New Delhi, Jan. 21 : India and Canada have agreed to initiate exploratory discussion towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

Commerce and Industry MInister Kamal Nath and Canada''s Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway Stockwell Day agreed on this at a meeting here on January 18.

"We are committed to taking our economic partnership to the next level. The steps taken today will ensure we move towards opening doors for our respective business communities," Nath said.

Riga  - The Latvian government breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday when European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels approved payment of the EU's 3.1-billion-euro (4-billion- dollar) slice of a 7.5-billion-euro (9.7-billion-dollar) economic assistance package brokered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Berlin - German investor confidence could edge up again this month, a key indicator to be released Tuesday is forecast to say, amid efforts from governments and central banks around the world to halt the downturn underway in the global economy.

Drawn up by the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research, the ZEW index is forecast by analysts to post a marginal increase to minus 44.5 points in January after posting a bigger- than-expected rise to 45.2 in December.

An increase in January would represent the third consecutive rise in the index.

Singapore  - Foreign investment in Singapore is expected to drop by almost half to about 10 billion Singapore dollars (6.66 billion US dollars) this year due to the global credit crunch, according to local news reports on Tuesday.

This year's foreign investment estimate by the Economic Development Board excludes projects that were put off due to the worldwide recession, the reports said, adding that 20 per cent of the projects were postponed and 2 per cent were cancelled outright last year.

Wellington  - Falling petrol prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 helped bring down New Zealand's inflation rate from an 18-year high of 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of
3.4 per cent last year, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) decreased 0.5 per cent in the October-December period, the biggest quarterly fall in 10 years, and a sharp turnaround from the 1.5-per-cent increase posted in the third quarter, which had pushed annual inflation over 5 per cent, Statistics New Zealand said.

Washington, Jan. 19: With the recession in the United States showing no signs of ending, Americans are looking at the country’s armed forces as a viable employment option, lured by factors such as a steady paycheck, benefits and training.

As of December 2008 alone, 21,443 new soldiers have joined active duty or the reserves, reports the New York Times.

Of the four armed services, the Army has faced the toughest recruiting challenge in recent years because of high casualty rates in Iraq and long deployments overseas.