Reuters

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's parliamentary speaker signed into law on Monday a bill on "foreign agents" that has caused a political crisis in the South Caucasus country and drawn sharp criticism from its Western allies.

The dispute around the law is a test of whether Georgia, for three decades among the more pro-Western of the Soviet Union's successor states, will maintain its Western orientation or move closer to Russia.

Parliamentary... (continue reading...)

LONDON (Reuters) - The long-running downturn in euro zone manufacturing may have turned a corner last month, according to a survey which showed new orders declined at their slowest pace in two years, leading to improved business confidence.

HCOB's final euro zone manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, rose to 47.3 in May from April's 45.7, below the 50 mark denoting growth in activity for a 23rd month. It was just shy... (continue reading...)

GENEVA (Reuters) - The El Nino weather pattern that can cause extreme events such as wildfires and tropical cyclones is forecast to swing back into generally cooler La Nina conditions later this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

El Nino is a naturally occurring warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific, while La Nina is characterised by cold ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific... (continue reading...)

BERLIN (Reuters) - The downturn in Germany's manufacturing sector, which accounts for about a fifth of Europe's biggest economy, showed signs of bottoming out in May as output and new orders declined at a much slower pace than the month before, a survey showed on Monday.

The HCOB final Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for German manufacturing rose to 45.4 in May from 42.5 in April, confirming a preliminary flash estimate and still below the 50 level... (continue reading...)

DUBAI (Reuters) - Forced displacement has pushed over a million people away from the Gazan city of Rafah, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday.

The small city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip had been sheltering around 1 million Palestinians who fled Israeli assaults on other parts of the enclave, aid groups said.

Since early May, Israel's military has been carrying out what it says is a limited... (continue reading...)