EUROPEAN UNION

More than one in five young Italians are neither working nor studying in school, the highest such proportion of inactive youths in the European Union, according to the country’s national statistics office, ISTAT.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said an African effort to mediate Ivory Coast's disputed poll had failed on Wednesday, blaming incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and warning of harsh sanctions or force if he did not step down.

One in five young Italians, or more than 2 million people, are not studying nor working, the highest percentage of idle youths in the European Union, the national statistics office said on Wednesday.

China's exports of vital rare earth elements used for numerous high-tech goods slipped almost one-tenth last year but the overall value rocketed as quota cuts lifted international prices, data showed on Wednesday.

The boss of a German technology company has apparently lost his job as a result of comments attributed to him in a WikiLeaks document.

Talks to end Ivory Coast's post-election standoff remain in deadlock, with no sign Laurent Gbagbo will agree to step down as president and his rival unwilling to meet him until he does, mediators said on Tuesday.

Algeria bought 600,000 tonnes of wheat, traders said on Monday, snapping up grain at a time of high prices and tight supply even as neighbouring countries take measures to head off Tunisia-style unrest over food inflation.

Developing countries and economies in transition together attracted more foreign investment than developed countries in 2010 for the first time, a United Nations study showed on Monday.

International observers gave south Sudan's independence referendum their seal of approval on Monday and said a vote for secession was now virtually certain in their first official judgment on the poll.

Bloody post-election deadlock in Ivory Coast washed into the halls of West Africa's central bank on Friday, where rival presidents see control of state funds as a key to victory in a battle that has cost hundreds of lives.

Companies will no longer be able to force staff to retire at 65, Britain's government said on Thursday in a move to boost the number of older people staying on at work as the population ages.

2011 is shaping up as a race to the bottom for currency values, writes Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff in today's Financial Times. No wonder gold has been so attractive.

President Hu Jintao of China is coming to America next week, to meet with President Barack Obama and discuss relations between the world’s two largest economies.

Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fired his interior minister on Wednesday to try to staunch the worst unrest in decades, but fresh clashes with police broke out and witnesses said one man was killed

In his first speech as Britain’s new Minister of Trade and Investment, Stephen Green (The Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint) emphasized the vital importance of China to British UK economy.

Pork tainted with the highly toxic chemical dioxin may have been sold in Germany, authorities said on Wednesday.

The extra fiscal stimulus in the form of tax cuts approved in December could produce a 4 percent growth rate for the U.S. economy in the first half of 2011, but there are lingering risks that could lead to a cold shower in 2012, according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

The Greek budget deficit narrowed more than targeted last year, mainly led by a drop in government spending.

Matthew Lynn, a business writer, gives a detailed explanation of this failure in his book Bust: Greece, the Euro and the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Economy in both the euro area and the EU27 grew at a much slower pace in the second quarter, according to the second estimate by Eurostat, the official statistical office of the European Union

Silver and Gold Prices both unwound the last of late Dec.'s gains in early London trade on Wednesday, retreating to $29.20 and $1370 respectively per ounce on what several analysts called profit taking as world stock markets also fell.