At a meeting of G20 finance ministers being held in St Andrews, Scotland, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spoken of how a global levy on their transactions could help make banks more accountable to the taxpayers who have bailed many of them out.

On Wednesday, the last show this season of Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" took place at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts in Toronto. After the show, dozens of audience members discussed the actions of the opera's characters.

Outcast status of the traditional Japanese underclass persists in Tokyo's Sanya district. Known in Japanese as "burakumin" or "eta-hinin" this group was historically employed in the now-declining leather industry.

According to estimated figures released on Thursday by the Commerce Department, the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the quarter from July through September.

Japanese defense officials say a navy destroyer has collided with a commercial ship off Japan's southern coast Tuesday, starting fires on both ships.

Cellphone maker Nokia has slapped Apple, one of the world's most popular technology companies, with a $1-billion suit, claiming the iPhone maker has infringed 10 patents.

In Japan, Burger King has teamed up with Microsoft to promote a heart attack-inducing hamburger: the seven-patty "Windows 7 Whopper", selling for 777 yen or approximately $8.50 US. The promo price is only available for seven days.

At a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday senior officials from India and China signed a five-year agreement to cooperate in the fight against climate change.

Despite having one of the world's largest and most equally distributed economies, more of Japan's population is living in poverty now than a decade ago.

For many investors, China is the 21st century version of 20th century America and 19th century Great Britan and so on. Financial analysts believe China will takeover Japan and become the world's second largest economy but the Yuan could be a problem.