
The Conservative party of Primer Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday evening declared victory in Canada's general election, but has fallen short of securing a parliamentary majority.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Wednesday for an international conference before the end of the year to reshape the financial world order.

British consumers hit by the credit crunch had something to smile about at last when petrol dipped below the £1 a litre mark for the first time this year. There was more cheer for travellers when two major UK airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic - announced a reduction in fuel surcharges.

Drug trafficking and the violence committed by its associated organized crime is the biggest threat to public safety in the Americas, according to the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, has brought forward an emergency meeting to discuss the effect of the global financial crisis on oil markets. The announcement was made public when oil prices plunged below 67 USD the barrel.

UK inflation hit a 16-year high of 5.2% in September, with energy bills behind much of the rise, figures have shown. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure was up from 4.7% in August.

Sales of Kart Marx's Das Capital have soared in Germany as a consequence of the financial crisis reported on Tuesday editor Jrn Schtrumpf from the newspaper Neue Ruhr/Rhein Zeitung (NRZ).
The current financial crisis could exact a toll on the world's gross domestic product, an international business group in Belgium said.
Paul Krugman, who won this year's Nobel Prize for economics, told CNBC that the Treasury Department's move to inject banks with 250 billion US dollars is better than the original bailout plan.

In an article titled Gordon does Good published Monday in the New York Times the Princeton University scholar lavished praise on Brown for his timely action against the ongoing financial turmoil.