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The European Union (EU) has continued to expand over the years, but adults in five European countries are not convinced this should continue. Two-thirds of adults in France (67%) and over half of German adults (55%) believe the EU should not continue to take in new members. Just under half (47%) of British adults as well as 40 percent of Spanish adults also feel there should not be any more new members in the EU.

The strength and resilience of the euro-area financial system has benefited from generally favourable economic and financial conditions in the six months since the publication of the December 2006 Review. Profitability in both the banking and insurance sectors has been improving and the amount of problem loans has remained low. For the most part, financial markets have been characterised by unusually subdued volatility, credit spreads have remained very low and many asset prices have reached historically high levels. In February and March 2007, the shock-absorbing capacity of the financial system was again tested by the third significant burst of market volatility in the past two years which it weathered comfortably. Improvements in the risk management practices of financial firms appear to have contributed to ensuring that higher financial market volatility did not prevent capital markets from facilitating the intermediation of capital.

Demographic change and population ageing are making supplementary pension schemes an increasingly important way to secure decent living standards in old age. A new directive aims to facilitate workers' mobility within and across Member States by setting minimum standards for the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights.

In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production fell by 0.9% in the euro area (EA13) and by 0.1% in the EU27 in April 2007, compared with the previous month. In March production increased by 0.7% in the euro area and by 0.9% in the EU27. Compared with April 2006, output in April 2007 gained 3.9% in the euro area and 6.6% in the EU27. In March the annual growth was 10.8% in the euro area and 10.7% in the EU27.

Economic growth in Korea remains one of the highest in the OECD area, led by buoyant exports. Sluggish domestic demand in recent years, though, suggests the need to address structural weaknesses in order to continue the convergence to income levels in the high income countries.

With the world's second-largest and fastest-growing Internet user population, China has become the next frontier for Web 2.0 activity. In recent months, MySpace, Yahoo! and Google have all made inroads into the Chinese market by either launching local versions of their sites or investing in China-based technology or social networking startups.

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in May. Overall, 26 states recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 15 states and the District of Columbia registered decreases, and 9 states had no changes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

While globalization is impacting many facets of the financial services industry, transformation across the securities industry is particularly heated. Recent deals inked in the last year alone – such as CME/CBOT, NYSE/EuroNext, NYSE and India's National Stock Exchange, and NYSE/Tokyo Stock Exchange - are just some of the evidence of the reinvention of the global capital market.

The results of a national online Magid Media Futures(TM) survey conducted the last week in March of 2007 have just been released, documenting the huge growth in popularity for Americans to view video online over the Internet. Daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over the last year. In 2006, 9 percent of 12- to 64-year-old Americans who used the Internet reported using online video daily - every day. Today, in 2007, this number has risen to 14 percent of Americans 12 to 64 years old.

Going into the Paris Air Show, M&A activity for the year is already running at record rates, with $33.2 billion in transactions announced or completed, according to Defense Mergers & Acquisitions (DM&A), the industry's premiere online news and analysis service focused on M&A activity in the defense, aerospace, and government technology sectors.