Eurozone unemployment is at a record high and consumer prices are being driven upward by volatile energy and food prices, data showed, underlining the fragility of the bloc’s economic health.

If, as Buggles once said, video really did kill the radio star, then TV has done something equally harmful to a whole host of sportsmen and women whose efforts habitually disappear into a black hole of general apathy.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy threw his weight behind Mario Draghi’s candidacy to head the European Central Bank yesterday, giving a major boost to the Bank of Italy chief’s hopes of succeeding Jean-Claude Trichet.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush’s administration is untroubled by the dollar’s decline, which may help boost sales and manufacturing jobs in an election year without an acceleration of inflation or higher interest rates.