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LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Gandolfini's lumbering, brutish mob boss with the tortured psyche will endure as one of TV's indelible characters.

BEIJING (AP) — Call me a lecher but don't call me a crook, an ex-city official at the heart of a sex tape scandal has said in his unusually spirited courtroom defense against corruption charges.

LONDON (AP) — British regulators are ordering some of the country's biggest banks to bolster their balance sheets by 27. 1 billion pounds ($42.1 billion) to prevent a repeat of the 2008 banking crisis.

By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity weakened to a nine-month low in June as demand faltered, a preliminary survey showed, heightening the risk of a sharper second quarter slowdown and increasing the heat on the central bank to loosen policy. China's economy grew at its slowest pace for 13 years in 2012 and so far this year data has been weaker than expected, bringing warnings the country could miss its growth target of 7.5 percent for this year, though possibly not by much. ...

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices fell Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve indicated it could begin to wind down its massive stimulus program later this year, as long as the U.S. economy remains on the upswing.

PARIS (AP) — The hearing to determine whether Mercedes and Pirelli broke Formula One rules by holding in-season tire tests has opened in Paris.

By Ivan Castro and Lomi Kriel MANAGUA/PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - For centuries since the colonization of the New World, entrepreneurs have dreamed of building a canal spanning Nicaragua to make it easier to tap Asia's riches. Sixteenth century Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes yearned to cleave the isthmus, and ever since, French, American and Dutch financiers have all made abortive, Quixotic attempts to bisect the Central American country's volcano-studded terrain. Now it's the turn of the Chinese. And skepticism is as strong as ever. ...