WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept the target range for the federal funds interest rate unchanged at 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent at its first policy meeting of 2026.
The decision follows three consecutive rate cuts in the second half of 2025. (US-Fed-Rate)
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PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that escalating tensions with the United States over Greenland constitute a strategic wake-up call for Europe as a whole, while reiterating France's solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.
"Recent events confirm that the situation in Greenland is a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe: on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on combating foreign interference and disinformation, on the fight against climate change, and on a privileged partnership for sustainable development and reducing strategic dependencies," Macron said at a joint press conference with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Paris. (France-Greenland)
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TEHRAN -- Iran on Wednesday rejected any prospect of talks with the United States as long as Washington continues to threaten military action, after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric and announced the deployment of additional U.S. naval forces to the Middle East.
"There can be no negotiations in an atmosphere of threats," Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. "Conducting diplomacy through military pressure is neither effective nor useful. If they want negotiations, they must abandon threats, excessive demands, and illogical issues." (Iran-Military Action-Warning)
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NEW DELHI -- Five people, including the deputy chief minister of India's western state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, and two pilots, on board an aircraft were killed Wednesday in a crash, officials said.
The small aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Baramati airport in Pune district, about 249 km southeast of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. (India-Plane Crash)
