EUROPEAN UNION

The United States, for the first time, has imposed sanctions on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six of his top aides for human rights abuses.

The U.S. government will impose sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, as well as six top Syrian government officials, over human rights abuses perpetrated over the past two months of unrest in that country, according to reports.

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) chief official responsible for Greece has warned the debt-stricken country must take even more austerity measures in order to reduce its massive budget deficit.

The European Union and United States are preparing to hit Syria's leaders with new sanctions as anti-government protesters are still facing a brutal crackdown.

The broadening euro zone recovery means the need for economic or monetary stimulus is fading, European Central Bank policymaker Juergen Stark said on Wednesday, adding there needs to be a realization that a euro zone bail out is forbidden.

A soft restructuring of Greece's sovereign debt is not on the cards, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny told Austrian radio, insisting Greece take the lead on shoring up its finances.

Euro zone finance ministers approved a 78 billion euro ($110 billion) bailout for Portugal but as a condition of the deal insisted that Lisbon ask private bondholders to maintain their exposure to its debt.

U.S. Dollar Gold Prices continued on Monday morning where they'd left off on Friday, zigzagging around $1495 while global stock markets fell along with major industrial commodities oil and copper.

The meeting of euro zone finance ministers and other luminaries in Brussels, Belgium has been rocked by the arrest of International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn over the weekend in New York on sexual assault charges.

Restructuring Greece's sovereign debt would pose potentially incalculable risks to the overall euro zone and will not solve the country's fiscal crisis, a senior European Central Bank official said on Friday.

The Portuguese economy contracted for the second straight quarter, placing the debt-strapped country into another recession as the Lisbon government anxiously seeks to reduce spending and increase taxes.

The European Union (EU) has decided to stop its free travel policy across the continent in the midst of fears of migrants fleeing Africa due to the unrest.

Greece seems not to have met terms of its international rescue package recently, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny was quoted as saying on Friday.

The European Commission will propose legislation in coming weeks to bring EU mobile phone roaming charges further into line with national tariffs, EU sources told Reuters Thursday.

As the Greek debt crisis continues to worsen, the euro looks poised to slip further.

The International Monetary Fund urged broad-based action to combat the euro zone debt crisis, saying it was ready to give Greece more aid and asking the European Central Bank to tread carefully in hiking interest rates.

Public services have been halted including trains, ferries and flights have been disrupted by the protests in Athens on Wednesday morning.

Gold rallied to one-week highs at $1526 per ounce in Wednesday morning trade - a gain of 4.3% from last Friday's low - before falling back as world stock markets also cut their rally. Silver has now regained a third of its losses since falling over 30% from a 31-year peak of $48.70 at the end of April.

Greece has been brought to a standstill by a massive strike called by labor unions to protest to government’s austerity programs.

Due to the current unrest in Libya there will not be an effective monitoring and enforcement of the fishery in its waters, it will risk an internationally agreed recovery plan for the severely overfished species. There are reports that several Libyan vessels, legally unauthorized to fish for bluefin, have left from European ports in France (Sète) and Malta.

Greek labor unions, students and others are planning massive a nationwide rally and general strike for tomorrow to protest the government’s austerity budget and deep spending cuts, as well as the imposition of European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) onto the country’s affairs.