EUROPEAN UNION

Rivals to Central African Republic leader Francois Bozize pulled their representatives off the election body on Saturday, alleging fraud after early partial results from last weekend's poll put Bozize in the lead.

Thousands of angry Egyptians defied a curfew on Saturday for the second day in a row and stayed on the streets to push their demand that President Hosni Mubarak resign.

Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, suggested that time may be near to increase the size of The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the European Union’s financial bailout fund reserve.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, set out his vision for “sustainable and balanced” growth in the 21st Century, at Davos world economic forum.

Grains exporter Canada and Morocco, among the region's top wheat importers, on Thursday announced the start of negotiations for a free trade agreement, Morocco's official media reported.

Retail sales in debt-stricken Spain fell sharply in December 2010, recording a decline in sales for the sixth consecutive month.

In his opening speech at the Davos world economic forum in Switzerland, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev touched on a number of subjects, including why he was late to the confab – the suicide bombing in a Moscow airport that killed 35 people.

Unless the U.S. addresses [its] fiscal problem, we’re going to see a train wreck, said Nouriel Roubini.

Annual bonuses at top global banks are causing ructions that could drive a outsized round of defections as weaker profits and tougher rules widen the pay discrepancy between star performers and everybody else.

Facebook's German business has run into new restrictions on what it can do with email addresses, giving users more control over what happens to the names on their contact lists.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is against the United Nations' recognition of Alassane Ouattara as winner of Ivory Coast's election and wants an African Union probe into the poll, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

China asked importers of caprolactam from the US and the European Union (EU) to pay a security deposit, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Monday.

A faltering and uneven increase in jobs is holding back the overall economic recovery and unemployment is likely to continue at near record levels this year, the International Labour Organisation said on Tuesday.

China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has sued Motorola to delay the sale of the latter's wireless infrastructure business to Nokia Siemens Networks. The lawsuit alleges that such a sale would possibly result in illegal transfer of Huawei's intellectual property.

Global economic recovery is not resulting in job creation, as the number of the unemployed people worldwide stood at a record 205 million last year, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Monday.

Ireland plans to use some of its 24 billion euro pension reserve fund to purchase its own bonds, a move some say is akin to national cannibalism.

Cocoa surged to near its highest price in 30 years as U.S. trader Cargill complied with demands for an export ban from top producer Ivory Coast by Alassane Ouattara, who aims to stop cash reaching his presidential rival.

Nigeria wants U.N. backing for military intervention in Ivory Coast to prevent it slipping into a civil war that could destabilise the West African region, Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Monday.

Political parties in Ireland will hold crisis talks following the abrupt departure of the Green Party from the coalition led by Prime Minister Brian Cowen.

Factories in the euro zone reported the strongest monthly price increase on record for raw materials and fuel in January, according to a business survey that again showed German strength propelling the bloc's service sector.

European governments must urgently decide on common measures to protect the stability of the euro zone, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told a German newspaper Monday.