POLAND

When Slovakia adopted the euro in January, Alexander Joszay loved driving across the border to Hungary, where financial crisis had weakened the forint to deliver lower prices for euro-earners.

Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the courage of easterners who helped bring down the Berlin Wall as the city celebrated the 20th anniversary of the events that marked the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a reunited Germany.

Warsaw signed an agreement on Monday to sell its surplus carbon emission permits under the Kyoto Protocol (AAUs) worth 25 million euros ($37.5 million) to Madrid, Polish and Spanish prime ministers said on Monday.

Third quarter sales at French public works group Eiffage slipped 1.1 percent as construction of new offices in France remained weak.

Poland said on Friday it had received three offers for its stake in the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution on Thursday urging Israel and the Palestinians to investigate war crimes charges leveled in a controversial U.N. report on the Gaza war.

The European Union should shift more of its spending to climate and energy security as part of a radical overhaul of the bloc's budget, according to a draft paper by the EU's executive arm

Poland will soon sign a deal to sell a total 40 million euros ($60 million) of surplus greenhouse gas emission rights to Spain and Ireland, the first such government-to-government deal under the Kyoto Protocol, its environment minister said.

Talks on a new U.N. climate deal stumbled on Tuesday when European Union finance ministers failed to agree funds for poor countries and India reiterated demands for aid to help curb its emissions.

The European Commission will make a quick decision to authorise three varieties of GM maize so as to relieve pressure on the livestock sector if EU ministers fail to agree, the EU farm chief said on Monday.

Director Roman Polanski is finishing work on his latest film from a Swiss jail where he is fighting extradition to the United States on a 1977 sex charge, writer Robert Harris was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

U.S. carmaker General Motors was close to signing a deal to sell a 55 percent stake in its European arm Opel to Canada's Magna Thursday as talks continued with unions over job cuts.

Moscow and Washington must agree on where the threats to their security come from before plans to cooperate on missile defense can progress, Russia's negotiator said.

Buoyed by a substantial first-place U.K. debut, the Pixar cartoon Up reclaimed the No. 1 spot on the foreign box office during the weekend.

Sometimes, much weirder things happen at the MTV Video Music Awards than Kanye West interrupting an acceptance speech.

Director Roman Polanski is feeling depressed two weeks after his arrest in Switzerland to face U.S. extradition for a 1977 case involving the rape of a 13-year-old girl, his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the European Union's reform treaty into law on Saturday, leaving the Czech Republic as the only country still to ratify the document.

Germany's Economy Minister sought to shore up support for his government's rescue plans for Opel amid signs of growing opposition at home and abroad to the Berlin-brokered deal with Canadian automotive firm Magna (MGa.TO).

Germany sought to shore up its rescue plans for carmaker Opel as Spain and Britain fought to safeguard their own Opel plants and domestic critics laid into the Berlin-brokered deal with Canadian automotive firm Magna.

A German-brokered deal to rescue Opel will not collapse due to a lack of support from other European countries hosting the carmaker's plants, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus raised a new obstacle to the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty on Thursday, telling EU president Sweden he wants a footnote added to the document before signing it into force.