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Canadian businessman goes on trial in Cuban corruption crackdown
HAVANA (Reuters) - A Canadian businessman who has confessed to bribing Cuban officials was scheduled to go on trial in Havana on Thursday, almost two years after his arrest in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption.

Man charged with mailing ricin letter to judge in Washington state
OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested a man charged with mailing a letter containing the deadly poison ricin to a U.S. district judge in Spokane, Washington, the FBI said.

Pfizer takes its shot at a vaccine for evasive superbug
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kathrin Jansen is a microbiologist with at least two breakthrough vaccines to her name: she brought the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to market for Merck and helped develop the $4 billion a year pneumonia and meningitis vaccine Prevnar 13 for Pfizer.

Analysis: Crackdown on radical Islamists tests Tunisia's stability
TUNIS (Reuters) - For the first time since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, relations between mainstream Islamists in government and radical Salafist Muslim activists have reached breaking point, sparking deadly clashes in two Tunisian cities.

Analysis: In any scandal, lying to Congress is tough to prove
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) - When embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner was called before a congressional committee Wednesday, she declared that she had done nothing wrong - but said she did not intend to testify. Her defiance only turned up the heat from Republicans who have threatened to take her to court for misleading Congress.

Lenovo's fourth-quarter net profit nearly doubles on Chinese PC, phone demand
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group Ltd posted a 90 percent rise in its quarterly net profit, its fastest pace in seven quarters, as a result of strong PC and smartphone demand in its domestic market.

China HSBC flash PMI hits seven-month low, fans growth fears
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, a preliminary survey of purchasing managers showed, adding to concerns that a recovery in the world's second-largest economy is sputtering.

Switching from scandals, Obama to address drones and Guantanamo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will seek to draw attention away from a series of domestic scandals with a speech on Thursday that defends the U.S. use of drones abroad and lays out a vision for closing the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Japan's wartime brothels were wrong, says 91-year-old veteran
SAGAMIHARA, Japan (Reuters) - When Masayoshi Matsumoto joined the Japanese army in 1943 and was sent to occupied China as a medic, he thought he was taking part in a righteous war to free Asia from the yoke of Western imperialism.

CORRECTED-Colorado governor grants reprieve to quadruple killer on death row
DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper granted a reprieve on Wednesday to the state's longest-serving death row inmate, ordering his execution blocked indefinitely in a move that infuriated prosecutors and victims' families.

Nebraska attorney general wants abortion clinic nurse's license revoked
OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning on Wednesday filed a petition to revoke the license of the only nurse at a controversial abortion clinic in the state for allegedly providing substandard care and improperly administering drugs.

GM Chevy Spark electric car's price 38 percent less than sibling hybrid Volt's
DETROIT (Reuters) - The Chevrolet Spark all-electric subcompact car will cost U.S. buyers as much as 38 percent less than what it takes to buy its larger sibling, the hybrid Volt, General Motors Co said on Thursday.

High costs, currency push Ford out of Australia car manufacturing
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co will shut its two Australian auto plants in October 2016, blaming a strong currency and costs that are hitting manufacturers just as the country looks for other sectors of its economy to cushion the end of a mining boom.

Mitsubishi Motors weighs capital shift, dividends: sources
TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp is taking steps toward resuming dividend payments after nearly a decade-long turnaround bankrolled by other Mitsubishi group companies, according to people with direct knowledge of the plans.

JGB yields surge, markets spooked by Bernanke remarks
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds plunged on Thursday, taking yields to their highest in a year and leading a selloff in bonds globally after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks sparked worries of a reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus.

SoftBank would appoint "security director" to Sprint board
(Reuters) - SoftBank Corp would appoint a "security director" to Sprint Nextel's board if its takeover bid succeeds, and would give the U.S. government the right to approve the nominee, an attempt to address security concerns raised by the proposed deal.

Average U.S. 401(k) balance tops $80,000, up 75 percent since 2009
BOSTON (Reuters) - The average 401(k) retirement balance for U.S. workers hit a record high of $80,900 in the first quarter, a growth spurt of 75 percent since the stock market's nadir in March 2009, Fidelity Investments said on Thursday based on a survey of its accounts.

Activists rally ahead of Boy Scouts vote on gay youth ban
GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) - Gay rights activists and members of conservative groups gathered in the Texas town of Grapevine on Wednesday where Boy Scouts of America delegates were expected to vote at a national meeting to lift its ban on gay youth membership.

Investment firms sue exchanges in dispute on improper fee charges
(Reuters) - A group of investment firms including Citadel Securities LLC sued the Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc and four other exchanges on Wednesday for improper charges on millions of options trades over a seven-year period.

China HSBC flash PMI hits 7-mth low, fans growth fears
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, a preliminary survey of purchasing managers showed, adding to concerns that a recovery in the world's second-largest economy is sputtering.