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By Nick Mulvenney SYDNEY (Reuters) - Chronic knee problem, left ankle fracture, hamstring strain, shoulder problem, back strain, hip pain and, most recently, a tender Achilles - Australia's Ryan Harris has had almost as many injuries as he has played test matches in the last three years. Such is the esteem in which the 33-year-old pace bowler is held Down Under, however, that this weekend, he will board a jet for England looking to augment his tally of 47 wickets in 12 tests and help Australia win back the Ashes. His average of 23. ...

REUTERS - State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, posted its first quarterly net profit drop in two years, missing market estimates after being dragged down by lower interest income and higher provisions for loan losses. The state-run bank posted net profit of 32.99 billion rupees in the January-March quarter, compared with 40.50 billion rupees in the same period a year ago. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, fell 4.4 percent to 110.8 billion rupees. Analysts, on average, had expected net profit of 37. ...

REUTERS - Taiwan's world boxing chief (AIBA) President Ching-kuo Wu announced his intention to run for International Olympic Committee president on Thursday, saying the Olympic movement should be bigger than just the Games. IOC Executive Board member Wu is the fourth IOC member following Germany's Thomas Bach and Singaporean Ng Ser Miang, both IOC vice presidents, and Puerto Rico's Richard Carrion to decide to run for the post. The election is set for September 10 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India has agreed to pay 450 billion rupees for the March quarter to state-owned fuel retailers as compensation for selling products at cheaper government-set rates, officials at these companies said on Thursday. The decision, taken on Wednesday, has not yet been formally intimated by the finance ministry, but the current tranche will enable the companies to report quarterly profits at their earnings next week, officials at the three companies, who declined to be named, said. ...

By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) - Concerns over the future of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus and weak Chinese factory data sent shares sharply lower and safe haven currencies like the yen higher on Thursday. The shift from riskier assets to safer markets was triggered when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee on Wednesday the central bank could scale back the pace of bond purchases at one of its next few policy meetings. A weak manufacturing survey from China added to investors' worries, dragging MSCI's world equity index down 1. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sharply criticised the country's leadership, opposition website Kaleme said on Thursday, two days after he was disqualified from running in next month's presidential election. "I don't think the country could have been run worse, even if it had been planned in advance," Rafsanjani reportedly told members of his campaign team on Wednesday, the well respected website reported. "I don't want to get stoop to their propaganda and attacks but ignorance is troubling. Don't they understand what they're doing. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Nifty futures fell more than 2 percent in trade on Thursday as the prospect of an end to the U.S. stimulus programme and a weak China manufacturing survey has sparked concerns about foreign investor selling. Nifty was below 6,000. Domestic falls tracked lower Asian shares, with a more than 7 percent fall in Japan's Nikkei share average and a more than 2 percent decline in the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index. NSE index May 2013 futures were down 1.9 percent as of 1:04 p.m. The Nifty was down 1.6 percent, while the BSE Sensex was down 1.44 percent. ...

By Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, a preliminary manufacturing survey showed, entrenching fears that its economic recovery has stalled and that a sharper cooldown may be imminent. The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October and sending Asian financial markets sharply lower. The final HSBC PMI stood at 50.4 in April. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee slid to its lowest in over 8-1/2 months on Thursday, heading for a fifth consecutive session of falls, as worries about a potential pullback in the U.S. monetary stimulus programme sparked a shift sway from riskier currencies. Any pullback on U.S. quantitative easing has the potential to hit Indian markets hard. Foreign investors have bought more than $5 billion of debt and stocks this month, marking a surge in inflows from previous months. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was not seen intervening to bolster the rupee, traders said. ...

REUTERS - The government said on Thursday it had set guidelines for pharmaceutical makers to comply with a European Union directive on standards for import of bulk drugs into the EU that takes effect on July 2. Under the new rules, India must certify that bulk drugs, or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), meet European quality standards. The current regulation requires that the certification be done by the country to which the APIs are being exported. ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The sharp fall in Tokyo stock prices is unlikely to hamper Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo's economic policies and their positive effects on the economy, the government's top spokesman said on Thursday. "Japan's economy is expected to gradually head for a recovery, and we hope to closely watch market developments," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference. The Nikkei share average plunged 7. ...

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 pedal, 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. ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Nikkei share average plunged 7.3 percent on Thursday, its biggest one-day percentage drop in two years after weak Chinese factory data rattled investors, prompting them to take profits from a recent rally buoyed by massive Bank of Japan stimulus measures. The Nikkei ended 1,143.28 points lower at 14,483.98, a two-week low. It was the 11th-largest point drop on record. The Osaka Securities Exchange briefly suspending trade in Nikkei futures in the afternoon due to steep declines. Trading was volatile. The benchmark had climbed to a 5-1/2-year high earlier in the session. ...

Singapore, May 23 (IANS) Singapore's external trade continued to fall in the first quarter of this year, with declines for total trade, non-oil domestic exports (NODX) and non-oil re-exports (NORX), the city-state's trade promotion agency, International Enterprise Singapore, said Thursday.

Seoul, May 23 (IANS) Retail sales in South Korea decreased last month as domestic demand remained in the doldrums amid the sluggish economic recovery, a government report showed Thursday.

Washington, May 23 (IANS) General Motors Corporation said it is recalling nearly 20,000 new Cadillac SRX SUVs for faulty wheel lug nuts, according to a Detroit News report.

Rio de Janeiro, May 23 (IANS) The Brazilian government has announced a curtailment of 28 billion reais ($13.65 billion) in the 2013 federal budget.

Beijing, May 23 (IANS) China's manufacturing activity fell into contraction for the first time since October, a preliminary survey from the HSBC showed.

Patna, May 23 (IANS) Three women and two children were killed in a Bihar village when they were attacked by an axe-wielding family member who is believed to be mentally challenged, police said Thursday.

Lucknow, May 23 (IANS) People who vandalise medical facilities or thrash hospital doctors in Uttar Pradesh can now be arrested by police faster, without a court-issued warrant, and the culprits would also not get bail, according to a new stringent law.

Mumbai, May 23 (IANS) Nearly two-thirds of Indian households in the high income group have reported a substantial increase in consumption of organic food products in the past five years, reveals a new survey released here Thursday.

Hyderabad, May 23 (IANS) Director Rohit Shetty, who recently visited the sets of "Garam Masala", a Telugu remake of Hindi movie "Bol Bachchan", had a ball.

Madrid, May 23 (IANS) FC Barcelona confirmed that the football club has agreed to extend the contract of utility player Adriano Correia until the end of June 2017.

Lima, May 23 (IANS) Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have agreed to strengthen bilateral economic relations.

Sydney, May 23 (IANS) Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said that she would look into the issue of allowing Sikhs in her country to wear the turban while at work and also while riding motorcycles.

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) About 30 activists of the BJP's youth wing protesting the UPA-II government's corruption scandals were detained when they were trying to march towards Connaught Place in central Delhi.