canceled a dinner with German chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck after the center-left politician called former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo a pair of "clowns". A spokesman for Steinbrueck said Napolitano, who is on an official visit to Germany, had called off a dinner scheduled for Wednesday in Berlin. The spokesman said Steinbrueck understood the Italian president's reasons for cancelling. ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea accused the United States on Wednesday of contributing to an "unpredictable" situation on the divided Korean peninsula and abusing its power in the U.N. Security Council to impose its "hostile policy" against Pyongyang. North Korea is facing further U.N. sanctions for its underground nuclear test explosion two weeks ago, its biggest and most powerful to date which prompted warnings from Washington. In December it launched a long-range rocket. "The U.S. ...

ZURICH (Reuters) - Three people, including the suspected assailant, have been killed in a shooting at a factory near the Swiss city of Lucerne, police said on Wednesday. Seven others were injured in the attack which happened just after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) at a wood processing company in the town of Menznau, west of Lucerne, the police said in a statement. Emergency services were at the scene and the area had been cordoned off. A news conference is due at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT). ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's defense minister said on Wednesday he did not believe a denial from Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland that it paid any bribes to swing a $750 million chopper deal. Defense minister A.K. Antony said the company had responded to a show cause notice demanding an explanation of accusations by Italian prosecutors that millions of euros in kickbacks were paid before the deal was clinched. "They have replied. They have denied the whole thing. We don't believe it," Antony said during a parliamentary debate. ...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - After a freeze that lasted more than two decades, Iraq's state airline on Wednesday launched its first flight to Kuwait since former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invaded the neighboring nation in 1990. Iraq's foreign and transport ministers traveled on the symbolic Iraqi Airways flight, hailed by officials as a sign of improving relations between the oil-producing neighbors, and they were greeted by Kuwaiti officials upon landing. The Iraqi transport ministry said there would now be regular flights between the countries. ...

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is to start peace talks with Muslim rebel groups operating in the south, a senior security official said on Wednesday, signaling a possible breakthrough in a conflict that has claimed over 5,000 lives. The rebel groups have never clearly stated their demands since the insurgency flared up in 2004 but they are thought to want more autonomy or a separate state in a region that was part of a Malay sultanate until annexed by Thailand in 1909. "This is the first step. ...

Most Americans think both Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress are mishandling government spending – but, on the brink of across-the-board budget cuts, it’s the GOP that receives disproportionately more flak, including from its own partisan and ideological base. While 52 percent of adults...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 200 businesses will urge the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down a federal law that restricts the definition of marriage to heterosexual unions. Lawyers representing the businesses said they would file a brief in the case. Companies including Microsoft Corp, Google Inc, Starbucks Corp and Pfizer Inc are among those that joined the brief. Others included Aetna Inc, Amazon.com, Inc and Citigroup Inc. Thomson Reuters Corp is another signatory. The Reuters news agency is part of Thomson Reuters. ...

SOFIA (Reuters) - Outgoing Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has been hospitalized with high blood pressure, officials said on Wednesday, adding to a sense of political limbo before an interim government is appointed to take the country to early elections. Borisov resigned last week after two weeks of sometimes violent protests by tens of thousands accusing the government of being a "Mafia" due to rampant corruption and its failure to improve living standards in the European Union's poorest state. ...

BARCELONA (Reuters) - South Korean telecom executives have a message for European cousins who have long looked on in envy at the highly connected Asian market: Be careful what you wish for. South Korea, the world's most wired country with 30 percent of its 50 million mobile users on superfast networks, has inspired many European operators ahead of their own rollout of networks based on LTE, or fourth-generation technology. ...

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda will allow independent figures to take over the most important ministries in the next government, its leader said on Wednesday, in a concession to the non-Islamist opposition. "We confirm the neutralization of the four departments of sovereignty, including the Interior Ministry, which will not be under political parties," Rached Ghannouchi said. President Moncef Marzouki on Friday asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh to form a government within 15 days, following the resignation of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali. ...