EUROPEAN UNION

Newly installed Prime Minister Mario Monti got straight to work at the weekend, reviewing Italy's parlous finances before a round of meetings in coming days with European leaders to discuss the growing Eurozone debt crisis.

Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been captured in Libya's southern desert, scared and with only a handful of supporters, by fighters who vow to hold him in the mountain town of Zintan until there is a government to hand him over to.

This is clearly an austerity budget, as most member states are in the midst of a serious financial crisis, said EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski.

The son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is being held by Zintani rebels, authorities confirm, and will face trial for crimes against humanity. But will Saif al-Islam be tried in Libya, or by the International Criminal Court? And what role did al-Islam, once a Western-styled reformer, play in the brutal repression of the February uprisings?

European Union negotiators agreed to a two percent rise in the bloc's budget for next year to 129 billion euros ($174 billion), following more than fifteen hours of talks which ended in the early hours of Saturday morning.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have tried to put a happy face on their Friday meeting in Berlin, the two prominent European leaders differ sharply on ways to resolve the Eurozone debt crisis.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told euro zone governments on Friday to act fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing exasperation at their lack of progress in responding to the escalating debt crisis.

On Friday, Indonesian budget airline Lion Air placed a $21.7 billion order with Boeing, the airplane giant's biggest commercial order on record.

Papademos’ government also promised that it will not have to enact any further austerity cuts.

The new austerity measures are expected to be opposed by the country’s powerful trade unions.

The European Central Bank has secretly imposed a weekly limit of about 20 billion euros ($27 billion) on its euro zone sovereign bond-buying program, according to a report in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on Friday.

Italian and Spanish government debt yields fell on Friday, as the European Central Bank bought bonds in the secondary market, but held close to unsustainable levels as contagion fears and money market stress raised the pressure for policymaker action.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told euro zone governments Friday to act fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing exasperation at their lack of progress in response to an escalating debt crisis.

Cassava is crucial to the health of Africans, providing much-needed carbohydrates for around 200 million people on the continent.

German fashion house Hugo Boss AG expects good business in the United States and Europe this holiday season

Monti has vowed to reduce debt, while seeking to maintain economic growth and social equity.

Superbugs capable of evading even the most powerful antibiotics are increasing their grip in Europe with rates of drug resistance in one type of bacteria reaching 50 percent in the worst-hit countries, health officials said Thursday.

The Madrid government 3.56 billion euros of new bonds, short of the maximum target of four billion euros.

Gold prices fell Thursday as contagion from Europe's sovereign debt crisis began engulfing the continent's once-mighty economies.

Spain and France struggled with government bond auctions on Thursday, throwing into sharp relief the threat of larger euro zone economies succumbing to the debt crisis that began in Greece and is already lapping at Italy's shores.

Asian shares wobbled Thursday as doubts deepened about Europe's ability to stop its sovereign debt crisis from spinning out of control, with Germany and France split over the European Central Bank's bond buying role.