Americans earned less and goods cost more in August, figures from the Commerce Department showed Friday, as incomes dropped for the first time in close to two years.

In another sign of the storm that continues to buffet the U.S. consumer -- long the keystone of the world's largest economy -- personal income decreased by $7.3 billion, around 0.1 percent, for the first drop since October 2009.

Spain sealed a 7.55-billion-euro ($10.2 billion) overhaul of its banking sector Friday, securing savings banks that nearly bankrupted the country in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Bank of Spain governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said 568 million euros went to Unnim, 2.47 billion euros to NovaCaixaGalicia and 1.72 billion euros to CatalunyaCaixa from a state restructuring fund.

China has rejected a plan by Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries to form a joint venture with local manufacturer Chery Automobile in the world's biggest auto market, a press report said Friday.

The Chinese government had already conveyed the decision to Fuji Heavy, which produces Subaru cars, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported in its evening edition.

Mobile phone giant Nokia said Thursday it was slashing 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany and the United States, just months after announcing 4,000 job cuts it said would be the last for the foreseeable future.

"Nokia plans to close its manufacturing facilities in Cluj, Romania, by the end of 2011 ... and plans to close its (locations and commerce development) operations in Bonn, Germany and Malvern, U.S.," by the end of next year, the Finnish company said in a statement.

Europe's rescue fund cleared a major hurdle Thursday when German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to beef it up, boosting markets as attention turned to a key international audit of debt-mired Greece.

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic greeted the news with relief as Chancellor Angela Merkel survived a vote that proved a hard-fought test of her political authority as the world looks to her to defuse the euro debt crisis.

With six million tons of trash piled up in temporary storage sites in the Naples area, the European Commission is giving Italy an ultimatum -- clean up your act or face a major fine.

The European Union's executive arm sent a final warning to Italian authorities demanding that they implement waste management measures ordered by Europe's top court back in December 2010.

Turkey threatened Thursday to revoke a contract to purchase six billion cubic meters of natural gas, a third of its Russian imports, if the price is not reduced.

"We have asked them (Russia) for a reduction. If Russia does not sufficiently meet this demand, we will display the will to end the contract," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters in Ankara.

European stocks fell and Wall Street rose in cautious trade on Wednesday amid doubts that Eurozone leaders were any closer to resolving the debt crisis before EU-IMF auditors were due to arrive in Athens.

After see-sawing during the session European stocks closed down with London's FTSE-100 index dropping 1.44 percent to 5,217.63 points.

Oil prices slid on Wednesday after official data showed a bigger than expected increase in energy stockpiles in the United States, indicating weak demand in the world's biggest economy and oil consumer.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in November, slid $1.90 to $82.55 a barrel.

A controversial European Union bid to impose a tax on financial transactions is intended to make the finance sector pay something back after massive public sector bailouts in recent years.

Draft European Commission legislation endeavors to prevent companies from relocating outside the single market, as critics claim, or consumers from picking up the tab further down the line, as campaigners fear.