AP - Commerzbank AG said Monday it will use funds from the German government's bailout package to strengthen its capital base.

AFP - BMW on Tuesday became the latest auto giant to feel the pain of the financial crisis, announcing production cuts and a huge drop in profits, as EU finance ministers gathered amid recession stormclouds.

AP - President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will deploy missiles in its Baltic Sea territory in response to U.S. missile defense plans.

AP - Third-quarter sales at insurer Old Mutual fell by 4 percent from a year ago as the global economic slowdown eroded demand for life insurance around the world, the company said Thursday.

AP - Poland said Friday it plans to join what it said would be a $6 billion aid package for Iceland along with Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries to help the island nation salvage its collapsed financial system.

AP - Spain has rejected a final appeal for asylum by a son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and will deport him to Egypt, a lawyer for the man said Saturday.

AP - Latvia's government has decided to take over the nation's No. 2 financial institution after the bank ran into a liquidity crisis, an official said Sunday.

AP - Russia's finance minister reiterated Moscow's call for reforming global financial institutions, saying in comments televised Monday that the International Monetary Fund was inadequate as a crisis manager.

AP - French-Romanian carmaker Dacia and steelmaker Arcelor Mittal Hunedoara said they will temporarily halt production due to a sharp drop in sales as the world's economic turmoil hits Romania's industrial sector.

AP - Insurer Swiss Life Holding said Wednesday it expects a loss for the full year 2008, excluding one-off gains from the sale of some units, due to the financial crisis.

AP - The German economy, Europe's biggest, tipped into recession in the third quarter, shrinking as exports declined, government figures showed Thursday.

AFP - Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev meets EU leaders on Friday to hammer out proposals to put to a global summit on the international financial turmoil.

AP - Sweden's financial markets minister is warning that the government's bank guarantee scheme could become compulsory for the Nordic country's main banks unless more of them sign up for it.

AP - Wolfgang Schmitz, former Austrian finance minister and president of the country's central bank, died early Sunday, his People's Party said in a statement. He was 85.

AP - The euro and the pound drifted lower against the U.S. dollar in European trading on Monday after a summit of world leaders in Washington failed to provide specific guidelines to ease the global financial crisis.

AP - Wolseley PLC, the world's largest distributor of plumbing products, said Monday it would shed 2,000 jobs and close 200 branches in Britain and Ireland to adjust to the economic downturn.

AP - The Bank of England said Wednesday its interest rate setting committee had voted unanimously to cut its benchmark rate to a 53-year low of 3 percent earlier this month.

AP - Finland's Finance Ministry says four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion (euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic meltdown.

AP - Home repossessions in Britain jumped 12 percent to 11,300 in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday, more evidence that the financial crisis is taking its toll on households and the ailing housing market.

AP - Lars G. Nordstrom isn't the only CEO being criticized these days for earning too much money during the world financial crisis. But he may be one of the few who has reacted by deciding to work for free.

AP - The head of the Swiss Banking Commission said he did not rule out that UBS AG might need more government aid to survive the financial crisis, a daily newspaper reported Sunday.

AP - Standard Chartered PLC, Britain's third largest bank, said Monday it plans to raise 1.8 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) in a rights offer to shore up its balance sheet amid the economic downturn.

AP - German consumer confidence has defied the country's slide into recession to show another small improvement, as falling fuel prices and an industrial wage deal help boost workers' income outlook, a survey found Tuesday.

AP - The euro dropped back below $1.30 on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains it made against the dollar the previous day amid gloomy U.S. economic data.

AP - Norway said Thursday it will lend 50 billion kroner ($7 billion) to the oil-rich nation's export credit agency Eksportfinans over the next two years to help industries such as shipbuilding through the credit crunch. The loans will run for five years.

AP - Fujitsu Siemens Computers said Friday it wants to cut around 700 jobs in Germany as the economic downturn deepens.

Reuters - The European Commission is blocking a French plan to shore up the capital positions of big retail banks, insisting they must reduce their lending in return for state support, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Reuters - Romanians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election that will determine both its response to the global financial crisis and the fate of judicial reforms, which have stalled since it joined the European Union last year.