Greece's austerity measures are hurting revenues and hindering deficit-cutting efforts while more jobs are lost, fresh economic data showed on Friday. Heavy debt payments and weak revenues weighed on the budget amid a deepening recession, with the deficit falling behind a full-year reduction target in the year to August, for the first time since the

A new five-year deal between ABC, Australia's national broadcaster, and Ericsson will help hundreds of thousands of Australians living in rural communities who are currently unable to access the same free-to-air, high-quality, digital TV experience as their urban counterparts. Thanks to Ericsson's latest satellite video compression technology, ABC will be able to expand the reach

The Greek tourist product is showing great endurance despite the negative events occuring in the current tourist season, according to data processed and published on Tuesday by the Federation of Greek Tourist Enterprises from the country's 13 main airports. More specifically, at the country's most important airports over the January-August period a decrease of 1.02

Greece fell to the 83rd place in the global competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum this year, down from 71st in 2009, reflecting a worsening of the macro-economic environment in the country. A WEF report stated that the worsening macro-economic environment combined with the “poor” operation of institutions and low-market efficiency pushed Greece lower

Greece missed its deficit cutting target for the first time this year, provisional finance ministry data for the January-August period showed on Friday, due to heavy debt payments and worse-than-expected revenues. The budget deficit of the country's central government shrank at an annual pace of 32.2 percent to 14.49 billion euros ($18.38 billion) in the

Cyprus in 2008 recorded the highest state expenditure as a percentage of the GDP for education among the EU countries, figures released today by Eurostat show. Cyprus' total state expenditure in 2008 reached 42.6% of GDP, compared to an EU average of 46.8%. According to the allocation of public expenditure per sector, expenditure on education

A rare book by America's most famous bird artist, John James Audubon, billed as the most expensive in the world, is going under the hammer in December alongside a first edition of Shakespeare's plays. "Birds of America," which is estimated to sell for between 4 million and 6 million pounds ($6.2-$9.2 million), was said by

China and Taiwan will negotiate an investment guarantee deal later this year seen as vital to encourage investment from the mainland, officials and analysts said on Friday. The political rivals, who signed a free-trade style deal in June in their biggest tie-up after decades of animosity, will meet in Taiwan to discuss and probably sign

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to a two-month low, while the trade deficit narrowed sharply in July, hopeful signs for the stuttering economic recovery. Analysts said the reports on Thursday helped to calm fears growth was slowing sharply and implied the economy could soon pull out of a