UNEMPLOYMENT

Another month of inadequate job growth allows prospective Republician Party Mitt Romney to double down on the tactic that has so far defined his presidential campaign: keep the focus on President Barack Obama.

The U.S. government's report Friday that 163,000 jobs were created last month, far more than expected, sparked a risk-on sentiment among investors.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the birth control program, in place for the past 20 years, has outlived its purpose.

More than 35 years after Franco’s death, the generalissimo remains a divisive figure -- detested by liberals and socialists, ignored by many, but revered by an ever-diminishing group of right-wing admirers.

U.S. stock index futures point to a higher opening Friday ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' nonfarm payrolls report and unemployment report.

Health minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi told Iranian reporters that the government will now spend 190 billion rials (about $15 billion) to encourage Iranians to have larger families.

President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP candidate Mitt Romney shifted their election campaigns to some heavily contested states this week, where polls show Democrats have a narrow lead.

The number of Americans lining up for new jobless benefits last week rose less than expected, the Labor Department said Thursday, partly reflecting the volatility of applications during the annual auto-plant retooling period.

Looking for a job with higher pay and superior benefits? Well, unfortunately, those are becoming "endangered species."

U.S. stock index futures point to a higher opening Thursday with investors keeping a close watch on the European Central Bank meeting later in the day, which is expected to announce stimulus measures to revive the economic growth.

Asian shares eased Thursday as investors turned increasingly cautious with hopes of stimulus action by central banks fading ahead of a European Central Bank's meeting later in the day and after the U.S. Federal Reserve took no action a day earlier.

Unconventional times require unconventional measures, and with the U.S. economy growing at a truly tepid rate, perhaps it's time to try an innovative fiscal stimulus proposal recommended by an economist about three years ago.

Members of Greece's far-right nationalist Golden Dawn party were out in full force Wednesday handing out free food to the needy, so long as they could provide the appropriate documentation to prove they were Greek citizens.

Thalia Paraskeva, 24, was getting increasingly desperate. Equipped with a degree in graphic design from Athens, she had no luck finding a job in Greece. One day, she booked a ticket to Berlin and swiftly packed some dresses, a jacket, a pair of snug boots and a Greek-German dictionary before boarding the plane.

More than thirty-five years after Franco?s death, the generalissimo remains a divisive figure.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday offered a gloomier view of the economy as the labor market showed no sign of improvement since its last meeting. However, despite mounting signs of a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy, central bank officials decided to take more time to make up their mind and refrained from enacting another monetary stimulus.

The financial situation in Iraq, one of the world's largest reservoirs of crude oil, has become grave.

The U.S. private sector added more jobs than forecast in July, ADP reported on Wednesday, giving the market some relief after three sluggish months as it awaits Friday's government employment report.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta praised Tunisia's transition to democracy Monday and said the U.S. is prepared to provide the country with economic and military support.

The numbers released by the White House Friday on a Friday report of the future direction of the U.S. economy look optimistic when compared to economist predictions also included in the report.

The jobless rate in the U.S. has stubbornly remained above 8 percent for more than three years, and the labor market likely saw little improvement in July, economists say in anticipation of the July nonfarm payrolls report due Friday.