Sponsored by International Monetary Fund

EU and IMF officials launched their first review of Portugal's international bailout on Monday, with the focus on how the government plans to correct a budget slippage and meet its promised fiscal targets this year.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said the dollar may weaken if the U.S. Congress fails to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will push elections up by four months.

Urgent efforts to avoid an unprecedented U.S. debt default suffered a new blow on Thursday when some fiscally hardline Republicans blocked a budget deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders.

Cutting the U.S. deficit by some $4 trillion over 10 years would be a good start, but more savings would be needed over time to bring the country's finances under control, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Thursday.

The hotel maid who accused ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her made an emotional public appeal on Thursday for people to believe her story as her lawyer threatened a civil lawsuit.

The court date in the attempted rape case of former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been postponed to August 23, his lawyers said on Tuesday, adding they hope charges will be dismissed by that date.

The operator of the Nasdaq Stock Market is "under constant attack" from would-be hackers and will spend more on security as a result, its top executive said.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Tuesday urged the United States to quickly resolve a political stalemate over raising the debt ceiling, warning that failure to reach an agreement would have serious consequences for the world economy.

Europe is promising to help kick-start economic growth in Greece as a way of dragging the country out of its debt crisis, but the scheme looks likely to move too slowly to have much impact in the next couple of years.

Top lawmakers rolled out dueling debt plans on Monday that offered little prospect for compromise, increasing the threat of a ratings downgrade and national default, as President Barack Obama prepared to address Americans on the impasse.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's much criticized bond buying spree had only mild side-effects on other economies but the process of tightening monetary policy eventually may reverberate more harshly, an IMF report said on Monday.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Monday the United States must raise the debt ceiling quickly and get its debts under control for the sake of the global economy.

The International Monetary Fund Monday underscored the need for Congressional Democrats and Republicans to get their act together: it said the U.S. must raise its debt ceiling quickly, and get its debt under control, for the good of the global economy

A housekeeper publicly stated details to Newsweek on Sunday regarding the sexual assault attack by former International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a New York City hotel room.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser in the Manhattan sex assault case, the 32-year-old Guinean woman, has come out in public trying to cement the faltering case against the former IMF chief.

The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her said in an interview published on Newsweek's website on Sunday that he appeared as a "crazy man" and attacked her when she entered his room.

With financial markets on edge, White House officials and Republican leaders scrambled to reassure them that the United States will avert default and lift its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit before August 2.

The Euro zone countries have agreed to provide Greece with a second bailout valued at 135-billion euros (about $194-billion) over the next thirty years.

The Chinese economy is facing the risk of inflation and property price bubble, say IMF economists, though the imminent danger of a major downturn in the property sector has been ruled out.

The credit ratings agencies are again angering governments, but this time they are taking on the big fish of the world economy. From Washington to Brussels, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch have added to the intense pressure on governments trying to deal with crushing sovereign debt.

The US economy is at an inflection point after the end of the second round of Quantitative Easing (QE2). Two rounds of monetary and fiscal stimulus since 2008 have had only limited impact on growth or unemployment. The question is,'What next?' will there be another round of monetary and fiscal policy easing? Analysts at American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) are of the opinion that fiscal and monetary policies have reached their limits.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday called for a greater sense of urgency to address the Greek debt crisis and warned Europe it was taking too long to repair its banking system in the face of growing risks of contagion.

The IMF said on Wednesday private sector involvement was fundamental to a Greek bailout and urged Athens to move faster on fiscal and structural reforms to avoid a debt default.

President Barack Obama and top lawmakers will meet again on Monday in search of a deal on slashing the budget deficit and raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling before the United States defaults.

The IMF and its European partners are not yet ready to discuss terms of a second Greek bailout, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Monday, urging Athens to do more to deal with its debt crisis.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s scheduled court appearance has been postponed, as prosecutors mull whether or not to dismiss the charges against the former IMF chief in what is amounting to a crumbling sexual assault case.

Fears are spiraling that Italy may need a bailout as the yield on the country’s government bonds have surged to 5.4 percent.