
Spain said it doesn’t need to adopt further austerity measures to stem a surge in borrowing costs as the central government’s budget gap narrowed by almost half.

Fast-growing emerging markets would be facing currency appreciation pressures even without the US quantitative easing policy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview on Tuesday.

World leaders and countries that have wild tigers endorsed a major plan to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022 underscoring their commitments at the historic International Tiger Conservation Forum.

Fish can shrink during particularly harsh winters, according to researchers. Scientists, based in Norway and Finland, discovered that juvenile brown trout reduced in length by as much as 1cm - shrinkage of approximately 10%.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen defied mounting pressure to quit and announced Monday he would stay in office until parliament passed an austerity budget needed to secure an IMF/EU bailout and then call an early election.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet Monday sought to reassure investors on the resilience of the Euro-zone as Ireland's formal request for financial assistance from the bloc sparked nervousness on European credit markets.

Ireland became the second Euro country to seek a rescue as the cost of saving its banks threatened a rerun of the Greek debt crisis that destabilized the currency. The Euro rose and European bond risk fell Monday following the announcement of the package.

Argentina and South Africa signed on Saturday on board a South African navy vessel docked in Buenos Aires a wide ranging agreement on defense development and military co-operation.

The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest and most dynamic industries in today’s global economy expected to generate about 9% of total GDP and provide for more than 235 million jobs in 2010 representing 8% of global employment.

China's central bank has raised the amount of money that lenders must keep in reserve, as it moves again to try to control the country's high inflation. The People's Bank of China said the reserve ratio would go up by a further 0.5 percentage points on 29 November.