France will join the US-led airstrikes targeting extremists in Iraq as part of an expanding international effort to combat the Islamic State group, Iraq’s new prime minister has said.

Investigators in Malaysia are voicing scepticism that the Malaysian airliner which disappeared early on Saturday was the target of an attack, say US and European government sources close to the probe.

Standard & Poor’s has stripped the Netherlands of its triple-A credit rating, saying that the country’s growth prospects have deteriorated and it is not performing as well as peers.

MEPs are considering new rules which could force the likes of Google and Facebook to get approval from Ireland before sharing data with the US.

Commissioner Viviane Reding is grappling with making the theory of a diverse but united EU a reality, according to Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

From an economic and social perspective, unemployment represents one of the greatest evils besetting the Irish economy and indeed many other international economies at the moment.

Tensions on European government debt markets increased overnight as investors digested the results of a first-round French presidential vote, a Dutch political crisis and worries over Spanish debt.

Asian stocks fell today after budget talks in the Netherlands collapsed over the weekend and a Socialist who wants to put France’s austerity plans in reverse won the first round of the country’s presidential election.

China is ready to help resolve Europe’s debt crisis, its premier said yesterday, but he gave no details a day after the nation’s sovereign wealth fund ducked calls by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for it to buy euro government bonds.

GERMANY and France stepped up a drive yesterday for coercive powers to reject eurozone members’ budgets that breach EU rules, as a market rout of European debt eased temporarily on hopes of outside help for Italy and Spain.

EUROPEAN markets recovered slightly yesterday despite escalating concern over the eurozone debt crisis and the very future of the single currency itself.

PARTS of Anders Behring Breivik’s 1,500-page online manifesto against Muslim immigration, which his lawyer said he wrote alone, were taken almost word for word from the writings of the “Unabomber”.

To Anders Breivik, the Norway explosion and shootings that killed at least 93 people were a “marketing method” for his manifesto, which reveals his attack methods and encourages like-thinkers to carry out their own mass killing.

THROUGHOUT this “world’s cheapest bank bailout”, which has cost the Irish taxpayer mere dozens of billions to date, one policy of the Government has remained absolutely constant.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy today sealed his victory in a long-running battle with unions as new retirement rules became law.

US stocks had another volatile day, swinging widely before closing sharply lower.

Irish consumers will spend on average 22% less this Christmas, according to the annual Deloitte consumer survey of Christmas spending.

Soaring global demand for swine flu vaccinations is expected to give drug giant GlaxoSmithKline a £1bn (€1.1bn) sales boost in the final three months of the year, the group confirmed today.

The World Trade Organisation said Britain and other European countries gave billions to Airbus in illegal subsidies, in a trade dispute ruling that backed its rival, US aviation giant Boeing.

THE EU is not a legal or corporate entity in its own right for it does not have legal personality.

Last minute negotiations were being held tonight between European Government ministers and officials in a bid to head off a row over new employment rights for temporary and agency workers.

THE European Central Bank left interest rates steady yesterday and said it remains on high alert in the fight against inflation, a signal markets understood to mean another rate rise next month.

Police in Denmark said today that a Bosnian prosecutor has charged two suspects held in Sarajevo with planning a terror attack against a European country.

The US, in conjunction with other oil consuming nations, expects to release 2 million barrels a day of crude oil and petrol from US and international emergency government reserves to counter supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina, administration officials said today.

THE US government and European Union authorities are on a collision course at the World Trade Organisation over subsidies to planemakers Airbus SAS and Boeing.

The Airbus’ A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, took off successfully on its maiden flight today, a milestone for aviation and for the European aircraft-maker’s battle with American rival Boeing.

The Chinese government said today it won’t send an envoy to Pope John Paul II’s funeral due to the Vatican’s diplomatic relations with rival Taiwan.

New US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will travel to eight European countries and the Middle East next week, in her first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat.

EUROPEAN government bond yields surged and the dollar rose to an 11-week high against the euro after Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said US economic growth is poised to accelerate.

The short-end of the European government bonds market soared as US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan signalled rates will stay low for as long as needed, analysts said.

BANK of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet has won the backing of European government leaders to become the next European Central Bank president.

European government bonds slid in late London trade as investors decided to take their profits amid a better performance on stocks, dealers said.

Connaught-Ulster MEP Dana Rosemary Scallon is hitting out at European Commission plans to introduce an EU Government.

Calls for the creation of a European Government from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder were today sending shockwaves through Britain.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has endorsed the creation of a European government as part of sweeping reform proposals for the EU, his party said today.