MARKETS / FINANCE

Euro zone leaders intend to multiply the capacity of their rescue fund around fourfold to one trillion euros but details of how they plan to draw a line under Europe's worsening debt crisis will not be nailed until next month, sources said.

A key committee of the Bank of England is feeling its way in terms of striking a balance between making sure banks are strongly capitalised while also encouraging them to lend to businesses, a key policymaker said on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank's incoming president signalled on Wednesday the bank stood ready to carry on buying the bonds of troubled euro zone governments, suggesting he is ready to intervene to steady markets in the face of German misgivings.

Germany said on Wednesday it will close 31 of its 328 military bases and shrink installations in another 90 locations over the next five years as part of the most sweeping cuts in the history its Bundeswehr army, navy and air force.

The euro zone aims to leverage its 440 billion euro (383 billion pound) bailout fund, the EFSF, several fold but finance ministers will only agree the details of how that will be done in November, according to a draft statement to be issued after a summit on Wednesday.

The Catholic Church's ban on the use of contraception is not to blame for the population boom that is about to tip the world over the seven billion mark because most Catholics ignore it, a UN Population Fund official said on Wednesday.

The FTSE 100 hit a 2-1/2-month closing high on Wednesday, with defensive stocks doing well as investors awaited the outcome of a European Union summit to resolve the two-year-old sovereign debt crisis.

The Bank of England got it about right when it opted to inject another 75 billion pounds into the financial system, a top policymaker said on Wednesday, adding the move will help fend off the risk of deflation.

European Union leaders met on Wednesday to discuss a comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

European Union leaders were holding talks on Wednesday to try to agree on a convincing, comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

European leaders are negotiating with Greek bondholders, publicly stating investors will have to take substantial losses. Their stance is in stark contrast to the way debt holders have been coddled in programs managed by the U.S. Federal Reserve

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Europe not to be complacent about its peace and prosperity on Wednesday, as German lawmakers approved plans to boost the firepower of the euro zone rescue fund ahead of an emergency EU summit.

European Union leaders hold talks on Wednesday to try to agree on a convincing, comprehensive plan for tackling the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

European shares inched higher on Wednesday in a choppy session as better-than-expected U.S. data and forecast beating results just about offset diminishing expectations for an EU debt-crisis summit.

Freddie Mac's chief executive, Charles E. Ed Haldeman Jr, will step down by the end of the year, the regulator of the company said on Wednesday.

New British banking venture NBNK has submitted a bid proposal for Northern Rock, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, putting NBNK in competition with Virgin Money for the nationalised British bank.

The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

Stocks briefly added to gains in afternoon trading on Wednesday as a draft statement obtained by Reuters said the euro zone aims to leverage its 440 billion euro bailout fund, the EFSF, several fold.

Gold prices surged to their highest level in more than a month Wednesday as the precious metal's fourth consecutive daily gain took it to the brink of a decisive upswing.

German Chancellor Angel Merkel won a parliamentary vote with a large majority on Wednesday on boosting the firepower of the euro zone rescue fund, handing her a strong mandate to negotiate at a crunch EU summit later in the day in Brussels.

Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director and former global head of McKinsey & Co, was arrested on Wednesday on criminal charges related to his hedge fund manager friend Raj Rajaratnam, the central figure in a U.S. crackdown on insider trading.

The incoming head of the European Central Bank threw the euro zone a lifeline hours before a crucial summit on Wednesday by signalling the bank would go on buying troubled states' bonds to combat market turmoil.

Stocks were little changed on Wednesday on caution about the outcome of a European summit to resolve the debt crisis and mixed corporate results.

Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament approved a motion to strengthen the euro zone rescue fund via leveraging on Wednesday, providing Chancellor Angela Merkel with the mandate she needs to negotiate at a key euro summit later in Brussels.

Canada-based gold miner Dia Bras Exploration Inc. has regained access to its Yauricocha property in Peru after a road blockade was cleared, the company said Wednesday.

Ireland is hoping to capitalise on any deal to increase the firepower of the euro zone's rescue fund on Wednesday to reduce its own debt burden, Prime Minister Enda Kenny told the country's parliament.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said its reorganization plan has the backing of creditors who hold more than $160 billion of claims, and believes it has won enough support to end its record bankruptcy.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to give a European summit on Wednesday only vague promises of economic reform instead of the firm undertakings demanded by European leaders.

Olympus Corp head Tsuyoshi Kikukawa resigned on Wednesday after a scandal over hefty advisory fees wiped out half of the 92-year-old firm's market value while his successor stuck with the company's line that it had done nothing wrong.