Germany

G8 countries which include leaders from brings together the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with the leaders of the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy have today come up with a pledge of £12bn in aid, loans and debt relief in an attempt to support and enhance pro-democratic regimes in the region. While the full details of the package are yet unknown, the money will come from international financial institutions and members of the G8.Both the leaders of Egypt and Tunisi...

The Grimsovtn volcano is producing mostly steam rather than ash and activity should decline sharply within a few days.

As the two-day G8 summit is set to start today in Deauville, much hype has been made of the need for the group of states to discuss and decide new policies on matters including supporting new regimes in North Africa and the Middles East or reviewing Japan's nuclear crisis and discuss new policies regarding nuclear power.

France, which currently holds the rotating presidency for the Group of Eight and the G20 is hosting the annual G8 summit in Deauville on May 26 and 27. The meeting is due to focus on issues including the global economy, political and security issues such as drug trafficking and terrorism, exiting from Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, the Middle East and North Africa and Internet governance. Following the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant, n...

While Obama has spent the last days receiving and giving praises during his three-day state visit to the United kingdom, he will tomorrow fly to Deauville in France, accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, where both leaders will attend the G8 summit.

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano has sent thousands of tonnes of ash into the sky over the last few days, raising fears of a repeat of the travel chaos seen across northern Europe almost a year ago.

The Icelandic volcano which has caused disruption to northern European airspace has stopped emitting ash, weather and aviation officials said.

The Icelandic ash cloud left British airspace early on Wednesday morning according to the air traffic controller NATS.

The ash cloud caused by the eruption of an Icelandic Volcano has become less intense and the worst of the outburst may be over, the Met Office has said.

Created as part of a French initiative to address the first oil crisis in 1975, the G8 is an informal group of advanced economies, which meets once a year at a Summit of Heads of State and Government.

New research has found a way to transfer data at 26 terabits per second -- a new world record in transfer speed.

Peter Mandelson has emerged as an unexpected outsider for the managing director job at the IMF following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn over sexual assault charges and Chinese recommendation

Barack Obama’s widely anticipated speech will see him try to rehabilitate the image of the US in the Middle East by repositioning the country as a solid supporter of newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries.

In a bid to win back some of the 100 million account holders effected by the PSN's outage, Sony has finally released details of the new identity protection service it will be offering its users.

In its latest bid to boost sales of its 3D TVs, tech giant Samsung has officially announced a new TV app that allows Smart TV owners to stream 3D videos through their television.

One of the "forgotten" former headline stories was the catastrophic flooding in Queensland, Australia. Here is a snippet of what has been happening.

Politicians, not least in the USA and Europe, are espousing greener energy and advocating massive reductions in carbon emissions in the relatively near future, whilst doing little to allay the fears of a generally ill-informed public on a practical means to bring this energy policy about. An obvious practical means but the one most prolific in doomsday scenarios, is the development, expansion and more intensive use of nuclear power.

Makwaia wa Kuhenga writing for Tanzania's leading English language newspaper, The Citizen, on Sunday 17 April 2011, tells us he witnessed the Libyan troops of Colonel Qaddafi being mowed down, scores of them being buried and the rest rounded up and returned home. This was during a little known war in October 1978, now almost forgotten in the West, when Colonel Qaddafi gave military support to General Idi Amin of Uganda on his invasion and annexation of the Kagera salient in Tanzania.

Shares in WPP were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the advertising group said it had agreed to acquire German marketing services network Commarco GmbH.

On his visit to Pakistan the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that Britain is responsible for many of the world's problems, referencing in particular the ongoing Kashmir dispute.

Looking at the Sun and Daily Star newspapers on Thursday, 31 March 2011, one could be forgiven for being totally unaware of any conflict taking place in Libya. For any news on the current war, the Sun managed an article on page 13. The Daily star was bereft of any comment on the topic.

Read here the full text of Chancellor George Osborne's Budget speech to the House of Commons.

Central banks in the U.K., Europe, Australasia and Latin America, are focused on the ill effects of inflation, which is rising at a rate that threatens to impair economic growth in their respective jurisdictions. This follows a period where these economies were attempting to stoke growth through monetary stimuli that led to lower interest rates and sizeable gains in bond prices. This is now changing.

Shares in InterContinental Hotels were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading despite the group reporting a rise in revenue and operating profit in the full year ended 31 December 2010.

The IMF estimates the U.S. gross outstanding public debt to GDP ratio at approximately 100% for 2011. Not good, but the U.S. can point to Japan and Italy as having higher ratios. But probably not many think that Japan's dismal economic picture is one that the U.S. should try to model itself on. Italy also has more than its share of economic issues and an economic framework that not many countries aspire to.

On Thursday, 20 January 2011, Brian Cowen, Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) announced that a general election will be held on 11 March 2011. Somewhat earlier than he and his Fianna Fáil Party would have liked - their preference was the 25th - it is unlikely to make any significant difference to their expected trouncing at the election by a Fine Gael/Labour coalition.

With flagging economies and worries about austerity measures further crimping growth, about the last thing central bankers from the U.K. and Europe need to consider is combating inflation. But that is exactly what is being heaped upon decision-makers at the moment.

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors started to regain some confidence.

The daisy chain of events manifesting from the European fiscal crisis that initially consumed Greece then Ireland in its wake has skipped into Portugal. This is not being greeted by market participants as much of a surprise since this development had been foreshadowed for months. Portuguese bond yields had risen above 7%, roughly 4% higher than the benchmark 10-year German bund. This is the inglorious territory of Greek and Irish bond yields just as they were teetering on fiscal insolvency. ...

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 as positive broker comments outweighed mounting concerns about sovereign debt in the eurozone.