Palash Ghosh

British comedian Ricky Gervais outraged the audience at The Golden Globe awards show last night in Los Angeles. Many of the targets of his sadistic jokes were sitting in the audience, increasing the discomfort of both TV viewers and the attendants. Here is a selection of Gervais’ most outrageous remarks from the show:

Mohamed Bouazizi, the unemployed 26-year-old Tunisian whose self-immolation sparked the riots in that country and ultimately toppled the president, has apparently inspired a series of copycat across North Africa, according to media reports.

Just hours after more street violence in Tunis and days after the former President was ousted, a new national unity government has been formed in Tunisia, according to a report in BBC News.

During an appearance on CBS TV’s Face the Nation program on Sunday, Rudy Giuliani did not the rule out the possibility of again running for the White House in 2012, despite an aborted Presidential bid in 2008.

Ed Miliband, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, has joined a growing chorus of critics expressing reservations over BP plc’s (NYSE: BP) joint venture with Russian energy giant Rosneft to explore potentially massive oil and gas deposits on the Arctic shelf – BP’s first major deal since last year’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Brian Cowen, the embattled Prime Minister of Ireland, has said he will not resign from his office despite mounting pressure on him to do so as result of the nation’s huge deficit and massive $90-billion bailout package.

Rudolf Elmer, a former Swiss banker, has handed over two data discs containing sensitive details of the accounts of 2,000 prominent people to Julian Assange, the boss of Wikileaks.

Marine Le Pen, the daughter of France’s extreme right-wing icon Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been chosen to lead the country’s National Front political party, succeeding her father who led the group for almost 40 years.

Legendary New York gangster, 93-year-old John Sonny Franzese, the alleged underboss of the Colombo crime family, has been sentenced to eight years in prison – essentially a life term – for extortion.

BP is preparing to announce a major deal with Rosneft, the state-owned Russian energy giant, according to a report from the BBC.

Stocks rose modestly, boosted by strong corporate earnings from J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), allowing the S&P 500 index to score its seventh consecutive week of gains.

During the dark days of 2008 as its banking system and economy was collapsing, the cash-strapped government of Iceland asked the United States for a $1-billion loan, according to a WikiLeaks document.

Vincent McCrudden, a commodities fund manager, was arrested at Newark Airport, on charges he threatened to murder dozens of government officials who brought an enforcement action against him.

Echoing some of the recent warnings from famed analyst Meredith Whitney, the chief executive of J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon said he thinks more municipalities will face bankruptcies this year.

Fitch Ratings on Friday put Tunisia's long-term foreign currency credit rating of BBB on watch for a potential downgrade, citing the upsurge in deadly violence in the north African nation in recent weeks.

Two former executives of Iceland's failed Landsbanki bank have been arrested on charges of market manipulation.

The besieged president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has fled the country, according to various media reports, amidst the worst civil disturbances the North African country has witnessed in decades.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the U.K. has issued an advisory recommending that British citizens avoid travel to Tunisia due to the surge in civil disturbances in the country. The US and France have also advised against non-essential travel to Tunisia.

High-profile banking analyst Richard Bove said the U.S. banking sector is entering into a “golden age.” The financial strategist at Rochdale Securities explains that banks have so flush cash on their balance sheets that corporate earnings will grow by 20 percent annually over the next few years.

Due to the dampening effects of the recession, migration within the U.S. crawled to its lowest rate in recorded history last year, potentially creating a ‘lost generation’ among Americans.

Inflation risks in the euro zone could well move to the upside and the 17-country region's economic outlook has clearly improved, European Central Bank Governing Council Axel Weber said on Friday.

Stocks edged down on a disappointing labor market data

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, said the U.S. economy is likely to grow by 3 percent to 4 percent in 2011 (a faster expansion than in 2010), but that such growth will not be sufficient to reduce unemployment to acceptable levels.

Sarah Palin will probably never become President of the U.S. because she does not have an Ivy League education.

Heavy monsoons and resultant floods have affected nearly 1-million people in the north central and eastern provinces of the island nation and have killed at least two dozen people. It is believed that more than 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Moody’s Investors Service warns that the U.S., U.K., Germany and France need to clamp down on health care and pension expenditures in order to stabilize their debt structure over the long term.

In a development that may underscore a growing resentment of Asian business acumen on the African continent, authorities in Tanzania recently ordered foreign traders doing business in a key market in the capital city of Dar es Salaam to close up shop and depart the country within thirty days or risk arrest and prosecution.

After repossessing more than a record 1 million homes in the U.S., banks are now poised to foreclosure on even more properties in 2011, according to Realty Trac Inc.

Stock rallied as banks/financials stocks pushed higher following an upgrade of the sector by Wells Fargo and a successful bond offering in Portugal.