
Banks operating in the UK will be hit with a levy in a move set to raise more than £8bn over four years, the chancellor has announced -The levy is part of a joint move between the UK, France and Germany.

European Union finance ministers have agreed to introduce tougher regulation of the hedge fund industry. Ministers overrode objections by the new UK government and the City of London, where 80% of European funds are based.

The German economy—Europe's largest—expanded 0.2% in the first quarter of 2010, beating forecasts of zero growth. Many analysts predicted German GDP would stagnate in the quarter.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party and its coalition allies have been defeated in regional elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, projections suggest. If confirmed, this would see Ms. Merkel's national coalition lose its slim majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.

Germany's highest court on Saturday rejected a request by a group of academics to block the immediate release of Berlin's multi-billion-euro loan to debt-stricken Greece.

Germany's cabinet has approved its contribution to the Eurozone and IMF bailout of Greece. The German parliament is set to pass the legislation later this week to allow its loan—worth 22.4 billion Euros over three years—to be paid.

Euro zone members and the IMF have agreed to a 110 billion Euro (146.2 billion US dollars) three-year bailout package to rescue Greece's embattled economy. In return for the loans, Greece will make major austerity cuts which Prime Minister George Papandreou said involved “great sacrifices”.

A German court said Friday the government had no legal basis to keep under wraps secret files on Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, potentially paving the way for their release.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the crisis in Greece could spread throughout Europe. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that every day lost in resolving Greece's problems risks spreading the impact “far away”.

Greece will not get its multi-billion Euro aid package until it commits to bigger economic sacrifices, Germany’s finance minister warned over the weekend.