PORTUGAL

Brazil will propose that it and other large emerging market countries make billions of dollars in new funds available to the International Monetary Fund as a way to help ease the crisis in the euro zone, an official said on Monday.

The European Union will call on China this week to boost domestic demand and on the United States and Japan to tackle their public deficits as part of global efforts to rebalance growth, an EU document showed.

Largely unnoticed by markets riveted by the drama of the day, more and more countries are successfully implementing complex, politically treacherous reforms needed to raise their long-term economic growth rates.

Gold fell Monday in midday trading as investors decided to diversify their safe-haven opportunities by increasing their holdings of U.S. Treasuries, the dollar and the Japanese yen, said George Cocalis, senior market strategist for PFGBEST.

Gold prices held steady Monday, as concerns about Europe's sovereign debt crisis, its weak financial sector and divisions among leaders about how to solve the crises drove investors into safe-haven securities like the U.S. dollar.

Brown explained that the financial woes in Europe are, at their essence, a crisis in banking, not debt.

Moody's Investors Service on Friday said it would finish reviewing Italy's Aa2 sovereign currency credit rating for possible downgrade within the next month, adding Italy faces a challenging economic and financial environment.

Swiss drugmaker Roche has halted deliveries of drugs to some state-owned Greek hospitals, the Wall Street Journal reported the company's chief executive as saying.

COPENHAGEN -- Helle Thorning-Schmidt has become the first female prime minister of Denmark, according results of the Danish general election on Thursday.

At a meeting with E.U. finance ministers, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made the case for a leveraged E.U. buyout fund ala the U.S.'s successful 2008 TALF, to help address Europe’s banking crisis, but the structure and size of any beefed-up intervention mechanism remained undetermined as of Friday night in Europe.

Speculation is growing in markets that Greece will be unable to avoid a full-blown default, despite two international bailouts and pledges of support from the eurozone's biggest economies.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told EU finance ministers on Friday they should end loose talk about a euro zone break-up and work more closely with the European Central Bank to tackle the debt crisis.

Europe and the United States could face 10 years of slow growth and high unemployment if a global solution for the euro zone debt crisis is not implemented soon, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday.

Gold and silver prices moved higher late Thursday after posting big losses in the New York futures market.

Gold and silver fell hard Thursday after five major central banks announced a coordinated plan to inject U.S. dollars into European banks straining under the load of the continent's sovereign debt crisis.

The world's major central banks, led by the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, in a coordinated effort Thursday intervened to provide dollar loans to commercial banks in an effort to maintain liquidity in Europe and check institutional investor concern about Europe's private sector banks. What will be the impact on U.S. stocks?

Billionaire investor George Soros has warned Europe's debt crisis risks triggering another Great Depression unless euro zone leaders adopt a series of radical policy measures, including the creation of a common treasury.

This week, UCLA scientists are presenting research findings that indicate two popular diabetes medications may increase patients' risk of cancer.

A spokesman for Merkel said that she and Sarkozy emphasized that Athens must dutifully adhere to its deficit-reduction goals.

Around 366 million people worldwide are affected with diabetes, reported the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

European shares rose and the euro pared losses on Wednesday after the head of the European Commission said it would soon present options for the introduction of euro area bonds, offering a glimmer of hope for an easing of the sovereign debt crisis.