U.S. trade gap narrows sharply in February to $46 billion

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in February as exports hit a record high, imports from China and other key suppliers declined and oil import volume fell to the lowest in 15 years, a government report showed on Thursday. The monthly trade gap shrank 12.4 percent to $46.0 billion, the biggest month-to-month decline since May 2009, the Commerce Department report said. Analysts surveyed before the report had expected the deficit to narrow only slightly from January's revised estimate of $52.5 billion. U.S. exports edged slightly higher to a record $181. ...

Banker due back in court in cabbie hate crime case

STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - William Bryan Jennings, the Morgan Stanley investment banker accused of a hate crime in the stabbing of an Egyptian-born taxi driver over a fare, was due back in a Connecticut court on Thursday. The charges against Jennings, who was placed on leave from his job as co-head of U.S. bond underwriting the day of his February 29 arrest, stem from a December 2011 incident when Jennings got into a cab in New York City after drinking at a Morgan Stanley holiday party. According to authorities, taxi driver Mohamed Ammar, an Egyptian-born U.S. ...

Insight: Russia says no to West's way with HIV (Reuters)

Reuters - In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev said heroin was a threat to Russia's national security. This year, Russia pledged to finance programs to reduce the harm done by drug use, including an HIV crisis that is one of the most severe in the world.

World's YouTube clips wow Berlin film festival (AFP)

AFP - On a single day last year, ordinary people from 192 countries made a short movie and uploaded it to YouTube. The result: a touching global "day in the life" that has wowed the Berlin film festival.