PORTUGAL

European shares looked set to follow Asian equities higher Wednesday and the euro steadied after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would resign, raising hopes the debt-ridden country would proceed with reforms that may keep Europe's debt crisis from spreading.

We asked the prime minister to stand aside, Bossi told reporters outside parliament.

Financial markets held their breath on Tuesday as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's reform-shy government teetered on the brink and debt-crippled Greece's leaders struggled to put together a national unity government.

European shares climbed sharply and Wall Street was set to join in on Tuesday as positive corporate earnings allowed stock investors to look beyond the euro zone debt crisis.

Italian bond yields ticked higher on Tuesday, closing in on unsustainable levels as lawmakers in Rome readied for a crucial vote on public finances that marks the latest chapter in the euro zone debt crisis.

Italian bond yields ticked higher on Tuesday, closing in on unsustainable levels as lawmakers in Rome readied for a crucial vote on public finances that marks the latest chapter in the euro zone debt crisis.

Italian government bond yields soared to near 15-year highs, putting the Eurozone's third largest economy front and center of the region's debt crisis, despite scrambling efforts by policymakers to stem the growing contagion.

Jefferies Group Inc the mid-sized investment bank trying to distance itself from bankrupt MF Global Holdings Ltd , said it reduced by half the gross positions in sovereign securities of certain European countries it had on Friday.

Countries in the Eurozone will find it increasingly unattractive to stay in the single currency, if there is a German-led fiscal integration, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management said in a Sunday Telegraph interview.

Countries in the euro zone will find it increasingly unattractive to stay in the single currency, if there is a German-led fiscal integration, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management said in a Sunday Telegraph interview.

For the upcoming Fashion Night Out event in Tokyo, Japan, 17 international Vogue editors from across the globe have converged to promote sales of designer garments and accessories on Nov.5, 2011.

Stocks fell on Friday, ending four weeks of back-to-back gains, as political instability resurfaced in Europe and investors braced for a confidence vote in Greece after U.S. markets close.

The Eurozone won verbal support but no new money at a G20 summit on Friday for its tortured efforts to overcome a sovereign debt crisis, while Italy was effectively placed under IMF supervision.

Italy will allow the IMF to monitor its progress with long overdue reforms of pensions, labor markets and privatizations, European leaders announced on Friday, looking beyond the crisis in Greece to the far graver threat to the euro zone.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to further shrink its investment bank arm and cut more jobs after the euro zone debt crisis saw third quarter profits slump, hampering its turnaround.

Commerzbank will accelerate a pullback from euro zone nations and cut risky assets to avoid another state bailout after a 798 million euros ($1.10 billion) impairment on Greek assets pushed it to a third-quarter operating loss.

Canada's Colt Resources Inc will invest at least 53 million euros ($73 million) in two gold prospecting concessions in Portugal's southern Alentejo region, and the company said on Thursday it considers the country as strategic to its growth.

Two other major Dutch banks, ABN AMRO and Rabobank, have already unveiled significant job cuts.

Dutch financial services group ING is to cut 2,700 staff and contract jobs, it said on Thursday in announcing third-quarter results, slashing the headcount at its Dutch retail banking operations by 10 percent in the face of deteriorating markets.

Greece's prime minister faces a grilling from the leaders of Germany and France on Wednesday after fighting to win the backing of his cabinet to hold a referendum on a 130 billion-euro ($178 billion) bailout package.

Greece's prime minister won the backing of his Cabinet Wednesday to hold a referendum on a 130 billion euro bailout package but will find the stunned euro zone leaders who engineered the deal last week harder to convince.