Chinese dairy firms involved in the tainted milk scandal are to compensate the families of the nearly 300,000 affected children, state media said. Twenty-two companies will make an undisclosed one-off cash payment to the families Xinhua reported quoting the China Dairy Industry Association.
Households must not rule out the prospect that the UK's economy shrinks by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent next year if the financial crisis sets off an even more vicious cycle of cutbacks, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
Germany has filed a complaint against Italy at the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Italian judgments awarding damages to victims of Nazi war crimes on the grounds that it has already paid reparations under international treaties with Italy.
Russia has devalued its currency, the rouble, for the third time this week and the seventh time this month. It takes it to its lowest value against the US dollar since January 2006.
The Russian currency has been hit by the price of oil, which is Russia's main export. Oil prices are more than 100 US dollars a barrel below their July peak.
A cookbook based on notes by Charles Darwin's wife Emma, has been published in Britain, a fascinating testimony of Victorian times. Emma Darwin's Recipe Book features more than 40 dishes from her personal cookery notebook, which is housed in Cambridge University Library.
Official figures have revealed that Japanese manufacturing has dropped at its fastest rate on record, with companies closing factories and cutting jobs. Industrial output in Japan plummeted by a record 8% in November compared with the previous month.
Vancouver is the world's best place to live, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found. In Latinamerica Montevideo, Santiago and Buenos Aires are the most liveable although none of them offers ideal conditions.
Britain's economic problems and the insecurity people are feeling in today's uncertain times were acknowledged by the Queen in her Christmas Day message.
China has said it is to allow some trade with its neighbours to be settled with its currency the Yuan. The pilot scheme was announced in a package of measures designed to help exporters hit by the global downturn.
The biggest flu outbreak for eight years could be on its way in the United Kingdom, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) warned after a 73% rise in people seeing their doctor with flu-like symptoms.