The European Parliament's main eurosceptic group will not support European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term if a vote goes ahead in the EU assembly next week, its leader said on Monday. Barroso will appear before each of the parliament's political groups this week in a bid to persuade them to give

Fast food giant McDonald's on Tuesday lost an eight-year trademark battle against a Malaysian curry restaurant after the country's highest court allowed the latter to use the prefix 'Mc'. Malaysia's Federal Court dismissed an application by McDonald's Corporation to appeal against an earlier Appeals Court judgment which allowed McCurry to use the prefix. Chief Judge

British companies expect to cut jobs at a slower pace in the next three months with some sectors, notably finance, expecting to boost headcount, a survey showed on Tuesday. A quarterly survey by recruitment firm Manpower showed a seasonally adjusted net balance of -2 percent of firms planned to cut jobs between October and December.

Japanese bank lending grew at the slowest pace in a year in the 12 months to August partly as companies saddled with excess capacity have less need to borrow funds for capital expenditure. At the same time, August's money supply rose from a year earlier at the fastest rate in more than nine years, suggesting

Asian shares touched a one-year high on Tuesday, while gold prices hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six months in a sign of investor concerns about the sustainability of the global economic recovery. Asian shares shrugged off a lack of direction from holidaying U.S. markets and most powered higher, including laggards such

Investors jumped into equities on Monday, sending world stocks close to their highest level for the year, while the dollar weakened across the board as demand for riskier assets took hold. A weekend agreement by the G20 to keep economic stimuli running helped drive risk appetite. The meeting bolstered the view that interest rates will

Investors jumped back into equities on Monday, sending world stocks close to their highest level for the year, while the dollar weakened against a basket of currencies as demand for risky assets rose across the board. U.S. jobs data and a weekend agreement by the G20 to keep economic stimuli running helped drive risk appetite.