• BMW cuts shift at U.K. Mini plant, and eliminates the jobs of 850

• Feb 17, 2009
• PARIS: Bayerische Motoren Werke, the German luxury carmaker better known as BMW, announced Monday that it would eliminate 850 jobs at its plant that makes the iconic Mini car in Oxford, England, in response to the slump in global demand.
  "...

• Gentili may head merged French bank -paper

• Feb 17, 2009
• PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Steve Gentili could replace Philippe Dupont as the head of the new entity to be formed from the merger of French mutual banks Groupe Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire, La Tribune reported on Monday.
  Gentili is head of B...

• France says Germany now backs its econ policy stance

• Feb 17, 2009
• BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany appears to be coming round to the French view that euro-zone countries should coordinate their economic policies, two senior French officials said on Monday after meeting the German economy minister.
  Patrick Devedjian, min...

• Nicolas Sarkozy 'threatened to boycott' Nato party over seating plan

• Feb 17, 2009
• President Sarkozy objected to normal diplomatic protocols seating the Western Alliance's leaders in alphabetical order by name of their countries.
  Germany and France are hosting the special Nato summit in early April during symbolic celebrations whi...

• Inquiry into City bonus fairness

• Feb 8, 2009
• The leader of the Commons has asked the Equality Commission to examine City bonuses and rule whether they discriminate against women.
  Harriet Harman told a Labour regional conference in Sheffield that men working in the finance sector are paid over ...

• Deutsche sees first annual loss

• Feb 8, 2009
• Deutsche Bank says it made an annual loss last year, its first since being restructured after World War II.
  The global financial crisis meant Germany's biggest bank made a net loss of 3.9bn euros ($5bn; £3.5bn) in 2008 following a 6.5bn euros...

• Chancellor warns RBS over bonuses

• Feb 8, 2009
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has not ruled out the possibility of taxpayer-backed bank RBS paying some of its staff bonuses.
  This comes as reports put the potential total bonus figure at as high as £1bn for the company's ...

• DNA database 'breach of rights'

• Feb 8, 2009
• Two British men should not have had their DNA and fingerprints retained by police, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
  The men's information was held by South Yorkshire Police, although neither was convicted of any offence.
  The judgement ...

• Government plans travel database

• Feb 8, 2009
• The government is compiling a database to track and store the international travel records of millions of Britons.
  Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years.
  ...

• 'Bulgaria toilet' art covered up

• May 17, 1604
• Part of a work of art that depicts Bulgaria as a toilet has been covered up, following the country's protest. Entropa, commissioned by the Czech Republic to adorn EU headquarters in Brussels, has caused a sensation, and some embarrassment, across Eur...