POLAND

The top U.S. battlefield commander said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama's 30,000-strong troop increase for the Afghan war would make a huge difference, as the White House prepared to sell the new strategy to Congress.

Fiat SpA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne hinted that government targets of a boost in production to 900,000 vehicles a year in Italy were achievable, but said he still planned to end car output at a Sicily plant.

Poland's top refiner PKN Orlen confirmed on Tuesday that the country's leading mobile operator Polkomtel would pay out a preliminary dividend of 464 million zlotys for the first three quarters of 2009.

Dubai's debt crisis may not sow lasting global contagion, but it may colour a 2010 investment landscape where asset managers will likely differentiate more between risks rather than embracing them indiscriminately.

Britain's Aurelian Oil & Gas Plc (AUL.L) said on Tuesday it expected resource upgrades across its wider portfolio in the near future.

Russia and Poland may not agree a gas contract by the end of this year, Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak said on Monday, contradicting earlier comments by Warsaw and Kremlin officials.

The trial of John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old former Nazi camp guard, started on Monday on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers at Sobibor death camp in 1943.

John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old former Nazi camp guard, is due to stand trial on Monday on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943.

General Motors targeted Germany on Wednesday for the bulk of 9,000 planned job cuts at European arm Opel, turning the tables on the country that lobbied hardest for an Opel sale to Canada's Magna.

General Motors targeted Germany on Wednesday for the bulk of 9,000 planned job cuts at European arm Opel, turning the tables on the country that lobbied hardest for an Opel sale to Canada's Magna.

A nude photo of film director Roman Polanski, who is now being held in a Swiss prison, and his wife Sharon Tate taken shortly before she was brutally murdered, will be sold at an upcoming auction where it could fetch more than $10,000, organizers said.

A French attorney for Roman Polanski who said the film director would not return voluntarily to the United States to face child sex charges is not authorized to speak in the case, Polanski's U.S. attorneys said on Friday.

Brazilian beauty Gisele Bunchen tops the list with an estimated $150 million fortune. According to Forbes, Bunchen is the highest-paid model in the world and also the sixteenth richest woman.

The Russian and U.S. presidents said on Sunday they hoped to strike a new deal for arms cuts by the end of the year.

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