GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices violated international law. "Israel must, in compliance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions. It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the OPT (occupied Palestinian territories)," said a report by the inquiry led by French judge Christine Chanet. ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A leading Egyptian Islamic scholar brought together rival politicians on Thursday in a bid to ease a crisis that has triggered street violence killing more than 50 people, saying dialogue was the only way to resolve differences. The meeting at Al-Azhar university and mosque, a respected seat of Sunni Islamic learning, brought together members of the Muslim Brotherhood - the Islamist group that propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power - with the president's most vocal opponents. It was the first such meeting since the latest wave of violence erupted a week ago. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain's ruling People's Party denied on Thursday that the party made payments from business donors to the premier and other party leaders after a newspaper published what it said were secret party accounts. El Pais published images of excerpts of almost two decades of handwritten accounts that it said were maintained by People's Party treasurers, showing donations from companies, mostly builders, and regular payments of thousands of euros to Rajoy and other party leaders. ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States should implement Basel III bank capital rules in the same way as Europe does, at the beginning of 2014, the European Union official in charge of regulation said. "It is essential that the United States and Brasil and Russia apply the same rules that we decided together. It is a condition for world financial stability, not only for the G20, but for global stability," Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for financial services, told a conference on Thursday. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - A Hong Kong-based firm that attempted to sell embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator has much closer ties to China's Huawei Technologies than was previously known, corporate records show. Cathy Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, served on the board of Hong Kong-based Skycom Tech Co Ltd between February 2008 and April 2009, according to Skycom records filed with Hong Kong's Companies Registry. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek trains and ferries ground to a halt and hospital staffing was cut to a minimum on Thursday as transport workers and doctors went on strike to protest austerity measures demanded by the country's foreign lenders. Greece has seen a surge in protests and strikes in recent weeks as public anger simmers over wage and spending cuts that are deepening hardship in a country suffering through its sixth consecutive year of recession. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's finance minister is putting welfare, defence and road projects on the chopping block in a last-ditch attempt to hit a tough fiscal deficit target by March, risking short-term economic growth and angering cabinet colleagues. The cuts will reduce spending by about 1.1 trillion Indian rupees ($20.6 billion) in the current financial year, some 8 percent of budgeted outlay, or roughly 1 percent of estimated gross domestic product, two senior finance ministry officials and a senior government adviser told Reuters. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China needs to move beyond a narrow focus on oil issues in South Sudan and help tackle that country's larger political disputes with Sudan, the outgoing U.S. special envoy to the two African states said on Wednesday. Ambassador Princeton Lyman said he had worked closely with Chinese officials for more than two years, during which time South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 to become the world's newest nation. ...