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The mortgage sector is on pace to see a record number of failures this year as regulators seize banks at an accelerating rate, according to data tracked at the Mortgage Graveyard - a journal of failed, ailing and acquired lenders. A lack of government loans programs and lost warehouse financing played a role in some of the closings.

In February 2009 compared with January 2009, the industrial producer price index fell by 0.5% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.3% in the EU27. In January, prices decreased by 1.1% and 0.7% respectively.

In February 2009, compared with January 2009, the volume of retail trade fell by 0.6% in the euro area (EA16) and by 1.2% in the EU27. In January retail trade rose by 0.1% and 0.7% respectively. In February 2009, compared with February 2008, the retail sales index decreased by 4.0% in the euro area and by 3.4% in the EU27.

The Commission has adopted a new regulation to improve the energy performance of external power supplies, which is expected to cut their electricity losses by nearly a third by 2020. The resulting savings of 9 TWh is enough to power Lithuania for a year and will reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than three million tonnes.

The global economic downturn has taken its toll on industries across the globe, and the mobile and wireless communications industry is no exception. In the European market, which is highly saturated and competitive, mobile network operators (MNOs) are in a survival of the fittest battle to maintain and expand their market share. On the fringes of this battle are new entrants, challenging established MNOs to stay in the game. The question is whether or not there is space for these new entrants in an established market, especially during these economic times, when smaller companies could be viewed as potential acquisition targets.

With the continued sharp deterioration in the labor market in March, the pace of job losses in this recession now is far worse than even during the deep 1981-82 recession. Thus, Congress acted wisely this week in rejecting calls to cut federal spending in 2010, at a time when the economy clearly will still be quite weak and need continued strong stimulus.

Three years after its launch, the .eu top-level internet domain continues to be a success story. There are now more than three million internet domains under Europe's own top-level domain. Even the financial crisis has not stopped this growth: the number of .eu domains increased by 2% during the first quarter of 2009, and .eu was firmly entrenched as the fifth most popular country code top-level domain worldwide.

In an effort to help developing countries improve their food safety systems for the benefit of their populations and economies, EU Health Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou, launched a new initiative – "Better Training for Safer Food in Africa – BTSF-Africa."

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

A new survey of 1002 Americans by Econ4U shows how Americans are responding to the financial crisis. The national survey conducted last week asked Americans how the recession is affecting them and their peers.