The government will spend billions of borrowed pounds to fund tax cuts and spending in the hope of preventing a recession spiralling into a slump but warned on Monday taxes would have to rise later to pay for the boost.

Germany has fallen into recession and China industry output growth dropped to its lowest in seven years, data showed on Thursday, reinforcing fears the financial crisis is plunging the world into a painful downturn.

Two British Royal Marines have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday, as a poll indicated most Britons think troops should be brought home soon.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has defended plans to raise public borrowing to cope with a looming recession and indicated he will slash his growth forecasts at his forthcoming pre-budget report.

Russia could cancel its deployment of missiles near the Polish border if U.S. President-elect Barack Obama scraps plans for a missile defence system in central Europe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

A computer memory stick containing passwords for one of the biggest public sector websites has been found in a pub car park, the latest Whitehall data security breach, the government said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Thursday for the European Investment Bank to boost lending to small businesses that are suffering because of the global credit crunch and looming recession.

An African immigrant was on Tuesday convicted of the rape and murder of exchange student Meredith Kercher, and two others, including an American student, were ordered to stand trial by an Italian judge.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said governments must adapt their economic policies to tackle the fallout from the financial crisis, as speculation grows Britain is preparing to abandon its fiscal rules limiting borrowing.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne apologised on Monday for meeting Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska on his yacht in the Mediterranean, saying he had made an error of judgement.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has hinted at the possibility that lower inflation thanks to falling oil prices could prompt central banks around the world to make more joint interest rate cuts, the BBC reported.

Prince Harry has chosen to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and train to become a helicopter pilot, the royal family said on Monday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will defend a surge in government borrowing and call for tighter regulation on financial instruments such as credit default swaps in a speech on Monday.

OPEC is considering two supply cut options, an OPEC delegate told Reuters on Friday.

A Soyuz capsule carrying a U.S. space tourist and two Russians bumped down safely in Kazakhstan on Friday, ending a string of mishaps on previous landings that have raised concerns about its safety.

Turkey's top court said on Friday that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and key members of his ruling AK Party had been involved in anti-secular activities, a move likely to renew political tensions in the EU candidate country.

A car bomb killed two journalists in central Zagreb on Thursday in the latest of a series of violent incidents that have hit the capital this year.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis has helped his party narrow the gap on the Conservatives, an opinion poll published on Wednesday showed.

International donors pledged a higher-than-expected $4.55 billion (2.8 billion pounds) on Wednesday to help Georgia recover from its war with Russia, and Washington called it an extraordinary sign of solidarity at a time of financial turmoil.