ELECTIONS

During his victory speech, the new French president explicitly disavowed austerity.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc is adding to its shareholdings of two U.S. companies amid a market dip, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Monday.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as elections in France and Greece stirred up new uncertainties about how the region will tackle its ongoing debt crisis.

Futures on major US stock indices point to a lower opening Monday after key elections in Europe showed that voters rejected pro-austerity governments.

Asian stock markets plunged Monday as weaker-than-expected US employment report and election results from Europe weighed on investor sentiment.

Oil prices fell Monday to add to the sharp decline in the previous session as French and Greek election results raised doubts about those countries' commitment to the austerity measures to sort out Eurozone debt crisis.

Greece?s socialist-party leader, Evangelos Venizelos, whose Pasok organization was battered in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, has nonetheless called for a wide coalition of parties to support both the country's membership in the euro zone and the terms of its EU-IMF bailouts.

Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a concession speech Sunday night, following his loss to Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in France?s presidential election. I bear the full responsibility for this defeat, Sarkozy said.

Russian riot police beat protesters about the head with batons and detained 250 Sunday after clashes broke out at a Moscow rally by thousands of people against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency.

Le Monde, the French newspaper, has declared Socialist candidate Francois Hollande the winner of the second and decisive round of the country's presidential election with 51.9 percent of the vote, while saying the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy gained 48.1 percent.

Exit polls indicate that Greece's two principal parties, the conservative New Democracy (ND) and Socialist PASOK, have incurred big losses in popularity, suggesting that a formation of a coalition government dedicated to maintaining austerity is in great jeopardy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives stood neck-and-neck with the rival Social Democrats (SPD) in an election in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, projections showed on Sunday, pointing to weeks of tough coalition talks to form a government.

Golden Dawn, which seeks to deport illegal immigrants from Greece, needed at least 5 percent of the electorate, in order to have representation in parliament.

Sarkozy is convinced that the polls are wrong and he can win a second term.

The two leading mainstream parties will likely have to form an uneasy coalition in order to form a new government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday an early general election on Sept. 4.

French voters turned out in force Sunday in the second round of presidential elections that are likely to make Nicolas Sarkozy the 11th European leader to be swept from office by the economic crisis.

Polling began in Greece Sunday in an early general election that could push the debt struck country to further turmoil and uncertainty.

Both the center-right New Democracy and the center-left Pasok parties could be in for beatings on Sunday as Greece conducts its first general parliamentary elections since the country's sovereign-debt crisis mushroomed in late 2009.

In accordance with global May Day celebrations, the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia has introduced a minimum wage for the first time, following a decade of pressure by labor unions.

Disappointing jobs growth in the U.S., together with shrinking manufacturing and services activity in the euro zone, had equities and commodities in retreat and bond yields down. News this weekend isn't likely to calm jitters, with elections in both Greece and France, which may get its first new socialist president since 1981.