AP - Businessman Karlheinz Schreiber was expected in Germany on Monday to face charges related to a party financing scandal surrounding former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, after losing a decade-long fight to avoid extradition from Canada.

AP - A German court on Tuesday ordered Karlheinz Schreiber kept in custody after his extradition from Canada, calling the businessman who is linked to a financing scandal surrounding former Chancellor Helmut Kohl a flight risk.

AFP - Hong Kong's last British governor Chris Patten has signalled his availability for a top European Union job, the Financial Times said Wednesday.

AP - Central banks for Europe and Britain are almost certain to keep their benchmark interest rates at record lows on Thursday amid early signs of economic recovery, while attention will focus on whether the Bank of England will hold back from further expanding the money supply.

AP - Germany's Daimler AG and BMW AG said Friday that their worldwide car sales fell by more than 10 percent in July as the global economic downturn curbed demand for luxury autos.

AP - The memorial at the former prison run by Communist East Germany's Stasi secret police is deep in debt after being flooded with nonpaying visitors this year as Germany marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an official said Monday.

AFP - The number of people unemployed in Britain has hit a 14-year high, official data showed on Wednesday, as the Bank of England forecast only a slow recovery for the recession-hit British economy.

AP - The 16-nation euro climbed against the dollar early Thursday after Germany, Europe's largest economy, reported an unexpected rise in gross domestic product, technically bringing it out of recession.

AP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading to Russia to meet President Dmitry Medvedev in a visit expected to focus on energy and economic issues.

AP - Swedish bank Swedbank said Monday it is raising 15 billion Swedish kronor ($2.1 billion) in a new share issue to strengthen its capital position, which has been tested by the global economic crisis, particularly in the Baltic countries.

AP - Russia's largest and most important air show is getting under way, overshadowed by a bad economy, a terrorist attack and a deadly air force crash.

AP - Germany's economy ministry says the country is prepared to make euro4.5 billion ($6.35 billion) in credit available to a Canadian-Russian consortium in the bidding war to take over Ruesselsheim-based carmaker Adam Opel GmbH.

AFP - Factories in the 16 nations using the euro single currency saw demand rebound by 3.1 percent in June compared to May, after two months of falls, according to official EU data released on Monday.

AP - Turkey's military indicated Tuesday that it would back government efforts to grant more rights to Kurds and improve the economy of their region.

AP - Paris is counting on American tourists — and a new law allowing more stores to open on Sundays — to boost tourism revenues pinched by the global financial downturn.

AFP - European business and consumer confidence firmed in August for a fifth month running, an EU survey showed on Friday, adding to a recent string of encouraging news for Europe's struggling economies.

AFP - German Labour Minister Olaf Scholz expects unemployment to keep rising in the coming months but believes it will stay below four million, according to a magazine interview to be published Monday.

AFP - The Chancellor of the Exchequer on Monday urged European Union nations to boost IMF resources to aid the fragile world economy, saying Britain would pledge up to an extra 11 billion dollars.

AP - Investigators looking for the Air France plane that disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean in June still cannot explain the crash and need more money and resources to search for the aircraft's data recorders, the man leading the probe said Monday.