
Former Governor of the Falkland Islands and a past British ambassador to Peru has been fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for insider dealing in an AIM-listed mining company which he chaired, reports Thursday edition of The Times.

The British pound has continued to fall against the US dollar, hitting its lowest rate in six and a half years against the US currency on fears of a deep recession.

Germany has officially entered a recession after government figures showed that Europe's largest economy contracted by 0.5% in the third quarter. This is the second consecutive quarter that the economy has shrunk after a 0.4% contraction in the second quarter.

International tourism has started slowing rapidly since the middle of the year, reflecting consumer concern worldwide and rising inflation in many countries, the United Nations reports in its latest measure of the health of the global travel industry.
More efforts are needed to eliminate landmines and other explosive devices, despite the great strides made in ridding the world of the deadly weapons, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Tourism ministers from around the world have agreed to set up a new United Nations-backed committee to consider how to respond both to the downturn in international travel as a result of the global financial crisis and the impact of climate change.

Unemployment in the United Kingdom hit an 11-year high as the Bank of England signalled that interest rates could plunge to record lows to lift the economy out of recession which is very likely already in recession.

Spain's banking giant Santander - which owns UK's Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley's savings business - has announced a 7.2 billion Euro rights issue to raise new capital and shore up its capital ratio.

The largest business in Italy today is organized crime, Mafia, with an annual turnover of some 130 billion euros (about 165.71 billion US dollars) and a net profit of close to 70 billion euros, after investments and expenses, according to the Italian national retail services association Confesercenti on Tuesday.

While the price of crude oil for future delivery declined below 60 US dollars a barrel, OPEC sources on Tuesday said that the cartel will again consider cutting production when it meets next month in Algiers.