FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Gold mining has been a boon --not a curse -- to the Peruvian national economy over the past decade, helping lift specific mining communities out of poverty, a report released Friday by the gold-mining industry group World Gold Council, said.

Zambia's new President Michael Sata announced plans to overhaul the constitution on Friday, the latest step in his top-to-bottom review of the way Africa's top copper producer is run.

The advantages of doing business and investing in India include a federal government system with clear powers established between the central government and state governments, a liberal and friendly investment climate, and liberal and clear policies on foreign direct investment from other major economies of the world.

A group of executives advising President Barack Obama said Tuesday two very good ways to create more jobs in the U.S. are: attract $1 trillion in foreign direct investment within five years and upgrade the nation's transportation/energy infrastructure.

Starbucks Corp is finalising an equity joint venture with Tata Coffee Ltd for opening coffee shops in Asia's third-largest economy, the Times of India reported on Monday.

Talks between bitter rivals Georgia and Russia over Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization ended without agreement on Saturday, and Georgia said it would block Russian accession unless Moscow's position changes.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, cancelled a trip to South Africa planned for this week that had put Pretoria in a bind between its biggest trading partner China and one of its modern heroes, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.

India reached 66 percent of its full-year fiscal deficit target just five months into the financial year, reinforcing worries about its ability to stick to the budgeted target for the year that ends in March.

Morocco's antitrust authority pledged total even-handedness in dealing with businesses owned by the monarchy, but exception may be made in sectors that help preserve social stability and firms that are leaders in other sectors, its head said in an interview.

India is moving quickly on a plan to open its $450 billion retail sector to global players such as Wal-Mart, the country's industry secretary said on Wednesday, in a sign the government may be pressing ahead with a key reform.

Pakistan's Baluchistan province has objected to a mining lease being sought by a joint venture between Antofagasta and Barrick Gold, further delaying a major planned copper and gold project in the country's southwest.

The economic effects of political revolution in Egypt suggests that freedom came with a price.

E. Coli allegations have resulted in an EU ban on Egyptian fenugreek seeds. Fears loom that the Egyptian economy will take a major hit.

The number of Egyptians injured in protests today is actually more than ten times the amount reported by international media this morning.

Finance chiefs from the United States and India pledged on Tuesday to continue efforts to open up India's financial, retail, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors to competition but offered no specific measures to boost access for American firms.

The World Bank's political risk guarantee agency said on Monday it would mobilize about $1 billion for insurance coverage for countries in the Middle East and North Africa to encourage foreign direct investment.

The political crisis has pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war has also cost the economy $ 5 billion and the country requires immediate aid to prevent a meltdown, the country's trade minister said on Saturday.

IMF member nations, acknowledging resistance from emerging markets to limits on capital controls, said rich nations' policies that spur large capital outflows that could harm other economies also need oversight.

A Tanzania business group has opposed a new U.S. law labeling all gold produced in countries neighbouring the conflict-hit Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as conflict mineral.

Even with Middle Eastern tumult tearing down governments and pushing up oil prices, China will stay a restrained regional player, reluctant to gamble a growing pile of economic chips for uncertain political gains.

At least 100,000 trade unionists marched through the Indian capital on Wednesday in a protest against high food prices and unemployment, piling pressure on an administration under fire over corruption scandals.