By Ioan Grillo VALLECILLO, Mexico | Wed May 23, 2012 7:06am EDT VALLECILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican government forces had bottled up a band of enemy fighters in this tiny village late last year, but feared they would escape into the dusty, rock-strewn hills. So more than 600 soldiers and federal police closed in from all directions with armored Humvees and helicopters. The outlaws responded with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault-rifle fire, tearing apart one federal police vehicle. For three days the fighting raged.In the end, according to military accounts of the battle, 22 members of the Zetas drug cartel, two police officers and a soldier were dead, and 20 Zetas were in custody. Dozens more escaped to fight another day.The battle ... Continue reading →

By Daniel Bases NEW YORK | Wed May 23, 2012 1:02am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - If any other European countries were to follow Greece into a debt default, Athens can recommend a lawyer. Lee Buchheit crafted the restructuring deal that cut Greek debt by 100 billion euros and inflicted huge losses on bondholders in March.Over the last 30 years, presidents and finance ministers have turned to Buchheit, 61, more than any other lawyer to help call off creditors when their governments run out of money.His clients love him because he can help wipe away billions of dollars of debt. His legal opponents - bond investors, some of them so-called vulture funds - hate him for the same reason.In addition to Greece, the folders stacked ... Continue reading →

By Glenn Somerville WASHINGTON | Wed May 23, 2012 2:10am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wanted for the Treasury Department: a new boss who can fix trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits, overhaul the tax system and spur a reluctant Europe into fixing its debt crisis. It's a tall order, especially when the new Treasury chief also must deal with a fractious Congress - and all for a salary lower than that paid to many junior Wall Street bankers.Economists, investors and veterans of past administrations are appraising potential successors to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, either in a new Obama administration, if President Barack Obama is re-elected, or under Mitt Romney.Geithner has made it clear that he is leaving the post he has held since January 2009 even if Obama, ... Continue reading →

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Tue May 22, 2012 4:47pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - In its three days of trading, Facebook's stock has dropped 18 percent from its $38 issue price. For the thousands of investors that bought at the IPO, that's bad enough, but one analysis of its earnings prospects suggests it could get a lot worse - more like $10 a share. Setting aside the hype and the cultural phenomenon that is the online networking site, Facebook Inc would be fairly priced at $9.59, according to the smattering of Wall Street estimates analyzed and modeled by Thomson Reuters StarMine.Data from six brokerages modeled by StarMine forecast the company's estimated annualized earnings growth over the next 10 years at 10.8 percent. That's ... Continue reading →

Didier Drogba Swivels and unleashes an unstoppable shot to beat Pepe Reina at Stamford Bridge. Continue reading →

By Noah Barkin BERLIN | Mon May 21, 2012 6:29pm EDT BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel returns from one of her most difficult foreign trips in recent memory on Tuesday to face more, severe tests of her long-standing command over the policy agenda in Germany and Europe. The chancellor looked unusually isolated at a weekend G8 meeting in Camp David, where new French President Francois Hollande teamed up with host Barack Obama to push back against the bitter austerity medicine Merkel has prescribed for reeling euro zone members.That conflict will continue to haunt her this week at an informal summit of EU leaders on Wednesday and at a meeting with German opposition leaders the following day, where she must defuse an escalating row that could ... Continue reading →

By Andy Sullivan and Peter Apps NAVARRE, Ohio/WASHINGTON | Thu May 17, 2012 1:05am EDT NAVARRE, Ohio/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The busy shop floor at Miller Weldmaster Corp could make a great location for an Obama campaign ad. As workers assemble the family-owned company's hot-air fabric welders, used to manufacture everything from inflatable rafts to truck tarps, it's hard to know the recession of 2007-2009 ever happened.Ten clocks on the wall of the plant in Navarre, Ohio, show local time from Norway to New Zealand and tell Miller Weldmaster's comeback story in a word: exports. Sixty percent of the company's business now comes from outside the United States.Manufacturing growth, surging exports: These are central promises of Obama's reelection bid, especially in blue-collar industrial states that could ... Continue reading →

By Harry Papachristou and Peter Graff ATHENS | Thu May 17, 2012 5:15pm EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout, a poll showed on Thursday, offering potential salvation for European leaders who say a snap Greek election next month will decide whether it must quit the euro. The poll, the first conducted since talks to form a government collapsed and a new election was called for June 17, showed the conservative New Democracy party in first place, several points ahead of the radical leftist SYRIZA which has pledged to tear up the bailout.EU leaders say that without the bailout, Greece would be headed for certain bankruptcy and ejection from the common currency, which would sow financial ... Continue reading →

By Luciana Lopez Sun May 6, 2012 1:08pm EDT (Reuters) - Working for one of the world's best-known architecture firms, Norman Morgan and Brent Sparks were used to new business landing on their desks. But when the financial crisis struck in 2008, they abandoned the Fort Worth office of HKS Inc, jumped into Morgan's Ford pick-up truck and began to criss-cross the back lands of Texas, looking for any kind of jobs for the firm.On their road-trip, they knocked on the doors of rural Texas hospitals they spotted from the highway, often with no appointment. Architects from rival firms were also on the ground, trying to drum up new clients.Around the United States, architecture firms faced a stark choice during the credit crisis that had ... Continue reading →

By Luciana Lopez Sun May 6, 2012 1:08pm EDT (Reuters) - Working for one of the world's best-known architecture firms, Norman Morgan and Brent Sparks were used to new business landing on their desks. But when the financial crisis struck in 2008, they abandoned the Fort Worth office of HKS Inc, jumped into Morgan's Ford pick-up truck and began to criss-cross the back lands of Texas, looking for any kind of jobs for the firm.On their road-trip, they knocked on the doors of rural Texas hospitals they spotted from the highway, often with no appointment. Architects from rival firms were also on the ground, trying to drum up new clients.Around the United States, architecture firms faced a stark choice during the credit crisis that had ... Continue reading →