In Istanbul's Gezi Park, yoga practitioners stretch and students read in a makeshift library – a statement of their intent to stay on after a week of protests. At night demonstrators taunt riot police from beyond barricades on the streets around Taksim Square. Those in its Gezi Park hold sit-down protests and discuss Turkey's future.

The European Central Bank kept its main interest rate on hold at a record low 0.5 percent on Thursday, saying that improved economic data in May confirmed its forecast of a gradual recovery from prolonged recession later this year. ECB President Mario Draghi told a news conference the bank's easy monetary policy "should continue to

The European Commission on Thursday rejected the International Monetary Fund's view that lenders mishandled the first Greek bailout in 2010 by allowing Athens to delay a debt restructuring to 2012. The Commission – which together with the IMF and the European Central Bank forms the Troika that prepared the bailouts of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain

The euro hit four-week high against a weaker dollar on Thursday and stocks edged down ahead of a European Central Bank meeting at which no change in rates is expected although economic forecasts may be tweaked. The ECB cut its main interest rate to a record low 0.5 percent in May and is likely to

Asian shares tumbled to fresh 2013 lows on Thursday as growing uncertainty on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would roll back its stimulus this year kept markets on edge, while turbulence in Japanese equities led to choppy dollar-yen trade. European stock markets looks set to stay under pressure, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100

Asked if he would ever quit IKEA, 87-year-old founder Ingvar Kamprad told an interviewer last year he "had no time to die". But his latest step back from the world's biggest furniture group has pushed a younger generation to the fore. Kamprad, who founded the business 70 years ago and is one of Europe's wealthiest