Switzerland buries U.S. tax law, banks seen at risk 12:21pm EDT

BERNE - Swiss lawmakers dealt a death blow on Wednesday to a draft law which aimed to protect the country's banks from criminal charges in the United States for helping wealthy Americans evade tax.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen following a security handover ceremony at a military academy outside Kabul June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Afghanistan to shun U.S. talks with Taliban

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not join U.S. peace talks with the Taliban until they were led by Afghans and would suspend negotiations with the United States on a troop pact.  Full Article | Video 

Hassan Jazera, one of the leaders of the Ghurabaa al-sham brigade, aims a mounted weapon on a pick-up truck at Aleppo's district of al Sakhour June 15, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

Syria's Islamists seize control, moderates dither

ALEPPO, Syria - During a 10-day journey through rebel-held territory in Syria, Reuters found that radical Islamist units are sidelining more moderate groups that do not share the Islamists’ goal of establishing a supreme religious leadership in the country.  Full Article 

A rebel from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) near the town of Toribio in Colombia’s southwestern province of Cauca, July 11, 2012. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

Colombia peace hinges on drug corridors

As the Colombian government and FARC hold ongoing peace talks in Havana to end Latin America's longest-running insurgency, it will be in rebel fiefdoms like Cauca where peace will be hardest to build and hardest won.  Full Article 

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), British Prime Minister David Cameron (C) and President Barack Obama take part in a group photo for the G8 Summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Putin basks in isolation over Syria

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland/MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin scowled, lectured and fidgeted while resisting the forced bonhomie of the two-day G8 summit with the leaders of world's richest nations and relishing his isolation.  Full Article 

Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) U.S. Army General Keith Alexander testifies before a U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on recently disclosed NSA surveillance programs, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington June 18, 2013.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

NSA head, lawmakers defend spying programs

WASHINGTON - The head of the National Security Agency said U.S. surveillance programs had helped disrupt more than 50 possible attacks since September 11, 2001, as members of Congress also defended the use of the top-secret spying operations.  Full Article 

A sign is seen advertising a weekly rental location in Williston, North Dakota March 14, 2013. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Fed seen keeping monthly pace of bond buying

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve policymakers will likely announce on Wednesday that they will keep buying bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion, while keeping their options open to scale back the program later this year if the labor market continues to improve.  Full Article 

Breakingviews: Sprint to the finish line

June 19 - Breakingviews columnists say SoftBank and Sprint may seem closer to a deal since Dish abandoned its bid, but the satellite TV provider’s interest in Clearwire could still stir trouble.

Nicholas Wapshott

David Cameron takes on the tax havens

There is nothing more likely to spark anger than an unfair tax regime. That puts Britain's prime minister David Cameron, who like most conservatives believes in low taxes, in a bind.  Commentary 

John Lloyd

Trusting in our new security state

To adapt to our new surveillance status quo we have to trust the state, the government, the politicians, the businesses, the bureaucracies, the police, the security forces, the journalists and, yes, ourselves.  Commentary 

Sheldon Whitehouse

The price of ignoring climate change

Climate change endangers much of the world economy. Economists calculate that a 3.5-degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature would reduce global gross domestic product by 1 percent.  Commentary 

Edward Hadas

Rate rigging costs more than money

In cash terms, the manipulation of supposedly objective reference rates and prices is a petty crime: relatively small gains for a few and microscopic losses for many. Ethically, though, the tolerance of untrustworthy behaviour makes the industry look particularly bad.  Full Article 

Jack Shafer

Snowden versus the dragons

One measure of our culture's disdain for whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden can be culled from the pages of a thesaurus.  Commentary 

Lynn Parramore

What does Apple really owe taxpayers? A lot.

Even as Apple sizzles in the Senate hot seat for alleged tax evasion and finds itself the object of a Justice Department investigation into price-fixing e-books, the company still enjoys a vast reservoir of good faith with the American people.  Commentary