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By Anna Louie Sussman NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent crude extended losses in late trading on Wednesday to settle below $103 a barrel, after minutes from the Federal Reserve sent U.S. stock markets down and compounded earlier oil weakness stemming from a rise in U.S. gasoline inventories. U.S. equities fell in choppy trading, with the Dow briefly down more than 1 percent, after Fed chief Ben Bernanke suggested the central bank was not ready to curb economic stimulus but may act if the economy keeps improving. Brent crude futures fell $1.31 to settle at $102. ...

By Carole Vaporean NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold turned sharply lower on Wednesday, as investors weighed U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's congressional testimony warning of risks to holding interest rates too low for too long and opened the possibility of reducing bond purchases. In prepared remarks, as expected, the Fed chief said monetary stimulus was helping the U.S. economy recover, but it was too soon to remove existing measures. ...

By Carmel Crimmins and Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's finance minister said the country would not be the "whipping boy" for what he called a flawed U.S. Senate report that said Irish loopholes helped technology giant Apple shrink its tax bill. Ireland has been forced to defend its corporate tax rate after the Senate said on Monday that Apple paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits channelled through Irish subsidiaries and that it had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2 percent. ...

By Jim Finkle REUTERS - Cybersecurity researcher HD Moore discovered he could use the Internet to access the controls of some 30 pipeline sensors around the country that were not password protected. A hacking expert who helps companies uncover network vulnerabilities, Moore said he found the sensors last month while analyzing information in huge, publicly available databases of Internet-connected devices. "We know that systems are exposed and vulnerable. ...

By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus is helping the U.S. economy recover but the central bank needs to see further signs of traction before taking its foot off the gas, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday. A decision to scale back the $85 billion in bonds the Fed is buying each month could come at one of the central bank's "next few meetings" if the economy looked set to maintain momentum, Bernanke told Congress. But minutes from the Fed's most recent meeting released on Wednesday showed the bar was still relatively high. ...

By Li-mei Hoang LONDON (Reuters) - A man was hacked to death in a street near an army barracks in London on Wednesday in what Prime Minister David Cameron said appeared to be a politically motivated attack. The victim was a British soldier killed in broad daylight by unidentified assailants who tried to behead him while shouting "God is greatest" in Arabic, media reports said. Soon after the attack, two men carrying weapons were shot and wounded by police. Cameron cut short a visit to France to return to London and chair an emergency national security meeting. ...

By Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Tornado survivors thanked God, sturdy closets and luck in explaining how they lived through the colossal twister that devastated an Oklahoma town and killed 24 people, an astonishingly low toll given the extent of destruction. At least one family took refuge in a bathtub and some people shut themselves in underground shelters built into their houses when the powerful storm tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday afternoon. ...

By Barbara Liston and Mark Hosenball ORLANDO, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent shot and killed a man of Chechen origin who turned violent while being questioned on Wednesday about his connection to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two Chechen brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings. A friend of the dead man identified him to local media as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, who had previously lived in Boston and knew Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers suspected of planting two bombs at the marathon on April 15. Three people were killed and 264 injured in the attacks. ...

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. Iran has transported the reactor vessel - which would hold the fuel - to the heavy water plant near the central town of Arak but has not yet installed it, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report issued to member states. ...

By Emma Batha LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Aid agencies helping millions of people in North Korea could be forced to pull out after a Chinese bank cut ties with main foreign exchange bank, a humanitarian group said on Wednesday. The freeze - imposed amid growing concern over North Korea's nuclear ambitions - has made it impossible for aid agencies to transfer money to fund projects, many of them aimed at helping chronically malnourished children. Some aid workers are now resorting to bringing in cash in person, putting them at personal risk. ...

By Dan Williams HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is poised to attack Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel's air force chief said on Wednesday. But Major-General Amir Eshel, addressing a security conference, said his warplanes could be repelled by Syria's formidable, Russian-supplied anti-aircraft systems - an implicit censure of Moscow echoed by Israel's defence minister. ...

By Arshad Mohammed and Erika Solomon AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders. Rebels called for reinforcements to combat an "invasion" by Hezbollah and its Iranian backers, days after President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched an offensive against a strategic town that could prove to be a turning point in the war. ...

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks, bonds and currencies took a wild ride on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank's massive bond-buying program would remain in place for now, even as the Fed considers cutting back stimulus in coming months. Wall Street stocks jumped as much as 1 percent before turning lower after Bernanke, in testimony to Congress, said that if economic improvement continued, "We could in the next few meetings take a step down in our pace of purchases. ...

London, May 23 (IANS) Two men carrying weapons brutally assaulted and killed a man, said to be a soldier, in Woolwich in southeast London Wednesday afternoon. The two attackers were later shot and injured by police. Prime Minister David Cameron said there were strong indications that it was a "terrorist incident".

Los Angeles, May 23 (IANS) Singer Dannii Minogue says the pressure of fame when she started her singing career in the 1980s, was awful. But she admits she has learnt to tackle it over the years.

London, May 23 (IANS) Pop star Jennifer Lopez will reportedly perform on the semi-final episode of music reality show "Britain's Got Talent", and sing her latest track "Live it up".

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Scandal-hit Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator here at the Ferozeshah Kotla Wednesday to enter Qualifier 2.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The scoreboard of the Indian Premier League Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Wednesday.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in the Indian Premier League Eliminator at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Wednesday.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Sachin Tendulkar will not take further part in the Indian Premier League owing to an injury on his left hand, his team Mumbai Indians said Wednesday.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League seems to have had little impact on the enthusiasm of cricket fans as there was a huge crowd in attendence for the eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Wednesday.

London, May 22 (IANS) Two men attacked a man near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich in Southeast London Wednesday afternoon, leaving one dead, two injured, Britain's Metropolitan Police said.

Gurgaon, May 22 (IANS) Firemen were still trying to douse a fire that broke out in the stock yard of Coca Cola company here in Udyog Vihar a day before, an official said Wednesday.

Ghaziabad, May 22 (IANS) A businessman and six members of his family, including his three grand-children, were murdered in their house here Wednesday and cash and valuables worth over Rs.1 crore looted, police said.

Moscow, May 22 (IANS ) Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr could start working "shortly", Xinhua reported Wednesday, quoting Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) On the ninth anniversary of the UPA government Wednesday, its two key figures - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi - praised one another.