Washington / AFP The United States underestimates the long-term impact of civilian deaths on its military missions and is failing to implement lessons learned from 15 gruelling years in Afghanistan, a report found. While the US military frequently stresses it does all it can to prevent civilian casualties, the report said poorly planned air strikes, misidentified targets, unexploded ordinance ...

  Bloomberg Japanese banks, known for the risk-aversion that spared them the worst of the credit crisis, have quietly grown into some of the world’s largest energy lenders. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s largest bank, disclosed last month it has become one of the biggest oil and gas lenders with 9.2 trillion yen, or about US$85 billion, in exposure ...

  Bloomberg Since a surprise interest-rate cut at his first meeting as European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi has shown a penchant for pushing the envelope. The bank’s entry into the corporate bond market was no exception: buying bonds with junk ratings. Purchases on the first day included notes from Telecom Italia SpA, according to people familiar with the matter, ...