With the war on terror already a year old and the possibility of war against Iraq growing by the day, a modern version of an ancient practice -- one as old as warfare itself -- is reasserting itself at the Pentagon.

European Commission President Romano Prodi has stood by his description of the pact underpinning the euro as ""stupid,"" despite a flurry of comments in defense of the budget rules and a call for his resignation.

Enron Corp.'s bombshell decision just over a year ago to cut its equity by $1.2 billion initially got a singular response from the financial community: silence.

Fifteen years ago, world-beating Japanese companies were gobbling up prestigious golf courses from Australia's Gold Coast to Pebble Beach in California.

Top officials from some of the world's biggest farm-goods exporters criticized the European Union and Japan for not doing enough to promote agriculture trade at a meeting of the Cairns Group in Bolivia on Saturday.

Less than three months ago, U.S. President George W. Bush signed with great fanfare sweeping corporate anti-fraud legislation that called for a huge increase in the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission to police corporate America and clean up Wall Street.

A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press

NTV America Launch MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) -- A new Russian-language television channel called NTV America has started broadcasting via satellite in the United States on Thursday, Itar-Tass reported Friday. NTV America is a U.S.-targeted version of NTV World and is broadcast worldwide by Russia's NTV, which is part of the Gazprom-Media holding controlled by the gas giant Gazprom. Broadcast 24 hours a day, NTV America is aimed at a Russian-speaking audience in the United States. $100M Mortgage Plan MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) -- Russian commercial bank DeltaCredit plans to increase its mortgage loan portfolio to $100 million in 2003, DeltaCredit's president Nikolai Shitov said Friday. Currently the company's mortgage loan portfolio stands at over $40 million. Shitov added that DeltaCredit was planning to offer U.S. dollar-denominated mortgage backed bonds.

Roberto Esparza crossed the U.S. border illegally three times, believing with each journey that he was one step closer to building a comfortable life for his wife and 14-month old son in this Mexican hamlet.

Investigators said Sunday the probe into last week's Bali nightclub bombing was making progress, as authorities mulled how to interrogate the ailing spiritual leader of a militant group suspected in the attack.