Because Economics is Sexy...

Unemployment across the nations that share the euro rose to its highest level in more than two years last month, as more firms laid off staff.
The eurozone unemployment rate totalled 8% in December, according to the latest official European Union data, up from a revised 7.9% in November.
Unemployment was highest in Spain, which recorded a [...]

Opposition leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has been elected as new president of Somalia after a run-off parliamentary vote in neighbouring Djibouti.
Ahmed, the chairman of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and the leader of the Islamic Courts Union, won the necessary 293 votes in a second round of voting just before 4am [...]

North Korea announced yesterday it is scrapping all political and military agreements with South Korea, accusing the Seoul government of pushing relations to the brink of war.
The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said all agreements on ending confrontation would be nullified, including one covering their West Sea border – the scene of bloody [...]

A mass one-day strike by public and private sector workers in France is set to severely disrupt transport, hospital and education services.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to take to the streets to demand more government action to protect their jobs and wages.
Three-quarters of French people and all the main trade unions are backing [...]

The US House of Representatives has passed an $825bn economic stimulus bill of emergency spending and tax put forward by Barack Obama, the US president, to tackle the ailing US economy.
The bill was passed by 244 votes to 188 despite Republican opposition and is set to be debated in the US senate next week.
If it [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co.’s (F.N) finance unit plans to cut a fifth of its workforce, or about 1,200 people, to save money, reports said on Tuesday.
More details of the cutbacks, which were reported by Automotive News and Bloomberg News, are expected on Thursday when the automaker and its finance unit release fourth-quarter [...]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp swung to a quarterly operating loss and reiterated a forecast for its first annual loss in 14 years, battered by a firmer yen and weaker demand while highlighting deepening woes at the electronics conglomerate.
The loss announcement was expected as Sony cut its annual outlook last week for the third time [...]

Russia’s military has announced it will halt its plans to deploy short-range missiles in Kaliningrad, Russia’s Interfax news agency has said.
A Russian military official said a change in US attitude had prompted the latest decision, Interfax reported.
President Dmitry Medvedev announced the plan in November last year, saying it was to counteract US plans for an [...]

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and about 250,000 are trapped amid heavy fighting as the Sri Lankan government continues its offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, the Red Cross has said.
Sri Lankan army officials say they are close to scoring a decisive victory in the country’s long-running civil war, but Red Cross officials have said [...]

WASHINGTON — The United States must step up work with Asian allies and regional powers to be ready to cope with a sudden change in nuclear-armed North Korea, a U.S. think tank warned on Tuesday.
The Council on Foreign Relations said that although North Korea defied predictions in the 1990s that it would collapse after the [...]