PORTUGAL

There is one thing that the doomsayers have gotten wrong: They aren?t nearly worried enough.

Portugal still faces some tough challenges but is on track to meet this year's budget deficit goal despite a shortfall in performance so far, officials from the European Union and IMF said on Friday.

Syrian forces killed at least five people in an assault on two northern towns on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a military campaign to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad despite new U.S. sanctions and regional calls to end bloodshed.

Some $4 trillion has been wiped off the value of world stocks this month on concerns the euro zone debt crisis is spreading to Italy and Spain and hurting Europe's banking system, and the global economy is falling into recession.

Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, wiping out most of the previous session's gains, on fears of tumult in the French banking sector, which has significant exposure to shaky European debt.

Federal Reserve policymakers began meeting on Tuesday under growing pressure to take some type of action to stem a financial market meltdown linked to fears of a new U.S. recession.

The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would "actively implement" its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion.

The European Central Bank waved its big fire hose at blazing bond markets, then turned on a puny sprinkler.

The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would "actively implement" its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion.

The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would actively implement its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion.

The European Central Bank will intervene decisively on markets to protect Italy and Spain from an accelerating debt crisis, a monetary source said on Sunday, indicating it would buy government bonds of the euro zone's third and fourth biggest economies.

Fabregas has appeared in 212 games for Arsenal and has managed to find the back of the net 35 times.

The new coach makes his debut with the U.S. team.

Mohamed El-Erian has the best explanation of what happened in the markets yesterday. First and foremost, there were ?technical factors?. This doesn?t mean lines on charts and head-and-shoulders patterns and similar astrological nonsense, but rather the dynamics of where investors? money was being held and the amount that the market would fall given a modest downward nudge. Sometimes that number is tiny, but it can fluctuate a lot, and yesterday it just happened to be huge.

When Charles Berry started his career as a bonds trader in 1993, he used to draw "point and figure" charts on pieces of paper. He checked his old charts recently to remind himself how calm markets were in those days. Back then, it took three months for a price to move 200 ticks -- the measure traders use to show changes in futures or currency markets. Now the market moves 400 ticks in a week.

The U.S. economy unexpectedly added 117,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. Equally significant, the private sector added 154,000 jobs. The report was a pleasant surprise, but the nation is still in a deep hole job-wise -- short about 14 million jobs.

When Charles Berry started his career as a bonds trader in 1993, he used to draw point and figure charts on pieces of paper. He checked his old charts recently to remind himself how calm markets were in those days. Back then, it took three months for a price to move 200 ticks -- the measure traders use to show changes in futures or currency markets. Now the market moves 400 ticks in a week.

World stocks sank for an eighth straight session of losses on Friday, with investors racked by worries about the slowing global economy and the dangerous spread of euro zone debt anguish into Italy and Spain.

The European Central Bank resumed buying government bonds from the market and offered a new round of funding to commercial banks on Thursday in response to a worsening euro zone debt crisis.

The European Central Bank signaled on Thursday that it was buying government bonds in response to a deepening debt crisis as it also offered a new round of liquidity to banks.

Euro zone sovereign bond markets steadied on Thursday ahead of a crucial European Central Bank policy-setting meeting that investors hope will signal a more aggressive approach to fighting the currency area's debt crisis.