Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

The unemployment rate across the eurozone has remained at a record rate of 10 percent in July for the fifth month running, official figures show.

According to European Union data (Eurostat) released on Tuesday, some 15.8 million people within the 16-nation eurozone were jobless in July as the eurozone unemployment rate remains at its highest level since the euro's virtual birth in 1999.

France has sent detailed proposals to the European Commission calling for common action to regulate volatile commodities markets before it is due to head the Group of 20 economic powers, ministry officials said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that regulating commodity derivatives would be one of the priorities of France's presidency of the G20 starting in November for a year.

The Irish government signaled on Monday that gradually winding down Anglo Irish Bank could be an option as political pressure mounts on Prime Minister Brian Cowen to deal with a national millstone.

Propping up Anglo Irish left Ireland with the biggest budget deficit in the European Union last year.

An advert for telecommunications firm BT is banned for misleading customers over broadband speeds. In a TV advert, a voice said BT is "rolling out up to 20 meg speeds" to give "consistently faster broadband".

After the complaints were made, BT said that the sequence shown in the advert had not been intended to be an actual comparison.

Britain's economy posted its highest growth since 2001 in the second quarter of 2010, but the improvement has been undermined by fears of another recession in the US economy.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) UK's gross domestic product rose by 1.2% in the three month to June 2010 which was slightly better than the former forecast of 1.1%.

Bank of England is warning of a 'significant' risk of Britain falling back into recession over a four quarter period while acknowledging its growth forecast for the next two years is out of the reach.

Martin Weale, the newest member of the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee, told the Times “it would be foolish to say that there's no risk of that”.

Foreign investors including companies from Germany and UAE have invested more than one billion dollars in Iran's power plant industry, a report says.

“Germany has invested $445 million in construction of the Pareh-Sar combined cycle power plant in northern Iran, while the UAE has invested $720 million in construction of a gas power plant as well as a combined cycle power plant in Isfahan and Shiraz,” a report released by Iran's Ministry of Energy said, IRNA reported Monday.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson has issued a recall of a popular brand of its contact lenses from Asia and Europe over complaints of eye irritation.

On Monday the health giant announced the recall of 100,000 boxes containing either 30 or 90 "1 Day Acuvue TruEye" lenses manufactured in Ireland and distributed in several countries in Europe and Asia.

Russia's unprecedented heat-wave has contributed to a hefty loss of one billion dollars in the country's agricultural sector, says a ministry official.

"The losses amount to about 32.7 billion rubles (1.07 billion dollars)," Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexander Petrikov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying, AFP reported.

Iran plans to add 8 Boeing MD and 6 Airbus passenger planes to its aviation fleet "in the near future," Iranian Roads and Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani says.

"Joining new Western planes into the fleet and replacing old planes show the ineffectiveness of US sanctions on importing new planes and aircraft spare parts," Behbahani told the Fars News Agency on Monday.