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.

India's rupee has slid nearly 10 percent in three months against the dollar, a consequence of global economic uncertainty that will stoke already high inflation in Asia's third-biggest economy.

The rupee's tumble makes import prices of everything from oil, fertilizers to food staples such as pulses, fuelling near-double-digit inflation and causing bigger hardship for India's poor millions.

Crude oil prices dropped below $100 a barrel in London and hit a one-year low in New York on Tuesday over heightened Eurozone crisis concerns that sent European stocks plunging.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November stood at $99.95 in late London deals, down $1.76 compared with Monday's close.

The flow of foreign direct investment into the Arab world is expected to slump by 17 percent in 2011, with countries that saw popular uprisings worst hit, a pan-Arab organization said on Tuesday.

FDI inflows into 21 Arab nations are forecast to fall to $55.1 billion this year compared to $66.2 billion in 2010, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp. said in a report.