Russia accused Estonia of violating a UN maritime convention by refusing permission for a seabed survey linked to the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe

  Vladimir Putin is reported to have invited Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to talks in Moscow in a move that could increase tensions between Russia and the US

  Crude oil prices soared to a fresh record above $88 a barrel as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries suggested it would not increase its production in the short-term

  Analysts doubt whether officials of the seven leading industrialised nations will have a co-ordinated response to the severe strains in global currency markets

  Social networking will take on a new dimension with the launch of a website that uses DNA testing to help users find family members through the ages

  Only a month after breaching $80, the price for a barrel of oil is now heading towards $90, scaling heights barely conceivable a few years ago

  Although oil prices nudged $88 a barrel, apart from stock markets trading lower, it was difficult to detect any great sense of foreboding

  The European parliament is expected to endorse a plan to allocate carbon permits on a per capita basis after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

  The improvement in the functioning of credit markets since the Federal Reserve cut interest rates has reduced the risk to the near-term economic outlook, Ben Bernanke said

  The risk of a disorderly adjustment of global ­economic imbalances has increased after the turmoil in credit markets, Rodrigo Rato, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said

  European employers say goods produced by South Korean-owned factories in the enclave of Kaesong, in the North, should not be classified as being from the South

  Three US economists who established and developed theories governing how trade between two individuals or companies takes place and how it can be optimised have won the nobel prize for economics

  A World Trade Organisation panel, ruling in favour of Brazil in a landmark international challenge, has found that the United States has not done enough to reform its cotton subsidies

  The European Union and South Korea are this week expected to clash over tariff reductions on cars and the liberalisation of agricultural imports when they hold bilateral trade talks