French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday announced guarantees on interbank loans of up to 320 billion euros to shore up the financial sector. Additionally, 40 billion euros would be set aside to recapitalise French banks, he said.

Wall Street shares surged at the market opening Monday, with the Dow Jones index soaring 4.5%. Similar jumps occurred in Asian and European markets. Paris and Frankfurt indices closed up 11%, London's FTSE up 8%.

US economist Paul Krugman, a prolific New York Times columnist and fierce critic of Washington's economic policies, won the Nobel economics prize on Monday.

Lithuania's main centre-right opposition party looked set to win the first round of Sunday's parliamentary vote, with a disgraced ex-president making a strong comeback, according to an exit poll.

A week-long strike against a new value added tax appeared to be spreading in Tehran's bazaar on Sunday, even though the Iranian government suspended the measure for two months, witnesses said.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe swore in his two vice presidents Monday, despite an ongoing dispute with the opposition over a power-sharing deal. The EU condemned the "unilateral decision" and threatened new sanctions.

As the issue of race becomes more and more prominent in the US presidential campaign, the Republican camp is accused of stirring up feelings of hatred towards Democratic rival Barack Obama.

British PM Gordon Brown has said that world leaders must meet to decide on a new Bretton Woods system, referring to the global financial architecture agreed to at the end of World War II.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the English newspaper The Times that British troops are no longer necessary for the security of Iraq and should go home. Maliki openly criticized some British security decisions in the region.

Recently-released photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il were taken during the summer, before his reported stroke in mid-August, South Korea's Yonhap agency claims. Kim has disappeared from the public eye for two months.

American video-game tycoon Richard Garriott has become the world's sixth space tourist, taking off for the international space station from a launch pad in Kazakhstan.

India's Catholic community celebrated the canonisation of the country's first female saint Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI canonised Sister Alfonsa, an Indian nun, while calling for an end to a recent deadly wave of anti-Christian violence.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of a power-sharing deal with Robert Mugabe following the Zimbabwean president's unilateral decision to award key cabinet posts to his ruling ZANU-PF party.

Afghan and NATO forces have killed at least 60 militants they say were massing for an attack on Laskar Gah in the southern Helmand province.

Clashes between Jews and Arab rioters continued for the fourth consecutive night after violence erupted on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Lithuania's main centre-right opposition party looked set to win the first round of Sunday's parliamentary vote, with a disgraced ex-president making a strong comeback, according to an exit poll.

Marina Petrella, a former member of the Italian Red Brigades, will not be extradited from France to Italy, where she was convicted for her part in the killing of a police officer, the French presidency announced, citing Petrella's poor health.

The British government is considering a 35-billion-pound rescue of the country's four largest retail banks - HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Barclays - according to a Sunday Times report posted on its Web site.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has secured his second successive Formula One victory in winning the Japanese Grand Prix. Massa cut Hamilton's lead in the World Championship to six points with two races remaining.