
Gordon Brown has pledged to clean up the financial system following the rescue of Britain's biggest mortgage lender HBOS by Lloyds TSB. The prime minister said he had taken quick action to maintain the stability of the financial system.

Russia will send a high-level delegation to the OPEC meeting in Algeria on December Energy Minister Sergei Shatko said on Friday.

Spain will try to persuade jobless legal immigrants to leave by offering to pay them a lump sum and then provide unemployment benefits in their home countries plus the promise of not returning to Spain for three years, the government said on Friday.

Two years ago the Dutch football club, SC Cambuur Leeuwarden was on the verge of closure. The club had lost its prize position in the Premier Division, attendances had fallen to below 2,000, the team was constantly bottom of the Jupiler League (1st division) and the main sponsors had withdrawn their financial support.

More than 6.200 babies have fallen ill after drinking milk made from contaminated powder, Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu announced. The figure is five times higher than previously announced.

Barclays PLC said Wednesday it may pick up some of Lehman Brothers assets and employees in Europe and Asia, on top of the British bank's deal to acquire key US operations from the failed investment bank.

British bank HBOS confirmed it is in advanced talks with Lloyds TSB about creating a United Kingdom retail banking giant worth £30 billion. The UK government has also said it will overrule any concerns that competition authorities may raise, BBC Business Editor Robert Peston said.

The way out of the global food crisis, which has plunged at least 75 million more humans into hunger and poverty, lies in increased agricultural production, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told Italy's Parliament on Wednesday.

Chinese and US delegations at the 19th meeting of China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) reached this week several agreements on boosting trade ties at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library near Los Angeles, reports Xinhua the official Chinese news agency.

The European Commission has announced a full review of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, saying the current regime fails to protect fish stocks. EC says that fishermen who obey the fishing rules are being penalized by the irresponsible behavior of others who flout them.