Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis launches a difficult election campaign on Thursday after calling early parliamentary elections to seek a new mandate and deal with a sharp economic crisis. The Greek bourse's benchmark stock index <.ATG> was down 3 percent at 0819 GMT, one of the biggest losses in Europe, in what analysts said was
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Britain's top share index was flat early on Thursday as gains in miners, boosted by stronger metal prices, were offset by weakness in energy stocks and pharmaceuticals. At 0834 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 2.14 points at 4,815.41, after closing down 2.15 points at 4,817.55, on Wednesday. Miners took their cue from China, which
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A monthly gauge of U.S. online labor demand soared in August at its fastest pace in four years, indicating steadier footing for nationwide labor demand, a private research group said on Thursday. Monster Worldwide Inc MNST.O>, an online careers and recruiting firm, said its employment index surged to 121 in August, up 6 percent from
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Who says you can't buy friends? An Australian online marketing company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users. Advertising, marketing and promoting company uSocial (http://usocial.net) said it was targeting social networking sites because of their huge advertising potential. "Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool," Leon
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The fact that the September 3 meeting between Christofias and Talat was cancelled is a bad sign for the Cyprus peace talks. Christofias and Talat were due to meet on Thursday for the official opening of the second round of the negotiations that began exactly a year ago on September 3, 2008, after three months
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The euro zone services economy jumped back almost to recovery in August, with Germany powering back to growth and France just an inch away too, a PMI survey showed on Thursday. The data should reassure the European Central Bank as it meets that the worst of a severe recession is over even though a return
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World stocks ticked higher on Thursday, bolstered by firmer Chinese shares, while the euro gained and the region's government bonds slipped ahead of a European Central Bank monetary policy decision. The yen briefly hit a seven-week high against the dollar as investors grew cautious ahead of Friday's closely-watched U.S. jobs report. The ECB is expected
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Asian shares edged up on Thursday as a surge in the volatile Shanghai market helped underpin indexes around the region, offsetting a rocky start to the month on worries the global economic recovery is losing steam. European stocks were set to struggle in early trade after a dip on Wall Street, with futures on the
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Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis launches a difficult election campaign on Thursday after calling early parliamentary elections to seek a new mandate and deal with the economic crisis. Elections were not due before 2011 but the opposition socialists would have forced an early vote in March, pushing Karamanlis to take a risky gamble and pick
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Japan's stocks slipped and the yen hit a seven-week high on Thursday on unease that Friday's U.S. employment picture may reflect a slower recovery than investors have priced into markets, raising uncertainty about riskier assets. Government bonds edged higher and gold remained near a three-month high reached on Wednesday, after a survey of the U.S.
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