
United States pressed Europe's strongest economies on Friday to give unequivocal financial support to weaker Euro zone states to overcome a debt crisis that threatens the world economy.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel government is preparing plans to shore up German banks in the event that Greece fails to meet the terms of its aid package and defaults, three coalition officials said.

World shares fell Tuesday morning and the Euro came under pressure following a huge sell-off in Europe as renewed Euro zone debt woes added to already weak confidence in the global economy.

The German government has backed down on plans to install full-body security scanners at airports around the country after the devices reportedly performed poorly during a 10-month testing phase.

The German president has fueled concerns of a split in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats after he criticized a move by the European Central Bank to resume buying Italian and Spanish sovereign bonds.

By Frederick Taylor - It was a chilly night for high summer in Berlin 50 years ago 13 August 1961, and it took East German Communists only about five hours to divide one of Europe’s grandest cities neatly in two.

The European Commission’s request for a 5% hike in member states’ contributions in the next EU budget met immediate resistance from big countries such as Germany, France and Britain yesterday.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned that a veto of the Greek government's austerity plans by parliament this week could mean Athens will not receive a bailout tranche it needs to remain solvent.

Major economies, with the exception of the United States, are losing momentum as the outlook for growth worsens in European and developing countries, the OECD's leading indicator for April showed on Wednesday.

The death toll from a killer E. coli outbreak centred on Germany rose to 35 Sunday as health officials said it was the worst of its kind on record and the German government feared more people could die. Meantime laboratory tests are trying to confirm suspicions that organic bean sprouts could be the origin of the outbreak.