GERMANY

Apparently Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister and former prime minister, is having some sleepless nights. Should Israel preemptively strike Iran?

Spain has the highest jobless rate in the euro zone (22.9 percent), while Austria has the lowest (4.1 percent).

European Union lawmakers are seeking to further ratchet down the fees mobile operators charge users when they travel abroad, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters, taking aim at a lucrative source of industry profit.

Euro zone unemployment has risen to its highest level since before the euro was introduced, data showed on Tuesday, a day after EU leaders promised to focus on creating millions of new jobs to try to kickstart Europe's floundering economy.

Samsung Electronics lost a bid to overturn a ruling barring its local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Germany, handing a symbolic legal victory to Apple Inc in efforts to keep its lead spot in the tablet computer market.

Greenpeace activists stormed Romania's Environment Ministry on Tuesday, chaining themselves to radiators in the minister's office in an attempt to stop approval for Europe's biggest open-cast gold mine in a small Carpathian town.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phone network equipment, is talking to labor unions in its home countries Germany and Finland about cutting more than 4,000 jobs, part of a company-wide shakeup.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phone network equipment, said it will cut about 2,900 of a total 9,100 jobs in Germany, with most to go by the end of this year.

Samsung Electronics lost a bid to overturn a ruling barring its local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Germany, handing a symbolic legal victory to Apple Inc in efforts to keep its lead spot in the tablet computer market.

German retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, suggesting Europe's debt crisis unsettled consumers during key Christmas trade, although economists said they expected the preliminary data to be revised upwards.

Asian shares and the euro rose on Tuesday after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos raised hopes that a deal would be reached this week to avoid a potentially chaotic debt default, but worries over Portugal's refinancing ability capped gains.

Chancellor Angela Merkel cemented her political ascendancy in Europe Monday when 25 out of 27 EU states agreed to a German-inspired pact for stricter budget discipline, even as they struggled to rekindle growth from the ashes of austerity.

Rare color photos of Adolf Hitler have surfaced. Taken by Hugo Jaeger, the pictures reveal the private life of the leader of the Third Reich.

Ian Abercrombie, who played Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on 'Seinfeld' from 1994 to 1998, died Thursday at the age of 77. He had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma, but the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center says Abercrombie died from complications of kidney failure.

Stocks edged lower on Monday on stalled Greek debt talks, but an afternoon rally cut losses in a sign of the underlying resilience the market has shown early in the year.

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet sold six million units in 2011, but a new contender in the economy tablet class has emerged. It's called the Spark tablet, and at $265, it's certainly much cheaper than almost any other seven inch tablet. Not as cheap as the $200 Kindle Fire, though. It's not a hybrid tablet, but the Spark runs an operating system called Plasma Active, an open-source OS by K Desktop Environment (KDE) and Germany based open-slx.

French art database and ad specialist Artprice.com expects sales to soar this year on the back of the launch of an online auction service, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

Stocks edged lower on Monday on stalled Greek debt talks, but an afternoon rally cut losses in a sign of the underlying resilience the market has shown early in the year.

Deutsche Boerse's home regulator, the Hessian Minister of Economics, said the German exchange operator has failed to address concerns about the proposed takeover of NYSE Euronext , throwing up another hurdle to the deal.

Stocks fell on Monday after Greece's efforts to reach a debt restructuring with creditors stalled, hampering European leaders' push to shift the market's focus to jobs and growth.

Weakness in banks and commodity stocks dragged Britain's leading share index lower on Monday as the protracted search for a Greek bond deal and concerns about economic growth kept investors nervous.