GERMANY/FRANCE - Europe's largest economy grew by 0.3pc from the first quarter, when it shrank by 3.5pc. Economists had been predicting a 0.2pc decline in Germany. The improvement brings an end to Germany's worst recession since the Second World War.
UK - Britain's Uber-bear is growling again. After predicting a torrid "relief rally" over the early summer, Bob Janjuah at Royal Bank of Scotland is advising clients to take profits in global equity and commodity markets and prepare for another storm as winter nears.
MANILA - A battle pitting Philippine troops against Muslim guerrillas on a remote southern island killed at least 53 people, the military said on Thursday, but analysts said the clash is unlikely to have sidelined the rebels.
USA - In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, the companies - including Kraft Foods Inc, General Mills Inc, Hershey Co and Mars Inc - said there could be a severe shortage of sugar used in chocolate bars, breakfast cereal, cookies, chewing gum and thousands of other products, the paper said.
NEW YORK, USA - US home loans failed at a record pace in July despite ongoing federal and state programs to avoid foreclosures, which have severely strained housing and the economy. Foreclosure activity jumped 7 percent in July from June and 32 percent from a year earlier as one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.
SOUTH KOREA - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has such a low profile on the world stage that he's referred to as "the invisible man". Perhaps in an effort to boost his press coverage he's given a speech in Incheon, South Korea, that can only be described as a bizarre PR stunt, with the sort of cataclysmic environmental statements doled out in scientifically dodgy disaster movies.
INDIA - Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites. The Grace mission discovered that in the country's northwest - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.
JAPAN - The financial services industry, hammered by job cuts and record losses, is in for an even bigger contraction as the global recession deepens, said Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.
WASHINGTON, USA - The federal deficit climbed higher into record territory in July, hitting $1.27 trillion with two months remaining in the budget year. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the July deficit totaled $180.7 billion, slightly more than the $177.5 billion economists had expected.
IRAN - In the wake of a bogus election, the deadly harassment of protestors and squabbling among hardliners, everything seems to have changed in Tehran. Two men could now pose a serious threat to the regime: Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri and multimillionaire Hashemi Rafsanjani.
USA - I'm not going to make the case that America under Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress has become a totalitarian police state. But, I will make the case that Washington is leading us in that direction.
USA - A newly released study from the Home School Legal Defense Association shows that not only do homeschoolers incur expenses of only 5 percent that public schools spend on each student, they score nearly 40 points higher on standardized achievement tests. Costs also average $500, compared to $10,000 at public school
UK - Returning to Britain from a summer holiday abroad, you begin to notice things that perhaps escaped your attention before - the huge number of CCTV cameras that infest our public spaces and, much less obviously, the atmosphere of watchfulness and control that has now become a way of life.
UK - Banks are punishing borrowers with some of the highest lending rates on record, official figures show. The cost of overdrafts and loans has soared even though the official base rate stands at a mere 0.5 per cent.
UK - An international maritime search was under way for the Maltese-registered Arctic Sea and its 15-strong Russian crew. They have not been heard from since communicating with British Coastguards as it prepared to enter the Strait of Dover from the North Sea at 1.52pm on July 28.