BRUSSELS (March 19, 2010): Greece raised the stakes on Thursday in its quest for EU help to tackle its debt crisis, saying it cannot achieve promised deficit cuts if its borrowing costs remain so high and may have to call in the IMF.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 19, 2010): Malaysia is considering proposals to end its subsidy regime and phase in a new goods and services tax as it begins dismantling a four-decade race-based economic system that has deterred foreign investment.

BRUSSELS (March 19, 2010): EU trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, on Thursday accused US President Barack Obama's administration of having a "protectionist" agenda, blaming Washington for holding up a global free-trade deal.

GENEVA (March 19, 2010): Members of the World Trade Organisation are likely to conclude next week that it will take a political miracle to agree a new trade deal this year, consigning yet another Doha round deadline to the dustbin.

LONDON (March 19, 2010): Britain's equality watchdog accused a US firm Thursday of breaking British laws when it advertised for job applicants who were "preferably of Indian origin." Information technology company Torry Harris said it was looking for someone with a minimum of six years' experience in IT when it advertised for a job at its offices in Bristol, south-west England.

WASHINGTON (March 19, 2010): New applications for US jobless benefits fell last week and factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region accelerated in March, suggesting the economy remained on a modest recovery path. The reports on Thursday, coupled with data showing muted inflation pressures, backed up the Federal Reserve commitment to keep its benchmark interest rate ultra low for a while. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to 457,000 in the week ended March 13, the Labour Department said.

WASHINGTON (March 19, 2010): President Barack Obama signed into law a $17.6 billion jobs bill on Thursday and sounded an optimistic note about the US economy, saying it may soon begin adding jobs instead of losing them. Obama made the comment in the White House Rose Garden as he put his name on legislation that includes a number of incentives aimed at helping small businesses recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

TOKYO (March 19, 2010): Japanese companies have become far less gloomy about economic conditions than three months ago, a Reuters corporate survey showed, pointing to a big improvement in the Bank of Japan's closely watched tankan survey next month. But grinding deflation will mean Japan's economic recovery remains modest and the government will keep pressuring the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policy further, analysts say.

FRANKFURT (March 19, 2010): Israeli copycat drugs giant Teva took a major stride into Europe on Thursday with the five-billion-dollar purchase of Ratiopharm, formerly owned by a German billionaire who killed himself. The 3.6-billion-euro (4.9-billion-dollar) acquisition will "position Teva as the leading generic pharmaceutical company in Europe," it said, boosting annual sales there to 5.2 billion dollars from 3.3 billion dollars at present.

TOKYO (March 19, 2010): Japanese land prices fell at the fastest pace for five years in 2009, as the nation's weak economy struggles with another bout of deflation, official data said Thursday. Costs across the country fell 4.6 percent on average, the land ministry said in its annual land price survey, the biggest drop since 2004, when they fell by 5.0 percent.