The price of oil rallied on Monday as investors speculated that the falling cost of crude may have ended. 

Brent crude was up 1.3% at $53.65 a barrel, having reached $55, while US oil rose 1.7% to $48.52. It followed the release of data showing that US demand for leasing oil rigs was slowing, suggesting that producers might be preparing to cut output. Meanwhile, US giant ExxonMobil reported a 21% fall in quarterly earnings on lower oil and gas production. Buying opportunity On Friday, data showed that more than 90 US oil rigs were idled, the largest number to be wound down in a single day since the mid-1980s. Continue reading the main story[an error occurred while processing this directive] "There were a lot of people on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity to buy," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst at SEB. Monday's price rise extended the gains made last week, and boosted oil and gas share prices. Tullow Oil rose almost 7%, while BG Group climbed 5%. Since last summer, the prices of Brent and UK West Texas Intermediate Crude have fallen from above $100 a barrel. "Most market observers have been surprised by the scale of the decrease, and expectations of US oil output this year will no doubt be lowered accordingly," analysts at Commerzbank said in a research note. "The foundation for a steady price recovery in the second half of the year has thus been laid." Meanwhile, Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, saw profit in the fourth quarter fall to $6.57bn (£4.37bn), from $8.35bn for the same three months the year before. Oil and natural gas production fell 3.8%, Exxon said

A street cleaner who was sacked in China for warming himself over a fire in freezing conditions has been reinstated after a public outcry. Ding Quan, 59, was re-employed by his cleaning company after it admitted its response last week was unfair, Chinese media report. Mr Ding said he was trying to dry his gloves and coat when his supervisor drove past and took a photo of him. He was later told he had been fired for breaching anti-smog and safety rules. Mr Ding told China's Metro News he had started cleaning on a street in the northern province of Shaanxi at 06:00 and after three hours' work he had spotted a group of men around a fire. He had joined them for 20 minutes when he was ordered by his supervisor to put the fire out, he said. The company that employed Mr Ding, Xian Golden Medal, said in a statement its decision had been "made with a lack of humanity and was inappropriate". The case sparked discussion on China's social media about the poor work conditions of the country's street cleaners

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An Egyptian court sentenced 183 defendants to death Monday, Egypt's state-run MENA news agency reported.

The defendants had been convicted of murdering 11 police officers and two civilians in the district of Kerdasa last August.

That attack followed a crackdown by security forces on supporters of former President Mohamed Morsy, which left hundreds of people dead.

Thirty-four of the 183 defendants were tried in absentia. All are permitted to appeal.

David Cameron has promised not to cut England's schools budget in a future Conservative government.

The prime minister said funding per pupil would not be cut and would provide a further £7bn for places for rising numbers of pupils - but will not rise in line with inflation.

Mr Cameron said hundreds more secondary schools would become academies.

Labour's Tristram Hunt said the promise to protect funding was "unravelling" and represented a "real-terms cut".

On funding, the prime minister promised to protect "flat cash" per pupil spending, which would reduce in value with inflation.

Mr Cameron said this would mean "difficult decisions", but the government had demonstrated that with greater efficiency "more could be achieved with less".

Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has announced plans to recruit 100,000 men, as fighting with Ukrainian forces intensifies.
The separatists are trying to capture the key town of Debaltseve, while central areas of rebel-held Donetsk have been hit by artillery fire.

Dozens of civilians were killed on both sides of the front line at the weekend.

"Mobilisation will start in 11 days' time," Mr Zakharchenko Said

Hundreds of civilians have been moved out of Debaltseve amid reports that the separatists have reached the outskirts of the town.

Attempts to negotiate a ceasefire failed on Saturday in the Belarusian capital Minsk when rebel representatives did not turn up.

US President Barack Obama plans to close a tax loophole that allows US firms to avoid paying taxes on overseas profits, the White House says.

His 2016 budget will impose a one-off 14% tax on US profits stashed overseas, as well as a 19% tax on any future profits as they are earned.

The $238bn (£158bn) raised will be used to fund road projects in the US.

The proposal is one of the main components of President Barack Obama's latest budget, due to be presented Today.

The spending plan, including the proposal on overseas profits, would require approval from the Republican-controlled Congress to be made law, something seen as unlikely.

Research firm Audit Analytics calculated last April that US firms in total have $2.1 trillion-worth of profits stashed abroad.

It found US conglomerate General Electric had the most profit stored overseas at $110bn. Tech giants Microsoft and Apple and drugs companies Pfizer and Merck all featured in the top five.

No tax is currently due on foreign profits as long as they are not brought into the United States.

As a result some companies put their earnings in low tax jurisdictions and simply leave them there.

The White House said its plans for an immediate 14% tax would raise $238bn, which would be used to fund a wider $478bn public works programme of road, bridge and public transport upgrades.

"This transition tax would mean that companies have to pay US tax right now on the $2 trillion they already have overseas, rather than being able to delay paying any US tax indefinitely," a White House official said.

The official said that after this one-off tax, the 19% permanent tax firms would have to pay on overseas profits "would level the playing field, and encourage firms to create jobs here at home."

The tax rate is far lower than the current US top corporate tax rate of 35%.

Indian authorities in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh have made a grisly find in one of their police stations: Dozens of human body parts.

The discovery was made by contract workers in the city of Unnao, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Lucknow.

While cleaning a disused part of a city police station late last week, the workers chanced upon sacks filled with human remains in a long-ago locked room.

Until 2008, the room was used as a mortuary, where bodies were kept following post-mortem and ahead of funerals, Ram Kishan Yadav, an Additional Superintendent of Police for Unnao District, told CNN.

In mid-2008, he said, the mortuary was shifted to the local district hospital.

"These body parts were to be shifted to the district hospital mortuary but we don't know how they have since been kept here in the police station," he said. "Investigation is still ongoing."

Foul play is not suspected, officials say, but they are not sure why the bodies were not disposed of properly.

In Hinduism and some other Indian faiths, funerals are usually conducted by cremation.

Officials say the bodies are likely to be at least 20 years old.

Another police official said that DNA testing would be conducted on the remains.

Opposition lawmakers have called for an in-depth probe. Bharatiya Janata Party state legislator Pankaj Gupta told the Hindustan Times that his party "will take up the issue with the chief minister and organize a movement on this issue."

The discovery comes two weeks after around 80 skeletons and decayed bodies surfaced in the Ganges, India's holiest river, in the district.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered security to be tightened in Bangkok after two pipe bombs rattled a luxury shopping mall and stoked tension in a city under martial law since a coup last May.

Two people were slightly hurt but the blasts caused little damage on Sunday evening. They were the first to shake the capital since the military seized power to end months of sometimes deadly street protests.

"I have ordered security to be tightened because this case involves the well-being of the people," Prayuth told reporters on Monday.

"This case shows that we still need martial law ... there are still bad people disrupting the peace. We must find ways to severely punish them."

There was no claim of responsibility.
A team of forensic police on Monday sifted through the debris created by the blasts, which struck at around 8pm local time (13:00 GMT) on Sunday on a walkway leading to the busy Paragon shopping centre in central Bangok.
"They were pipe bombs ... low pressure explosive devices," national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said. "They did not aim to cause major damage ... they were used to create trouble."
CCTV footage showed two possible suspects near where the pipe bombs exploded, but the images were unclear and the individuals had not been identified, police said.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said such violence "inflicts loss of confidence" in the country, where tourism accounts for about 10 percent of the economy.

Political tension has been high since last month when a national assembly hand-picked by the junta banned former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from politics for five years.

The decision angered supporters of Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, although there has been little sign of a return to the protests that have dogged Thailand for years