| Washington President Donald Trump ran into resistance for calling ousted FBI chief James Comey a "showboat," an attack that was swiftly contradicted by top U.S. senators and the acting FBI leader, who pledged that an investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia would proceed with vigor. What we know about U.S. probes of Russian meddling in the 2016 election Commentary: The consequences for Trump The United States and China have agreed on the first trade steps to reduce the massive U.S. trade deficit with Beijing.
Indonesia The leader of a powerful Indonesian Islamist organization that led the push to jail Jakarta's Christian governor has laid out plans for a new, racially charged campaign targeting economic inequality and foreign investment. "It seems they do not become more generous, more fair," the cleric said, referring to Chinese Indonesians, in the interview in an Islamic center in South Jakarta. "That's the biggest problem." Ethnic Chinese make up less than 5 percent of Indonesia's population, but they control many of its large conglomerates and much of its wealth.
France Centrist French President elect Emmanuel Macron sought to woo conservative members of parliament to his cause as he bids for victory in elections for parliament next month.
Alibaba employees attend a mass wedding at their headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, May 10, 2017. Picture taken May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
Business The U.S. used car market is a car dealer’s dream and automakers’ nightmare. GE has spent $4 billion on developing digital products – ranging from tiny sensors in jet engines to augmented reality and software that can crunch large volumes of data. Now that GE has shed non-essential operations, including most of its large financial unit, its fortunes will rise or fall depending on whether those investments deliver. High level executives from Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and trade group Airlines for America met with U.S. Homeland Security officials to discuss the impact of possibly expanding a ban on large electronic gadgets on flights from some European airports, three sources briefed on the meeting said. Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, is hoping this year to sell bonds backed by mortgages without government guarantees for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, the head of the bank's consumer lending division has said. Deep beneath the waters of the Atlantic off Brazil's most northern coast, French company Total is hunting for what it hopes will be Latin America's next big oil discovery. Some geologists say the area, known as the Foz do Amazonas Basin, may contain as many as 14 billion barrels of petroleum, more than the entire proven reserves of Mexico.
U.S. Americans are more likely to view Muslims, who make up 1 percent of the U.S. population, as extremists if they do not know one personally, according to a February poll by the Pew Research Center. In an effort to overcome that perception, the Council of Islamic Schools in North America will ask its 78 accredited or member schools, located across 24 U.S. states, to arrange meetings between their own students and those at other, non-Muslim schools.
Africa Saudi Arabia and Iran are taking their religious rivalry to Senegal. Each side is spending millions of dollars to win converts. At stake is huge political influence on a resource-rich continent.
G7 Finance chiefs from some of the world's richest nations began a two-day meeting in Italy, with Europe, Japan and Canada hoping to come away with a clearer picture of U.S. President Trump's plans on important policies.
| 
