Because Economics is Sexy...

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is to go to Libya to celebrate the anniversary of a friendship pact signed last year.
But he will not attend events marking the 40th anniversary of the military coup d’etat that brought Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to power in 1969.
Italy occupied the North African country between 1911 and World War II.
Mr [...]

Counting is under way in Gabon’s presidential elections amid fears that a win by Ali Bongo, the son of the late president who ruled the oil rich African nation for decades, would lead to violence.
Election results are not expected until Wednesday but Bongo appeared to be in the lead going into Sunday’s vote and there [...]

The Israeli authorities have charged Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, with corruption.
The indictments include illegal acceptance of funds from an American supporter and double-billing for foreign trips, the attorney-general’s office said on Sunday.
“The attorney-general … has decided to press charges against former prime minister Ehud Olmert,” a statement from the office of Menahem Mazuz [...]

The air was somber Sunday evening at the Liberal Democratic Party’sheadquarters in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, as party executives faced the media as the rival Democratic Party of Japan scored a historic victory.
A board with the names of hundreds of LDP candidates had only a few red flowers pinned on it, indicating the party’s sparse victories [...]

The Democratic Party of Japan won the Lower House election by a landslide Sunday, grabbing more than 300 seats in the 480-seat chamber.
The victory by the main opposition party will end more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. It will also usher in DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama, 62, [...]

Two Syrian nationals held at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Portugal.
The two detainees from the Cuban facility, who arrived in Portugal on Friday, have not yet been named.
The US has asked European countries to accommodate former inmates who cannot return to their countries of origin because of the risk [...]

At least seven people have been killed and more than 270 injured in a train accident in the West African nation of Cameroon, state radio has reported.
The train derailed just outside the capital Yaounde on Saturday.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s communications minister, said the death toll could change as some of the carriages had ended up [...]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Hurricane Jimena, a strong Category 2 storm, blew northward up Mexico’s Pacific coast on Saturday and was headed close to the Baja California peninsula resort of Los Cabos, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Jimena, a small but powerful hurricane, was still a safe distance from shore but was forecast to gather [...]

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Tengzhong may finalize a deal with General Motors Co GM.UL as early as next week to acquire the U.S. automaker’s Hummer brand, a source familiar with the deal said on Friday.
The deal would mark the first major Chinese acquisition of a distressed U.S. auto asset during the current economic downturn. Chinese [...]

The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo of North Korean weapons being shipped to Iran, which would have violated a UN embargo on arms exports from the communist state, Western diplomats say.
The UAE reported the incident, which occurred two weeks ago, to the Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea, diplomats said on Friday.
The [...]