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.

European Union regulators have extended their review of plans by U.S. software firm Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems for $7 billion, giving Oracle more time to tackle concerns the deal may be anti-competitive.

European Union leaders named  Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is little known outside his own country, as the bloc's first president.

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.

The European Commission has accused credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's of unfair pricing when charging licensing fees for issuing International Securities Identification Numbers, or ID codes for securities.

The euro zone economy jumped out of recession in the third quarter, but with slightly less spring than expected after the area's top three economies fell short of market forecasts.

A winter of discontent is in store, as the Irish fume at a bailout plan which could burden a generation, and they say is way too generous to the banks who lent so freely when the "Celtic Tiger" was roaring.

EU antitrust regulators launched an investigation on Tuesday into news and financial data publisher Thomson Reuters' use of its real-time market datafeed, saying it might block users moving to rival firms.

The computer maker suffered a 25 percent fall in quarterly revenue, as uncertainty over its delayed sale to Oracle Corp hurt its business.

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.