
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked US disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

Germany and France warned Greece it will get no more bailout funds until it agrees with creditor banks on a bond swap and pressed for an early deal to avert a potential default in the Euro zone's most debt-stricken nation.

UK's Prime Minister David Cameron said for the first time he would veto a European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was imposed globally, deepening a confrontation with European Union heavyweights France and Germany.

China's lending and money supply grew at a faster pace than expected as the country relaxed its credit restrictions. New loans worth 640.5bn Yuan (101bn dollars) were issued in December, up from 562.2bn Yuan in November.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will welcome his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday on his first stop of a five-nation tour of Latin America, state media reported.

Jamaica's new Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has said she intends to make the island a republic, removing Queen Elizabeth as the head of state. In her inaugural address, Ms Simpson Miller said the time had come for Jamaica to break with the British monarchy and have its own president.

Latin America trade with India could go up to 50 billion dollars by 2014 on the back of projected high economic growth in both the regions, said R. Viswanathan, India's ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The Euro is likely to survive 2012 despite the debt crisis in the Euro currency zone, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

President Barack Obama kicked off an effort to encourage US businesses to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas, as he rolled out a new election-year theme aimed at courting middle-class voters.

Bosses' pay should have to be approved by votes among shareholders as part of efforts to restrain rising inequality Prime Minister David Cameron was quoted as saying in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.