US regulators failed to catch Bernard Madoff’s huge fraud in 2006 because they asked the wrong questions and did not perform ‘accounting 101’, the financier told the authorities earlier this year ...

The Obama administration has sent six Uighur Chinese detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to the Pacific island nation of Palau ...

The $787bn US stimulus package has created or saved 650,000 jobs so far, according to a vast swathe of data set to be released ...

Creditors of CIT voted overwhelming to support a prepackaged bankruptcy protection filing, ending months of uncertainty for the troubled US commercial lender ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s election rival Abdullah Abdullah will announce whether he will take part in next week’s disputed run-off vote, his campaign said after speculation mounted he will pull out. ...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failedto persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume talks with Israel, a spokesman for Mr Abbas said, citing Jewish settlements as a stumbling block ...

The EU has proposed that rich countries should transfer up to €50bn a year by 2020 to help developing countries fight climate change, but stopped short of stating how much it was willing to contribute ...

BP still has ‘systemic safety’ issues four years after an explosion at its Texas refinery killed 15 people and injured 170, the US government said as it issued a record $87.4m in proposed fines on the UK oil group ...

The German authorities’ warrant for Mr Kiener’s arrest, seen by the Financial Times, alleges that he defrauded several banks using offshore entities and circular investments that, unknown to the banks, he controlled or had links to ...

Investors are having to hone their deciphering skills to interpret the actions of central banks, writes Aline van Duyn ...