Coffee prices topped 3 US dollars a pound in New York for the first time since 1977, as prospects of another production deficit combined with a sliding dollar to encourage fund buying.
India is working on “upgrading” the tariffs agreement with Mercosur, which could translate in more items of trade being included in the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) or move to free trade agreement with the LATAM countries.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been appointed as an unpaid advisor to the World Economic Forum. He is to be the chairman of a new policy and initiatives co-ordination board.
France considers Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi the leading candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet at the helm of the European Central Bank. However the key decision maker, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has yet to tip her hand. Merkel’s aides have indicated that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, no longer insists on a German to succeed Trichet.
Gold advanced to a record, set for the best run since November 2006 after rising for nine days, as investors sought to protect their wealth against a weaker dollar, faster inflation and geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Silver climbed to a 31-year high.
The head of the World Trade Organization warned the decade-old Doha Round talks on a new global commerce deal involving billions of dollars are at serious risk because of differences over cutting tariffs on industrial goods.
Security forces have reportedly shot dead at least three people and injured others in north-west Syria, days after the worst bloodshed since unrest began. Police and soldiers opened fire from rooftops in the coastal town of Jabla, though no protest was being held at the time, witnesses said.
The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia's recent series of droughts, scientists say. Writing in in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics.
Italian carmaker Fiat says it has reached a deal to buy an additional 16% stake in Chrysler for 1.27bn US dollars. The move takes Fiat's stake in the US's third-largest carmaker to 46% and raises speculation about an eventual takeover this year.
Turbulence generated by speeding motor boats kills significant numbers of zooplankton, a study has revealed for the first time. Experiments on copepods, tiny crustaceans that live and float in water, show that a third die in waters frequented by propeller-driven boats. That is significantly more than in bodies of water not used by boats.