National / International News

Supporters rounded up more than enough votes to block a bid by some Republicans to filibuster the package. The legislation appears headed for a vote sometime next week.

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A bid to find a buyer for a meat processing plant on Anglesey fails, with 310 people told they are out of work.

Malawi has accused US singer Madonna of "bullying state officials" after she reportedly complained about her treatment on a visit to the country

The parents of Rehteah Parsons, who they say killed herself after being raped and cyberbullied, claim Canadian police haven't investigated her case properly.

The Egyptian economy is teetering. Since the revolution two years ago, the main-stay tourism industry has struggled, and the amount of foreign currency in the country is drying up. Egypt relies on foreign currency, particularly the U.S. dollar, to subsidize cheap fuel and bread for its people. So now the Egyptian government is telling banks they can no longer sell dollars.

Before the revolution, when there were still lots of tourists and investors in Egypt, the country's foreign reserves were $36 billion. Today they are less than $13.5 billion. So dollars are scarce in the traditional places, but on the street, it's a different story.

Just blocks from the Cairo stock exchange, you see men looking back and forth nervously, repeating one word under their breath to passers-by: "Zarafa, zarafa, zarafa…”

Exchange, exchange, exchange, they say. If you have dollars they will buy and sell them, for a premium. My friend Hossam Minnea has 1,000 bucks to exchange and within minutes of us walking onto the street, Hossam is handed 7,200 Egyptian pounds -- about a 6 percent premium over the official exchange rate.

I ask Hossam if he got a good deal. He sighs, "It’s a good under the table, but in general, for my country -- it’s not a good deal!"

Hossam says the fact he can get this deal so easily on the street is a sign of just how bad things are in Egypt. Everyone I spoke to for this story knows someone who is going into the gray economy to get dollars. 

The guy buying Hossam’s dollars isn’t some shady crook. He’s an importer of toys from China and he needs dollars to get his shipments. He started working the informal exchanges on the streets a month ago.

In a wealthy neighborhood on the other side of town, the Genghiskhan Chinese Restaurant now has big sign on the wall announcing, “We are buying USD!” Yu Shikuh’s family owns the restaurant. She says they’re paying a premium of about 3 percent over the official exchange rate.

Yu needs the dollars to send to her mom in China. Her mom is using the cash to buy food and supplies for a new restaurant in Cairo, including a new karaoke machine. Yu says at the same time her family needs to pay extra for dollars, they’re make less profit on the restaurant because rising inflation has pushed food price higher.

While I was talking to Yu the power went out in the restaurant. It’s part of rolling black outs the government is staging because it doesn’t have the foreign currency to buy enough imported fuel for power stations.  

Yu gathers some candles and starts putting them on the tables.

Despite all the problems Yu says she and her family plan to stay in the country, but like many Egyptians, she wonders how much worse it will get, before it gets better. 

A border station linking a Mexican village called Boquillos to a U.S. national park has opened in west Texas. Before it was sealed, the border had been an abstract, one that people on either side ignored. When it closed, Boquillas's economy and residents felt it hard.

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A man who fell to his death in west London from the undercarriage of an aeroplane is identified after more than six months.

Nick Clegg is attacked by a midwife on live radio over government promises to tackle a shortage in the profession in England.

A nearly 14 percent drop in first-quarter sales of PCs is attributed in large part to interest in mobile devices — as well as a lukewarm reaction Microsoft's latest operating system.

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Will benefit cuts widen 'prosperity gap'? asks Mark Easton

The central bank made a mistake. It sent minutes from its most recent policy meeting to a small group of influential institutions, including some major banks, a day earlier than scheduled. But the minutes are always weeks old. Why are they important? Because they contain clues to the Fed's thinking.

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Bangladesh pro-opposition newspaper editor Mahmudur Rahman has been arrested on several charges including sedition, police say.

A Michael Jackson impersonator once crowned Britain's Best Dad weeps in court as he is sentenced for attacking his wife.

France's top rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, resigns after admitting plagiarising several authors and faking an academic status on his CV.

Ljubisa Bogdanovic, suspected of killing 13 people in a Serbian village before turning his gun on himself, has died of his wounds, hospital officials say.

People with diabetes are being urged to check their blood glucose meters after a potentially dangerous fault was identified in two models.

The administration's budget still matters, even though it's late and the House and Senate have approved their own spending blueprints for fiscal 2014. President Obama laid down markers that could lead to changes in Medicare and Medicaid and affect funding for a broad array of health programs.

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About 3.4 million vehicles produced since 2000 are subject to the recall due to faulty airbag inflators.

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Nigeria should consider imposing the death penalty on convicted rapists, says Zainab Maina, the country's women's affairs minister.

A landmark bridge opened by fashion designer Julien Macdonald in his home town is forced to close after metal thieves steal sections of it.