GERMANY

European shares were slightly higher on Friday at mid-day amid thin trading as miners tracked rising metal prices, offset by lingering concerns over the Eurozone debt crisis and reservations ahead of U.S. inflation data.

Global stocks and commodities, including much-battered gold prices, rose Friday on fresh evidence that neither Eurozone troubles nor Asian weakness are deterring U.S. economic growth.

Deutsche Bank AG has launched the sale of a large chunk of its global asset management business, with a price tag seen between 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) and 3 billion, two financial sources familiar with the sale process said on Friday.

Italy's government faces a confidence vote in parliament on Friday, called to speed up approval of a 33-billion euro ($43 billion) austerity package intended to restore financial market confidence in the euro zone's third largest economy.

Relativity Media has entered into a joint venture with German distributor Senator Entertainment, the studio announced Wednesday.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have stepped up their lobbying with an advertising campaign to pressure EU regulators and secure approval for their $9 billion merger.

Confined to a wheelchair and ailing from heart problems, Boere was transported by ambulance from a German nursing home in Aachen to a prison hospital.

An improvement in the U.S. employment picture last week and a rise in regional factory activity suggested an emerging divide between resiliency in the U.S. economy and faltering growth in Europe and Asia.

Europe's top central banker said on Thursday that euro zone governments are on the right track to restore market confidence but reminded them that an emergency program to buy their bonds was neither eternal nor infinite.

U.S. overspending on the military has diverted resources from civilian / social investments, including public goods, weakening the U.S. economy, and, by extension weakening the nation. If it doesn’t substantially cut defense spending, the U.S.’s empire will likely share the fate of two other empires that overspent on the military -- the British Empire and the Soviet Union.

European shares rose on Thursday, recovering around half of the previous session's sharp falls after a Spanish bond auction met good demand and U.S. jobless claims and manufacturing data showed signs of economic improvement in the U.S.

The wish of the anxious Android fans was fulfilled on Dec. 15 (Thursday) as Verizon began selling the long-awaited Android 4.0-powered (Ice Cream Sandwich) Galaxy Nexus. The handset sells for $299 with a 2-year Verizon contract. No doubt, it will get scooped up like hot cakes as the smartphone is being touted as an iPhone killer but the billion dollar question is - is it really worth buying?

The most wanted Android smartphone, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), will finally hit Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday (Dec. 15) and will sell for $299.99 with a two-year contract. The Verizon version of Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be available in Verizon stores across the US and online starting from 1 a.m. EST.

The pace of decline in the euro zone private sector eased unexpectedly in December, but the global toll of the region's sovereign debt crisis became clearer on Thursday with news of falling investment and factory activity in China.

France's telecoms regulator has received bids from all of the country's major operators for a second batch of higher-quality fourth-generation mobile licenses and will choose winners in the coming weeks.

European shares rose on Thursday in thin, pre-holiday trade as recent weakness prompted some bargain hunting, though strategists said political progress on the Eurozone crisis was needed before equities could make much more progress.

The decline in the euro zone's private sector eased a little this month, but a recession still looks inevitable with the region's periphery struggling badly, a key business survey showed on Thursday.

Greece, one of the worst hit countries in the Eurozone crisis, may begin official negotiations to exit the Eurozone in 2012, according to Oliver Pursche, co-portfolio manager of GMG Defensive Beta Fund.

German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and looked unlikely to provide a lift to Europe's largest economy soon as new orders continued to dry up, a survey showed on Thursday.

Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who has been hanging out with Jon Huntsman at the bottom of the Republican pack, said in Waterloo, Iowa, on Tuesday that the United States was not so gradually beginning to resemble fascist Italy.

The bottom dropped out of gold prices Friday as technical supports collapsed, hedge fund managers turned holdings into cash and a surging dollar killed any vestige of physical demand.