Sony Music act Beyonce looks out at the photographers as she comes backstage to pose with her award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for "Love On Top" at the 55th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 10, 2013.  REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Entertaining change: Sony eyes activist's spin-off idea

TOKYO - Few foreign activist investors have made much headway in forcing change in Japan. Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb is hoping to be an exception with his push to make Sony spin off its film, television and music business.  Full Article 

Syria opposition calls for reinforcements in embattled Qusair 8:25am EDT

BEIRUT - Syria's leading opposition group called on Wednesday for rebels across the country to send reinforcements to the strategic border town Qusair, where heavy fighting has drawn in fighters from Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement.

A man carries his belongings through debris after the suburb of Moore, Oklahoma was left devastated by a tornado, on May 21, 2013.REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Twisters return, but Oklahoma short on shelters

The people of central Oklahoma know all too well the destructive power of a tornado, but residents had few basements and storm shelters to run to when the alarm sounded, officials said.  Full Article 

Firefighters extinguish a burning car, following riots in the Stockholm suburb of Kista late May 21, 2013, in this picture provided by Scanpix. REUTERS/Fredrik Sandberg/Scanpix

Sweden's capital hit by worst riots in years

STOCKHOLM - Hundreds of youths have set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue services in poor immigrant suburbs in three nights of rioting in Stockholm, Sweden's worst disorder in years.  Full Article 

Rosa Ayala carries a Resident Alien placard during the International Workers Day and Immigration Reform March on May Day in Los Angeles, California May 1, 2013. REUTERS/David McNew

Senate panel passes immigration bill

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel approved legislation to give millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, setting up a spirited debate next month in the full Senate over the biggest changes in immigration policy in a generation.  Full Article 

(L-R) J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration of the U.S. Treasury, Steven Miller, the acting director of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and Douglas Shulman, former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, are sworn in before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington May 21, 2013.REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Tax official at center of scandal won't testify

WASHINGTON - Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a scandal about the targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny, plans to assert her constitutional right not to answer questions from a congressional committee.  Full Article 

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks during a news conference at the end of his visit to Cairo, February 7, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

Ahmadinejad to challenge ally's election ban

DUBAI - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would ask Iran's supreme leader to reverse a ban preventing his aide from running in next month's presidential poll, a test of stability after the violent trauma of the 2009 vote.  Full Article | Related Story 

Pedestrians walk past a Raiffeisen Bank branch in Moscow May 19, 2013.  REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

No easy pickings in Russia's banking market

MOSCOW - Foreign banks that once treated Russia as virgin land where easy money could be made are now finding it a cut-throat market tougher than some bargained for.  Full Article | Factbox 

Breakingviews: Markets too sanguine on QE threat

May 22 - The bursting of the gold bubble is just a harbinger of how vulnerable markets are to a tapering of quantitative easing, says Breakingviews. Other asset classes are also at risk.

Bethany McLean

How much does Jamie Dimon matter?

To his supporters, he’s the personification of everything that’s best about the financial system. But to detractors, he’s the personification of all that’s wrong with modern banking — the arrogance, the resistance to new regulation, the astronomical pay in the face of obvious mistakes.  Commentary 

Gary Regenstreif

What Hollande can learn from Queen of Hearts

So far there has been little to show for his economic policies. Some actions have backfired and others have not gone far enough.  Commentary 

Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane

U.S. power: Down but still unrivaled

Beijing does not threaten to counterbalance U.S. power as gravely as America’s economy threatens to become imbalanced on its own.  Commentary 

John Lloyd

The European Union's unending quandary

As recession deepens in the euro zone, the political questions about what comes next are resurfacing.  Commentary 

Bill Schneider

Party opinion usurps public opinion

We are witnessing the slow death of public opinion in this country. It’s being displaced by party opinion. Elections today are less and less about persuasion and more and more about mobilization: You rally your supporters in order to beat back your opponents.  Commentary 

Jack Shafer

What was James Rosen thinking?

While I join the chorus of rage aimed at the excesses of a Department of Justice leak investigation that has criminalized the reporting of Fox News Channel’s James Rosen, I also wonder how much of Rosen’s trouble is of his own making.   Commentary