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Canadian Gold and iron producer Eldorado Gold Corp. said Sunday it will buy European Goldfields Ltd. in a deal worth about $2.4 billion, increasing its ability to produce gold.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, company said its offer values each European Goldfields share at 13.08 Canadian dollars ($12.59), based on Eldorado’s closing stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

That comes to 2.5 billion Canadian dollars. It’s a 10 percent premium to European Goldfields’ closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

Eldorado said the deal will create a company with a market capitalization of about 11 billion Canadian dollars ($10.59 billion) and help diversify production. It expects to increase annual production to reach more than 1.5 million ounces of gold by 2015. In October, the company said it expected to produce 650,000 ounces of gold this year.

Eldorado operates in China, Turkey, Brazil and Greece. It has six active mines and other projects in development.

European Goldfields, which is based in Whitehorse, Yukon, operates a mine in Greece and is developing projects in both Greece and Romania pay day loans. It said it has gold reserves of 10 million ounces within the European Union. It is also a partner of Aktor SA, the largest construction company in Greece.

“Integration of European Goldfields’ business with our own will provide Eldorado with the dominant gold mining business in the Aegean Region,” said Eldorado CEO Paul Wright in a statement Sunday. He added that European Goldfields’ partnership with Aktor will help the combined company safely develop operations in Greece.

Under the deal proposed Sunday, European Goldfields stockholders will receive 0.85 Eldorado share and a fraction of a Canadian cent for each European Goldfields share.

The acquisition requires approval from a majority of Eldorado shareholders and two-thirds of European Goldfields shareholders. Shareholders from both companies will meet in February to vote on the deal.

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Stocks rose early Friday as spending cuts by Italy lifted traders’ hopes about Europe’s progress toward taming its debt crisis. A flat reading on U.S. inflation sent bond yields lower.

World markets rose Friday after Italy’s lower house of parliament approved an austerity package in hopes of lowering the country’s escalating borrowing costs.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up 58 points, or 0.5 percent, at 11,926 in the first half-hour of trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 8, or 0.7 percent, at 1,224. The Nasdaq composite index is up 22, or 0.9 percent, at 2,563.

The gains were broad. Nine of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose, led by industrial and technology companies. Telecommunications was the only sector to fall, by 0.3 percent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.88 percent from 1.93 percent earlier Friday after the government said consumer prices were unchanged last month, suggesting that inflation remains low. Low inflation makes bonds more attractive because it doesn’t diminish the buying power of the fixed return a bond provides over time.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. plunged 12 percent after the company said late Thursday that new phones seen as critical to the company’s future will be delayed until late next year. The company is also taking a big loss on unsold tablet computers and predicted that its BlackBerry sales will fall sharply during the holiday period.

If stocks hold their gains, it will be only be the second up day this week. Indexes rose Thursday after positive economic news brought relief to choppy markets. The Dow rose 45 points after separate reports showed sharply fewer layoffs and better business conditions for factories on the Eastern seaboard.

World markets followed U cash advance.S. markets higher Friday as the European debt crisis failed to produce any worrying headlines. Bad news out of Europe has overshadowed positive economic news for months.

Italy’s austerity measures are seen as a crucial step toward soothing fears about Europe. The nations’ borrowing costs have risen in recent weeks to levels at which other nations, such as Greece, were forced to take bailouts.

The cuts are aimed at persuading bond traders that Italy can emerge from the widening crisis without defaulting on its debts. The nation still sits on a $2.5 trillion powder keg of debt that could cause a global economic recession if it defaults.

Stocks mostly rose in Europe following gains in Asia. Britain’s FTSE added 0.5 percent and Italy’s benchmark index rose 0.4 percent.

Online game developer Zynga Inc. begins trading later Friday on the Nasdaq. The San Francisco company, which specializes in Facebook games, priced its initial public offering late Thursday at $10 per share, raising $1 billion. It’s the largest Internet IPO since Google Inc. went public in 2004.

Among companies making big moves:

_ New York-area cable TV provider Cablevision Systems Corp. plunged 14 percent, the most in the S&P 500, following the sudden departure of its chief operating officer, Tom Rutledge.

_ Adobe Systems Inc. jumped 8.4 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after the software maker reported earnings and revenues that were far ahead of what analysts were expecting. Analyst Walter Pritchard at Citigroup said the quarter was a “blow-out when most expected weakness.”

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Greek lawmakers have approved next year’s austerity budget, extending tough spending cuts that have sparked a series of often violent protests.

The 2012 budget passed early Wednesday foresees a fourth year of recession, but also projects a modest primary surplus _ a surplus excluding interest payments on debt _ for the first time in years.

Debt-crippled Greece’s financial woes have roiled the euro, with Europe’s single currency facing its largest crisis since it went into circulation in 2002.

The country has been relying for financial survival on billions of euros (dollars) in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return, Greece cut pensions and salaries while repeatedly hiking taxes to reduce its bloated budget deficits.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) _ Greece’s lawmakers were set Tuesday to pass next year’s austerity budget, extending tough spending cuts measures that have already left Greeks struggling as the country tries to slash its debts and pull itself out of a severe recession.

With three parties, including the country’s majority socialists and their rival conservatives, involved in Greece’s new coalition government, the budget is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority in a midnight vote.

The end of the budget debate coincided with the third anniversary of a fatal police shooting of a teenager in central Athens, and as lawmakers spoke clashes broke out in front of Parliament between hundreds of anarchists and riot police during a commemorative march.

Masked youths hurled stones, bottles and firebombs at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades on Tuesday night. Earlier in the day, violence also broke out on the fringes of a separate march by about 2,000 students who clashed with riot police outside Parliament.

Speaking inside the building during the debate, conservative party leader Antonis Samaras said his objections to many of the austerity measures already passed remained, but that he was backing the budget as the priority now was to reduce the debt.

“We are voting today for the budget, firstly because we we are giving immediate priority to to ensuring the viability of Greek debt and to maintain the the targets of fiscal adjustment,” he said.

Samaras was a vocal critic of the austerity measures over the past two years, insisting that increased taxation in particular was the wrong method and that taxes should be cut in order to stimulate the economy.

The conservative leader said the crisis had also shown up problems within the eurozone.

“It has been proved that repeated efforts until now to stabilize the euro have failed,” he said. “And that the euro crisis is not only due to Greece’s bad fiscal situation, but also to the eurozone’s inability to deal with its problems.”

The 2012 budget foresees a fourth year of recession, although it also projects a primary surplus _ a surplus excluding interest payments on debt _ of 1.1 percent of gross domestic product.

Greece’s debt troubles have roiled the euro, with Europe’s single currency facing its largest crisis since it went into circulation in 2002. The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency placed 15 of the 17 eurozone countries on notice for possible downgrades. The only two it left out were Cyprus, whose bonds have near-junk status, and Greece, whose low ratings suggest it is likely to default on its debts soon anyway.

On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged changes to the EU treaty that would centralize decision-making on spending and borrowing for the eurozone. Tighter political and economic coordination among euro countries is seen as a precursor to further financial aid from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or some combination.

Greece has been relying for financial survival on billions of euros (dollars) in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return for the first bailout, the country imposed a series of harsh austerity measures, including salary and pension cuts and repeated rounds of tax hikes that have left the country mired in a deep recession.

Despite the measures, the government found itself persistently missing the fiscal targets set out in its first bailout. A second rescue package worth euro130 billion ($175 billion) was put together in October, and includes plans for private creditors to write off 50 percent of their Greek bonds, potentially cutting the country’s debt by euro100 billion. Negotiations on the details of the deal are expected to extend into the new year.

A sudden announcement last month by then prime minister George Papandreou that he would put the hard-fought deal to a referendum triggered a political crisis that forced him to step down and a coalition government be formed. A former central banker, Lucas Papademos, has been appointed to lead the interim government until early elections, tentatively set for February.

The crisis has taken its toll on the popularity of Greece’s main political parties, though Papandreou’s Socialists have taken the severest hit. Just two years after a landslide election victory with 44 percent of the vote, they are polled at enjoying just 15.3 percent support and trail the conservatives who have 21.5 percent, according to a GPO survey for Mega television.

The poll of 1,400 adults was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 5. No margin of error was given.

According to the poll, the vast majority of Greeks _ 80.7 percent _ believe the country’s financial situation will deteriorate further in 2012, while 79.3 percent believe Greece’s rescue deal with the EU and IMF failed to resolve the debt crisis.

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Derek Gatopoulos and Demetris Nellas in Athens contributed.

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Shops in India have closed their doors in observance of a nationwide strike to protest the government’s decision to allow big-box retailers in the country.

Hundreds of traders marched on New Delhi streets Thursday demanding the Cabinet revoke its decision. The strike was only partially observed in New Delhi, Mumbai and other cities.

The government provoked furor last week by deciding foreign retailers could own up to 51 percent of supermarkets and 100 percent of single-brand stores. Shopowners fear that the entry of companies such as Wal-Mart and Tesco will crush local mom-and-pop stores.

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China’s sovereign wealth fund wants to invest in improving neglected U.S. and European roads and other infrastructure to spur global growth, the fund’s chairman said in comments published Monday.

The announcement reflects a shift in strategy for the $410 billion fund, which was created in 2007. Until now, it has limited its investments mostly to small stakes in publicly traded companies to avoid stirring political opposition overseas.

China Investment Corp. wants to begin in Britain by teaming up with fund managers or investing directly in infrastructure projects, Lou Jiwei said in a commentary in London’s Financial Times newspaper.

“China is keen to get involved” in improving U.S. and European infrastructure, which “badly needs more investment,” Lou wrote. He cited energy, water, transport, digital communications and waste disposal but gave no indication of possible projects or the size of Chinese investment.

Some commentators in both Europe and China have suggested Beijing might use its $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves to gain leverage on political or trade issues at a time when other governments urgently want investment.

CIC was created to invest abroad in hopes of earning a better return on China’s foreign reserves, the bulk of which are in U.S. and European government bonds. It says investments are made on commercial rather than political grounds.

The move into infrastructure probably reflects CIC’s commercial views, rather than those of the government, said Citigroup economist Minggao Shen. He said it could help CIC earn a more stable profit and reduce Beijing’s exposure to U.S. and European government bonds amid volatile markets.

Some Chinese commentators have called for Beijing to reduce its exposure to the financial woes of Western governments by buying fewer bonds. China is Washington’s biggest foreign bondholder, with $1.15 trillion in Treasury debt as of September.

“There is a general thought that maybe China should not invest in U.S. Treasurys or European sovereign bonds. Instead, why can’t we hold direct assets in the economy?” Shen said.

By investing in individual projects, he said, “you don’t have to depend on government guarantees and it should be affected less by the sovereign debt crisis.”

CIC faced criticism over the performance of investments made just as the financial crisis was developing. But its results have improved and the fund reported an 11.7 percent return on assets last year.

Lou stressed that CIC is a commercial investor and wants to make a profit.

“CIC believes that such an investment, guided by commercial principles, offers the chance of a win-win solution for all,” he wrote.

Lou gave no indication in which other countries the CIC might invest but cited an estimate that the United States needs to spend at least $2.2 trillion in infrastructure repairs or rebuilding.

“Free of the inflationary pressure that afflicts many emerging economies, the U.S. and Europe should make substantial investment,” he said. “We cannot count on developing countries to deliver a stable economic recovery on their own.”

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The International Monetary Fund says China’s banks face growing risks due to a credit boom and it urged Beijing to reduce the government role in lending decisions.

The report Tuesday adds to warnings by industry analysts that China’s banks face a possible rise in bad loans and other problems after a flood of lending helped it rebound quickly from the 2008 global crisis.

The IMF cited possible risks from a fall in soaring real estate prices, a rise in bad loans due to crisis-related lending and growing imbalances in an economy that relies heavily on exports and investment direct payday lenders.

The IMF urged Beijing to move further toward using interest rates instead of direct orders to regulate lending.

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ROME

ATHENS—Greece’s prime minister launched efforts to form a coalition government to run the country for the next four months, arguing Saturday the move is vital to securing a mammoth new debt deal and demonstrating commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

George Papandreou won an early morning confidence vote in the Socialist-led parliament on a pledge that he was willing to step aside and form a cross-party caretaker government. But it remains unclear whether the main opposition conservatives and other parties will take part in the talks and drop a demand for an immediate general election.

Hours after winning the vote, Papandreou met with President Karolos Papoulias.

“Cooperation is necessary to guarantee — for Greece and for our partners — that we can honor our commitments,” Papandreou said at the start of Saturday’s hourlong meeting.

“I am concerned that a lack of cooperation could trouble how our partners see our will and desire to remain in the central core of the European Union and the euro,” he said.

Papandreou, midway through his four-year term, was forced into the move by his austerity-weary Socialist party after he abandoned a disastrous proposal to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal. The idea was quickly scrapped this week after throwing world markets into renewed turmoil and drawing an angry reaction from European leaders.

Frustrated with Greece’s protracted political disagreements, the country’s creditors have threatened to withhold the next critical 8 billion euros ($11 billion U.S.) loan installment until the new debt deal is formally approved in Greece.

Greece is surviving on a 110 billion euros ($150 billion U.S.) rescue-loan program from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund no fax cash advances. It is currently finalizing a second mammoth deal: to receive an additional 130 billion euros ($179 billion U.S.) in loans and bank support, with banks agreeing to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt.

“My immediate aim is to do everything I can to create a broad cooperation government … I am not tied to my post,” Papandreou said.

“Cooperation is required for the country. We must not go to elections at this moment because it would have catastrophic consequences for the Greek economy and the livelihoods of Greek citizens,” he said. “The (new debt) agreement is very significant and will relieve much of the burden on the Greek citizen.”

Socialist party officials insisted any new government would need until late February to secure the second deal, warning that a snap poll could scuttle it. They insisted Saturday that Papandreou’s offer to step aside was sincere, and called on Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, to urgently reconsider his party’s position.

“If Mr. Samaras were willing to back a new government, the prime minister would resign today,” Yiannis Magriotis, a deputy public works minister, told private Skai television.

Prominent political analyst Ilias Nicolacopoulos argued it would be difficult for Samaras to avoid the coalition talks altogether — even if he remains reluctant to share power with Papandreou.

“There will be a tough game of poker — all of last week was a poker game — to determine what type of government can be formed,” he told AP television.

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A new study contends that Scott Air Force Base has an annual economic impact on the St. Louis area of more than $3 billion, up from $2.1 billion cited in a similar study done a decade ago.

The study was commissioned by Scott and the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois and was conducted by Woolpert LLC. Its findings were made public on Tuesday.

The study concludes that more than 136,000 area residents benefit directly from Scott either through employment at or retirement from the air base or through jobs that provide goods and services to the base. Scott is the largest employer south of Springfield in Illinois. It also is the sixth largest employer in the St credit score. Louis area, according to the Post-Dispatch employer database.

Scott has nearly 5,800 active duty military and 2,000 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members stationed there. The base also employs more than 3,100 federal civilian employees and more than 2,400 non-appropriated fund contract civilians and private business employees.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The story was updated to correct the relative size of Scott Air Force Base among local employers.)

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