U.S. President Barack Obama warned Thursday Europe must "act fast" on a debt crisis threatening the fragile U.S. recovery and accused China of gaming the global currency and trading systems.

In a White House news conference, Obama also said Republicans must pass his $447 billion dollar jobs bill as insurance against a double dip recession and warned Pakistan was hedging its bets by maintaining ties with extremists.

The BBC said Thursday it will cut around 2,000 jobs in the most far-reaching change in its history as the world's largest public broadcaster falls prey to government austerity measures.

Director General Mark Thompson told staff that the corporation plans annual savings of £670 million pounds over five years but no services would be completely cut.

Egypt may reconsider an International Monetary Fund loan which it turned down in June, with donor countries having fallen short of meeting pledges, the finance minister was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Hazem al-Beblawi added Egypt was also negotiating financing of up to seven billion dollars from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the English-language website of state-owned daily Al-Ahram reported.

Prime Minister David Cameron faced criticism Wednesday for telling householders to pay off their credit cards to help the country weather the global economic crisis.

In advance extracts from his closing speech to the Conservative party's annual conference which were released by his office, Cameron was to dismiss calls to ease austerity measures and stimulate economic growth.

Germany's automobile market, Europe's biggest, continued to outperform its rivals in September, sector federation VDA said Wednesday, with a sharp rise in new cars sold in the country and exported.

A total of 280,800 new cars were registered in Germany, a rise of eight percent compared to the same month last year. There were 426,600 cars exported from Germany, an annual gain of six percent.

Apple shares slipped on Wall Street on Tuesday as the California gadget-maker unveiled an updated version of the iPhone but not a transformative new model many had been expecting.

Apple's new chief executive Tim Cook, who replaced ailing founder Steve Jobs in August, presided over the launch of the iPhone 4S at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

French officials scrambled Wednesday to defend plans to save struggling Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, insisting it is an isolated event that poses no threat to France's own top credit rating.

Dexia, which specializes in lending to local authorities, found it could not access funding on the money markets where the Eurozone debt crisis has seen credit run dry.

The U.S. military faces serious budget cuts and will be unable to make up any shortfalls in the NATO alliance as European members slash defense spending, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta warned Wednesday.

Fiscal pressures are bearing down on both sides of the Atlantic and NATO allies will need to work closely together to pool funds, instead of counting on America's much larger defense spending to close the gap, Panetta said.

Fikra Group is organizing “Badi Ishteghil B Lebnen Job Fair” that will be held on Oct 27-29 at the Monroe Hotel Beirut, the group said in a press release.

The fair will be organized in collaboration with Koudourat Anti Unemployment Association, it said.

Egypt will substantially raise the price of its gas exports to Israel, which have stopped after militants blew up a Sinai desert pipeline, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Oil minister Abdullah Ghurab said there would be "a large increase in the price" after the revision which would be announced soon, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.