MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has yielded to Brazilian pressure to slash auto sales to the southern giant, fixing an export quota for the next three years to save a decade-old trade agreement between Latin America's two dominant economies. Mexico's Economy Minster Bruno Ferrari said on Thursday Mexico had agreed to curb its auto exports to Brazil to an average of about $1.55 billion over the next three years, bowing to Brazilian concerns about its ailing industrial sector. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - British police and support staff must prove their fitness in annual tests or have their pay docked after a survey found 64 percent were overweight, obese or morbidly obese, a review concluded on Thursday. The government-commissioned report into police pay and conditions suggested that officers who failed a fitness test three times should be disciplined and could lose 8 percent of their salary, as much as 3,000 pounds ($4,700) for some. ...

Republican candidate Ron Paul refused Thursday to commit to backing Mitt Romney if the former Massachusetts governor becomes the party's nominee for president.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina will take legal action against any companies involved in oil exploration off the disputed Falkland Islands as part of a drive to pressure Britain into sovereignty talks, the foreign minister said on Thursday. Three decades after it repelled an Argentine invasion of the Falklands, Britain has vowed to defend the archipelago, saying it will negotiate sovereignty or oil rights only in the unlikely event that the 3,000 islanders want that. ...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - The Obama Administration on Thursday said it would begin shutting down a program that provides health care for more than 100,000 low-income women in Texas because the state will not allow funding for clinics that provide abortion services. The move follows an announcement last week by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the federal government would withdraw funding for Texas' "Women's Health Program" after state lawmakers last year enacted the abortion funding prohibition. ...

An elections board ruled Thursday that U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar can't vote at the Indianapolis home he sold in 1977 but can register elsewhere in the county, a partial victory for tea party activists who allege the Republican incumbent has committed voter fraud for decades.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a 28 billion euro ($36.7 billion) bailout for Greece and warned Athens there was no room for missteps in implementing the economic program. The IMF said it would immediately disburse 1.65 billion euros to the Greek government, part of a broader 130 billion euro international rescue package to keep Greece funded through 2014 and avoid a messy debt default. The IMF board approval ends months of financial uncertainty for Greece. ...

Republican candidate Ron Paul refused Thursday to commit to backing Mitt Romney if Romney becomes the party's nominee for president.

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels will be able to choose a replacement for Indiana's ousted top elections official following a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday that found Democrats waited too long to challenge the GOP official's candidacy in 2010.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday a possible release of strategic oil reserves to tame soaring fuel prices is "worth looking at," but that no decision had been made after the discussions he had with U.S. President Barack Obama. "Short term, should we look at reserves? Yes, we should," he said in New York after meeting with top Wall Street financial executives following meetings in Washington with Obama and other senior officials. ...

PERTH (Reuters) - Brent crude inched above $125 on Thursday, after falling more than a dollar the previous session, as traders balanced a firm dollar and bulging U.S. crude stocks with lingering concerns about tensions between Iran and the West. London ICE Brent crude edged up eight cents to $125.05 per barrel by 0728 GMT, after settling down $1.25 at $124.97 on Wednesday. The April contract will expire at the end of Thursday's session. U.S. April crude rose 46 cents to $105.89 a barrel, after settling down $1.28 at $105.43 on Wednesday. ...

Vice President Joe Biden made an aggressive entry into the 2012 campaign Thursday, calling out Mitt Romney and the other Republican presidential hopefuls by name for their failure to support the auto bailout.

(Reuters) - New York state lawmakers approved pension reform that will save an estimated $80 billion over 30 years, largely by reducing benefits for newly hired state and local public workers, which union officials Thursday blasted as an attack on the middle class. Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the bill enacted by the legislature with several others starting late Wednesday as key to maintaining the state's fiscal health. The bill also provides a safeguard for municipalities that will protect them from any financial burden if the state increases their pension benefits. ...

(Reuters) - The trustee liquidating MF Global's broker-dealer is asking a bankruptcy court for permission to distribute an additional $600 million to U.S. exchange customers whose accounts were frozen when the futures broker collapsed. Trustee James Giddens announced the plan in court papers on Thursday, saying he would also seek to distribute as much as $50 million to customers who traded on foreign exchanges, and $35 million to certain customers who hold physical property such as gold bars. Customers who trade on U.S. exchanges have already received payouts amounting to roughly $3. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was no room for slippage in Greece's economic rescue package and failure to implement agreed policies could trigger an "unsustainable debt dynamic," a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Thursday. The biggest risk to implementation of Greece's new IMF-EU program is that Athens delays needed economic reforms to address large competitiveness gaps, Poul Thomsen, the IMF mission chief to Greece, told a conference call with reporters. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it supported the rights of Falkland islanders to exploit their oil reserves after Argentina said it would take legal action against companies involved in energy exploration around the South Atlantic islands. "Hydrocarbon exploration is a legitimate commercial venture and the British government supports the rights of the Falkland islanders to develop their hydrocarbons sector," a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said. ...

The Indiana Supreme Court delivered a victory to Republicans on Thursday, ruling that Democrats waited too long to challenge the 2010 candidacy of the state's former Republican elections chief and clearing the way for Gov. Mitch Daniels to choose a replacement.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan/ ZURICH (Reuters) - A Swiss couple kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban last July have escaped and will return home soon, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Thursday after the two reached a military checkpoint near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 29, were kidnapped in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan and had been held by the Taliban in the North Waziristan region. "A few minutes ago I was able to speak to Daniela and David and yes, they are free. ...

Sen. Dick Lugar has been declared  ineligible to vote in the Indiana precinct in which he once lived. The election board in Marion County voted 2-1 on Thursday in favor of a complaint brought to the board that argued Lugar and his wife shouldn’t be allowed...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's minority Liberal government has set March 27 as the date for the Canadian province's next budget, which is expected to outline tough austerity measures designed to rein in a C$16 billion ($16.1 billion) deficit. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said on Thursday that the public should be prepared for "difficult choices", and revealed there will be hefty cuts in infrastructure spending in coming years. "This will probably be the most significant budget this government has ever delivered. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the corruption case involving the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens repeatedly hid evidence that could have exonerated him, according to an investigative report released on Thursday that found misconduct by Justice Department lawyers. The prosecutors intentionally withheld and concealed information from Stevens' defense lawyers that included witness statements, key details that could have undermined prosecutors' star witnesses and allowed false testimony to be presented during his 2008 trial, the report said. ...

Vigorously defending his policies, President Barack Obama ridiculed critics of renewable energy sources Thursday, calling them naysayers and comparing them to the flat-earthers of yesteryear.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A joint team of Syrian, U.N. and Organization of Islamic Cooperation staff will begin visiting besieged Syrian towns this weekend to assess the humanitarian situation, U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos said on Thursday. The mission will be led by the Syrian government and the team would "gather information on the overall humanitarian situation and observe first-hand the conditions in various towns and cities," Amos said in a statement. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian activists said on Thursday they were sickened by emails which appeared to show President Bashar al-Assad and his wife shopping for pop music and luxury items while the country descended into bloodshed. Britain's Guardian newspaper said it obtained some 3,000 emails from Assad and his wife, Asma. The emails, not all verified by the paper yet, showed Assad taking advice from Iran on countering the one-year revolt against his rule that has claimed thousands of lives. ...