European heads of states appointed Baroness Catherine Ashton as the European Union's foreign-policy chief, the so-called first EU Foreign Minister, Thursday evening.

A British charity is pioneering the idea of reducing the country's bulging debt by encouraging people to buy gift vouchers that will be sent to the Treasury.

"Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

German Chancellor Merkel urged General Motors to quickly present a restructuring plan for its European unit Opel and said the U.S. automaker should not count on governments to shoulder most of the overhaul costs.

Smart investments lie in those companies that are boosting market share, creating healthy balance sheets, and taking advantage of price leadership, according to Javelin Wealth Management CEO Stephen Davies.

General Motors is already feeling the backlash of its decision not to sell European automaker Opel to Magna International, as workers in Germany went on strike.  GM faces not just ire over American-European cultural differences, but worker unease at job security, European-style.

The European Central Bank kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at a record low of 1.0 percent on Thursday, as expected by economists.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it would expand its quantitative easing program by 25 billion pounds to help kick-start Britain's recession-hit economy.

Investors are braced for signs on Thursday that the European Central Bank will soon start weaning banks off cheap and abundant liquidity given that expiry dates are approaching for the central bank's crisis measures.

The Bank of England's injection of 175 billion pounds ($289 billion) into the economy hasn't yet pulled Britain out of recession, and the central bank now faces a difficult decision on whether to raise the stakes.

Joint ventures with a family business and a show-business icon are key in Diageo's vodka plans.

Keeping Opel is the best strategic option for General Motors given the improved economic conditions, but the automaker needs to appease German politicians' and trade unions anger over its about-face and adapt itself to German ways, European analysts said Wednesday.

Opel's labor force has agreed to contribute 265 million euros ($390 million) in annual savings if General Motors finally sells a majority stake in its European arm to a group led by Canada's Magna.

Europe's economy will rebound next year and accelerate in 2011, the  European Commission said, paving the way for major deficit cuts.

The European Union's former communist members spooked the West earlier this year, when some investors and analysts believed their crumbling economies could send shockwaves through the system and even sink the EU. The International Monetary Fund and the EU have pumped billions of euros in Central and Eastern European countries to alleviate the pain of the crisis, but their economies are still suffering. Click ahead to see what they expect for this year.