(Reuters) - The White House said on Monday it was disappointed Nobel Prize winner Peter Diamond's nomination to be a Federal Reserve governor was thwarted by "partisan obstructionism" and promised to name a new candidate soon. Diamond said on Sunday he planned to withdraw as a nominee for the role at the U.S. central bank after his candidacy was repeatedly opposed by Republicans.

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(Reuters) - The European Central Bank is likely to signal a July interest rate rise on Thursday while continuing to provide banks with unlimited amounts of cash to help weaker lenders hit by the euro zone debt crisis. The ECB is expected to use higher staff inflation forecasts, to be published during Thursday's post-policy meeting news conference, as justification for higher interest rates to come -- probably starting with a rise to 1.50 percent next month.

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(Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou started a campaign on Monday to secure a new international bailout by imposing years of austerity on a nation already seething over corruption and economic mismanagement. Unease is growing within Papandreou's ranks about the consequences of waves of budget cuts demanded under successive deals with the European Union and IMF -- and this could turn into alarm after at least 80,000 Greeks crammed a central Athens square to vent their anger over the nation's dire state.

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(Reuters) - Google has become a "political tool" vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said on Monday, warning that the U.S. Internet giant's statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business. The tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the leading newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, indicating that political tensions between the United States and China over Internet security could linger.

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(Reuters) - Double-dip recession or not, people will still pay any price to have lunch with Warren Buffett. The annual charity auction for lunch with the legendary 80-year-old investor began Sunday night, and by Monday morning bids already topped $1.5 million. The five bids placed thus far have come from two anonymous bidders.

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(Reuters) - Italian fashion house Prada is pricing its initial public offering in Hong Kong to raise up to $2.6 billion and give the maker of luxury bags and Miu Miu dresses a higher valuation than its European peers. Prada set an indicative price range of HK$36.5 ($4.69) to HK$48 ($6.17) a share for the IPO, a source with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters on Monday, valuing the company at between $11.4 billion and $14.6 billion.

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(Reuters) - Nobel Prize winner Peter Diamond said on Sunday he planned to withdraw as a nominee for Federal Reserve governor, after his nomination was repeatedly opposed by Republicans. "It is time for me to withdraw, as I plan to inform the White House," Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York Times titled "When a Nobel Prize isn't enough."

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(Reuters) - Weak jobs figures on Friday do not change the fundamental outlook for the U.S. economy and monetary policy could be tightened by the end of the year, a top Federal Reserve official said on Monday. Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser, a well-known inflation hawk who has a vote on policy this year, has said he believes the U.S. economy was in a gradual recovery.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped on Friday after a dismal report on the labor market appeared to confirm the recent glut of data signaling the economic recovery was waning. U.S. employment rose by 54,000 in May, far less than expected, to record its weakest reading since September, while the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent.

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(Reuters) - Employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, raising concerns the economy might be stuck in a painful slow-growth mode. Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday. Private employment rose just 83,000, the least since last June, while government payrolls dropped 29,000.

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