International Monetary Fund

Prime Minister George Papandreou's shock announcement Monday night that Greece's bailout plan will be put to referendum has been coldly received by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, bringing accusations the move will intensify the euro zone crisis.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has confirmed that Britain won't pump cash into the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the fund that will be used as a firewall to prevent contagion across Europe.

Protests in Greece refused to die down and violence escalated Thursday, leading to the death of one protester, as Greek lawmakers narrowly passed a second package of austerity measures, which further weakened the country's ruling Socialist party.

Greece is on the verge of a total meltdown with the country struggling to come to terms with 48 hour general strike.

The downgrading of Spain's credit rating on Friday is likely to stoke fears of a Eurozone debt crisis at a summit of G20 financial chiefs in Paris.

Despite the Syrian government apparent assurance, analysts insist sanctions imposed by western states, coupled with the continuing protests have hit the Syrian economy, posing a growing challenge to President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The race for the socialist presidential candidate has now truly started after an unprecedented open primary held on Sunday saw previous presidential runner up Segolene Royale ousted, leaving Francois Hollande, and Martine Aubry to fight for the chance to run against President Nicholas Sarkozy in next year's presidential election.

The FTSE 100 bounced back Tuesday amid hopes that the International Monetary Fund is soon to agree a package to resolve the debt crisis.

Greece will receive the next batch of bailout loans in time to avoid a disastrous default, the finance minister said on Tuesday.

Ever since Palestinian leaders announced their intention to seek UN membership as an indepentend state in September, critics have attacked the Palestinian strategy and even ridiculed the idea that it would provide Palestinians on the ground with better opportunities.

The Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations is threatening to turn into a real diplomatic incident as supporters and opponents battle over whether or not Palestinian leaders should go ahead with the move.

Russia has announced it will support the Palestinian statehood bid, proving the country is gradually emphasising its opposition the U.S who supports Israel and has threatened to veto the move.

Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appointed a new industry minister after his predecessor made controversial remarks only eight days into the post about the country's nuclear crisis.

Fourth September this year marked the first anniversary of the 7.1 Richter scale earthquake that struck the city of Christchurch at 04.35 local time. New Zealand's second largest city, and the largest in the South Island, the miracle was surely that despite extensive damage, no-one was killed in the quake. No doubt that the quake hit the area early on a Saturday morning helped make this possible.

In the last few months European figureheads and leaders have been rocked by a series of scandals, which is set to damage their credibility and ability to criticise other regimes or insist on the necessities of values which they see as inherent to the history of their countries.

The affair in which Nafissatou Diallo accuses Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund,(IMF), of forcing her into oral sex and trying to rape her on May 14 in his New York hotel suite, has made the headlines for more than three months, but sources say the case is about to be dropped.

New reports claiming that Air France banned female crew from serving Dominique Strauss-Kahn because he abused them emerged yesterday. The allegations however were later on swiftly denied by the company.

Security company McAfee has uncovered what appears to be the largest coordinated hacking campaign ever seen, with 72 government and business organisations across the globe all being hit.

After weeks of debate, struggles and hesitation, a divided US House of Representatives has approved a massive austerity plan to prevent the U.S. from entering into default.

Star of the headlines since a New York maid accused him of sexually assaulting her, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a previous favourite to run against French President Nicholas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential elections, is now embroiled in two different cases both serious charges of attempted rape and sexual assault. In order to better understand the affairs, here is a review of each cases, and the women behind them.

President Barack Obama made an address to the nation Monday about the increasingly dire debt crisis in which he warned that the Republicans' unyielding approach to the U.S. debt crisis was a "dangerous game" and urged Americans to press for compromise.

The woman accusing former International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assault, defended her position by saying she's "telling the truth from my heart," in an interview broadcast Monday."I want justice. I want him to go to jail," the New York maid told ABC's Good Morning America. "I want him to know you cannot use your power when you do something like this."

The U.S. condemned the use of force by Malawi's police to break up anti-government protests in the past two days, and warned the government against a crackdown on the free press.

Euro Crisis: Is The Greek Package Simply a Selective Default?

Is Britain on The Brink of Another Financial Crisis?

Pakistan's increasingly "close and effective defence ties" with China will allow Islamabad to "fill the gap" arising from the prospect of reduced military aid from the United States, a Pakistani official has said.

Acknowledging the growing threat posed by hacker groups like Anonymous and its AntiSec hacking campaign, the UK Government has called for stricter international laws against cyber-crime.

The mother of the French woman who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2002 said on Tuesday that her daughter is filing a criminal complaint against the former International Monetary Fund chief because she wants justice in the case.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn faces a potential new sexual assault investigation on Tuesday as a young French writer says she plans to formally accuse him of trying to rape her during a 2002 book interview.

A New York Court just ruled that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be released without bail, but prosecutors are not completely abandoning the case and the ex IMF chief is due to appear again on July 18.