United States

• Saturday, May 31st 2014 - 07:03 UTC

  US Chamber of Commerce delegation on potential business tour of Cuba

  

  A delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce has begun its first visit to Cuba in 15 years. Chamber president Thomas Donohue said he was in Cuba to assess the economic changes taking place under President Raul Castro.

• Friday, May 30th 2014 - 05:06 UTC

  Stanley Fischer sworn in as member of the US Federal Reserve

  

  Former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer was sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve's board this week, buttressing the U.S. central bank's depleted policymaking ranks as officials map out plans to exit from their extraordinary stimulus.

• Friday, May 30th 2014 - 04:59 UTC

  Cold weather shrinks US economy growth in the first quarter

  

  The US economy shrank by an annualized 1% in the first three months of 2014, official estimates have shown. It is the worst economic performance since the first quarter of 2011 and a big fall on the 2.6% rise in economic output in the final quarter of last year.

• Thursday, May 29th 2014 - 06:00 UTC

  US Lower House approves legislation to impose sanctions on Venezuela

  

  The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday, to impose sanctions on Venezuelans responsible for human rights abuses during anti-government protests, despite Obama administration worries that they could threaten talks seeking to ease the unrest.

• Tuesday, May 27th 2014 - 09:33 UTC

  IMF Lagarde calls on central banks to cooperate on policy moves

  

  As the United States Federal Reserve debates the timing of its first interest rate hike since 2006, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde is urging central banks to cooperate on policy moves.

• Saturday, May 24th 2014 - 00:37 UTC

  The California shale bubble just burst

  

  The great hype surrounding the advent of a shale gas bonanza in California may turn out to be just that: hype. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – the statistical arm of the Department of Energy – has downgraded its estimate of the total amount of recoverable oil in the Monterey Shale by a whopping 96%. Its previous estimate pegged the recoverable resource in California’s shale formation at 13.7 billion barrels but it now only thinks that there are 600 million barrels available.

• Friday, May 23rd 2014 - 10:50 UTC

  Protesting McDonald's workers arrested in Chicago; labor pay debate beginning to brew in US

  

  More than 100 demonstrators seeking better pay for McDonald's workers were arrested on Thursday as protesters swarmed the fast-food chain's corporate campus near Chicago demanding a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and the right to unionize.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2014 - 00:31 UTC

  Fed minutes confirm a retreat from easy monetary policy; concerns regarding job creation

  

  Federal Reserve policymakers last month began laying groundwork for an eventual retreat from easy monetary policy with a discussion of how to best control interest rates as they remove trillions of dollars from the financial system.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2014 - 07:10 UTC

  Mosquito-borne Chikunguna cases reported in Miami

  

  The viral mosquito-borne disease, Chikunguna, has been confirmed in three counties of the state of Florida. According to the Florida Department of Health, the women who recently travelled to the Caribbean include a 29-year-old from Broward County.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2014 - 06:23 UTC

  China protests US claims of cyber spying and warns of ‘harmed relations’

  

  China has summoned the US ambassador who had accused five Chinese military officers of hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets, warning Washington it could take further action, the foreign ministry has said.