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Asian stocks fell around 3% on Thursday after soaring Italian borrowing costs stoked fears that the debt crisis in the euro zone's third biggest economy will overwhelm its financial defences, raising the

The U.S. military has handed over to the Iraqi government its 2nd largest Iraq base, a joint army and air force complex that housed some 36,000 American troops and contractors at the

The risk that Britain's economy will slide into recession in the next 12 months has edged up, and this might prompt the central bank to boost its asset purchase programme again to

The outlook for developed economies remained dangerous in November despite an emerging split between Europe, ravaged by an intensifying sovereign debt crisis, and a slightly better performance in the United States. Reuters

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's pledge to resign after implementing economic reforms did nothing on Wednesday to staunch a perilous collapse in market confidence in Italy. Financial markets have been clamouring for weeks

A European Union with 27 members is incapable of agreeing needed reforms and the time has come to think about forming a smaller group of nations to advance the cause before it

Drugmakers are counting the cost of the deepening euro zone crisis, with further austerity-driven price cuts expected in important European markets, including Italy and France. Growing alarm at multiple government-imposed cuts prompted