GOLD

Gold prices busted a three-day winning streak Friday as fresh evidence of Eurozone instability piqued investors' desire for something safe and liquid.

Australian gold miner Resolute Mining said it made a 700,000-ounce gold discovery at its Tabacoroni joint venture with Etruscan Resources that would boost output from its Syama mine in Mali by about 100,000 ounces a year.

Gold and silver mining companies were falling Thursday - despite strength in the prices of both gold and silver and the broader stock market posting gains.

Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc is scaling up mining and milling output and concentrate sales at its giant Indonesian mine as more employees report for work, it said on Friday, even as the union extended a pay strike by a month.

The gods are always envious of the talented and it became evident on Wednesday - Apple's co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, a visionary and creative genius, died at 56 after fighting a long battle with cancer.

Gold will stay strong due to a lack of alternative havens for investors operating in a slowing global economy, top performing commodity fund managers told Reuters after taking a defensive approach and going into cash during September's gold sell off.

Gold prices edged higher Thursday after the government reported surprisingly strong September hiring, but not strong enough to lower the nation's nominal unemployment rate.

Gold headed up Friday for its biggest weekly gain in a month as equities regained strength after fresh European efforts to resolve the debt crisis eased worries about a global recession, while purchases from jewelers offered additional support.

The United States claimed Steve Jobs as one its national heroes, but the rest of the world loved him too much to let him go down in history as just an American genius. The outpouring of heart-felt grief across the world over his death was encapsulated by global media that tried to put Jobs' place in history in perspective. Here is a glimpse into how global media looked at Steve Jobs and his legacy:

Gold headed for its biggest weekly gain in a month Friday as equities regained strength after fresh European efforts to resolve the debt crisis eased worries about a global recession, while purchases from jewelers offered additional support.

CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer, a whistle-blower in the recent corruption scandal in the Caribbean that engulfed world soccer's governing body FIFA in controversy, has decided to leave his post at the end of the year.

Olympic 400 meters champion LaShawn Merritt, cleared to run at the 2012 Games by a court ruling Thursday having previously been barred for doping, said he would pull out all the stops to succeed in London.

Albania will invite bids for 151 mining licenses this year and plans to allocate 20 of them in weekly competitions, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Mining said on Thursday.

Cross watered down versions of Rocky with Terminator 2 and Transformers and you get Real Steel, a clanking yarn about a man, a boy and their boxing robot.

Gold prices booked two gains in a row Thursday and silver surged after the European Central Bank and Britain's central bank acted to protect the continent's staggering banks.

Ghana is likely to miss its target of boosting oil production to 120,000 barrels per day by the end of the year due to technical challenges, the head of state oil company GNPC said on Thursday, marking a second delay.

Platinum just finished plunging more than 22 percent from its late August level and the bottom has still not come into view.

Gold fell in choppy trade on Thursday after the European Central Bank held off flagging an imminent cut in interest rates, deflating an earlier rally in assets seen as higher risk, such as equities and the euro.

Now that Apple's visionary leader Steve Jobs has died, one of Jobs' most successful innovative companies, Pixar, is in jeopardy of losing its creative touch.

The Canadian dollar weakened sharply against its U.S. counterpart in early trade on Thursday after the European Central Bank held interest rates unchanged, dashing hopes it might cut rates to stimulate growth.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cleared the way on Thursday for several dozen former doping offenders to compete at next year's Olympics after dismissing the validity of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) eligibility rule.