By Chine Labbé PARIS (Reuters) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde will be questioned by a French magistrate on Thursday over her role in a 285-million-euro ($366 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Lagarde risks being placed under formal investigation at the hearing for her 2007 decision as Sarkozy's finance minister to use arbitration to settle a long-running court battle between the state and high-profile businessman Bernard Tapie. ...

By Tom Perry and Yousri Mohamed CAIRO/ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Seven members of the Egyptian security forces kidnapped by Islamist militants in Sinai last week were freed on Wednesday and President Mohamed Mursi announced a new crackdown on lawlessness in the desert peninsula. Their abduction underlined the threat posed by jihadists who became active in a security vacuum that opened up in the isolated Sinai after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The state has struggled to restore order there since. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's leading opposition group called on Wednesday for rebels across the country to send reinforcements to the strategic border town Qusair, where heavy fighting has drawn in fighters from Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad said air strikes and shelling rocked the small town on the Syrian-Lebanese border that has become a fierce battleground that could determine control of critical supply lines. ...

By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders will discuss how to combat aggressive tax avoidance by major companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple at a summit on Wednesday, and cut the estimated 1 trillion euros a year the EU loses to tax evasion or avoidance. The four-hour summit was originally called to discuss energy policy, but investigations in Britain, France and the United States exposing how little tax major international companies have been paying by carefully structuring their European operations has forced the issue to the top of the agenda. ...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures rose in thin trading on Wednesday, ahead of highly anticipated Congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the economy and monetary policy. Bernanke is expected to strike a dovish tone when he addresses a congressional committee at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Earlier on Wednesday, influential New York Fed President William Dudley reinforced his own remarks Tuesday, when he damped speculation that the U.S. central bank was preparing to reduce its monetary stimulus. ...

(Reuters) - Target Corp cut its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday while turning in a weak first quarter with disappointing sales, as a chilly start to spring kept shoppers from buying seasonal items like clothing. Target warned in April its first-quarter results would be weaker than anticipated, and its performance was even worse than revised Wall Street expectations. Shares of Target fell 2.3 percent to $69.60 in premarket trading. First-quarter sales at U.S. stores open at least a year dipped 0.6 percent, while analysts targeted a 0. ...

CANNES, France (AP) — The problem with New York these days is there's just not enough litter.

CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival is missing one of its biggest stars of this year's festival: Ryan Gosling.

CANNES, France (AP) — Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — When Tony Parker started running low on masterful plays, Tim Duncan was there to take over and lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

BOSTON (AP) — Build a new stadium, host the Super Bowl to show it off.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mike Trout even surprised himself in adding to his growing list of impressive big league achievements.

Confirming the worst-kept secret in politics, former Rep. Anthony Weiner has officially confirmed he’s running for New York City mayor, telling voters in a YouTube video that he wants a second chance in politics. "I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough [...]

For a talented, creative few, there’s David Letterman. For most, there’s a labyrinth of paperwork, hard decisions and painful sacrifices that could have dramatic repercussions on their financial health decades from now. Paying for college in America is hard. And a fight may be brewing in Washington that could leave college grads paying more—maybe a [...]

Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, who leads the exempt organizations division under scrutiny for targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, is refusing to testify before Congress, the Los Angeles Times reports. Lerner was supposed to appear before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday. The Times reports that Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, [...]