PORTUGAL

Stocks tumbled in a holiday-shortened session on worries over threats of war by North Korea and pervasive fears that the euro zone sovereign debt crisis may spread to Spain and Portugal. Apparently, traders saw little solace in what appears to be shaping up as a strong Black Friday on the retail front.

US stocks declined in early trade on Friday as fresh concerns over European debt crisis weighed on sentiment.

Precious metals and euro dropped on Friday as European periphery worries intensified, helping safe-haven interest into the US dollar. EUR/USD touched a fresh 2-month low.

Germany's argument for a policy to make private investors pick up part of the bill for any future bailouts won support from France as more European countries seem to require financial aid.

Sovereign debt crises in peripheral Europe threaten to bring down the overall euro zone economy because European banks are heavily expose those debt.

Stocks tumbled on heightened geopolitical tensions in Korea and rising fears about the spread of euro zone debt crisis. Minutes from the last FOMC meeting which revealed disagreements among policymakers over the efficacy of the second round of quantitative easing did not help market sentiment either.

The Irish government is busy finalizing an austerity plan that is expected to save about 15 billion euros, even as the opposition called for early elections in January.

An unwilling Ireland finally agreed to a bailout to help prolong eurozone's jolly ride to doom, and analysts see a good chance of Portugal following suit in the coming months. However, the bigger question is if Spain, eurozone's fourth largest economy, is well insulated against a Greece- and Ireland-style crisis.

The Irish government has agreed to request a bailout from the European Union and the IMF, according to official statements from Ireland and the Eurogroup.

The coalition of nations waging war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan declared their intention, dependent on actual conditions on the ground, to hand over full responsibility the nation by 2014.

President Barack Obama on Friday praised the steps Portugal Prime Minister Jose Socrates is taking to reduce his nation's budget deficit and debt.

As Ireland appears to be on the verge of resolving its debt crisis, the focus may now shift to yet another fiscally-troubled peripheral euro nation, Portugal.

Coordination on exiting the Aghanistan war, a missile shield system over Europe to protect against Iranian threats, and forging closer ties with Russia will be on the agenda for the NATO summit in Portugal over the next two days.

The nations of the EU-10 – which comprise various countries in Eastern Europe -- have commenced a meaningful economic recovery and look to strengthen even further in 2011, according to a report from the World Bank.

The FIFA Ethics Committee, on Thursday, banned Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Oceania's Reynald Temarii from voting in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids on December 2. The ballot will now go ahead with 22 voters deciding between the nine candidate nations.

European officials are working on a bailout for Ireland that could reach 100 billion euros.

Registration of European passenger cars slumped by 16.6 percent in October against the numbers recorded in the corresponding period a year ago

The European Union (EU) cannot survive if it fails to solve the debt crisis plaguing the continent, warned EU president Herman Van Rompuy.

On Friday at the G20 summit, finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain issued a joint statement saying the holders of any existing euro zone government debt are safe from regulatory changes that would force them to take on additional losses.

The economy grew 0.4 percent in the Euroarea and the EU27 in the third quarter, a little lesser than expectations, according to a report by Eurostat.

Greece's budget problems are far from over, as its deficit is likely to have narrowed much less sharply than the Government had predicted, Capital Economics said in a note. Greece will now come under heavy pressure to implement an even more draconian fiscal squeeze, Ben May, a European economist with Capital Economics, said.