GERMANY

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Defence Minister admitted in parliament on Wednesday flaws in his doctoral dissertation that is at the centre of a plagiarism affair weighing on her government.

Governments around the world scrambled on Wednesday to send planes and ships to evacuate their citizens from turmoil in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi has vowed to crush a revolt against his 41-year rule.

Vatican talks with a controversial Catholic splinter group are nearing an end without any accord on reintegrating the ultra-traditionalists, including a bishop whose denial of the Holocaust has embarrassed Pope Benedict.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday acknowledged a bitter defeat in a state election in Hamburg, which could reverberate in six more votes this year and in her response to the euro zone crisis.

Germany’s public debt rose sharply last year, mainly pushed up by the government’s financial support for the ailing banks.

Activity in the euro zone's private sector grew faster than expected this month, particularly in the bloc's factories, but the upturn is driving prices higher, business surveys showed on Monday.

The index showing business confidence in Germany continued to improve further in February, posting gains for the ninth consecutive month.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday pointed to the problems China's tightly controlled currency poses for other developing economies and said Beijing still had further to go to let its currency rise.

Group of 20 negotiators have failed to reach agreement on a list of indicators by which to measure imbalances in the global economy and will leave it up to their finance ministers to try and seal a deal on Saturday, a G20 source said.

Nicholas Sarkozy is urging G20 finance ministers gathering in Paris to offer their support for the transitional governments in Egypt and Tunisia as they gradually move toward democracy.

China rejected plans to use real exchange rates and currency reserves to measures global economic imbalances, casting doubt on the ability of Group of 20 major economic powers to reach agreement at a meeting on Friday.

HSBC Holdings Plc will launch a flash purchasing managers' index for the Chinese manufacturing sector on Feb. 21, providing one of the earliest available performance indicators for the world's second-largest economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s prepared remarks at the Banque de France Financial Stability Review Launch Event, Paris, France, Feb. 18, 2011

Germany’s defense minister has found himself in a quagmire over allegations that he plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis.

Criticism of China's exchange-rate policy continues throughout the US. This column argues that the US is in fact the exchange rate manipulator, due to its ongoing quantitative easing. What the US needs to do for a sustainable turnaround is to learn from other successful economies like China and Germany - not de-rail them.

Indian refiner Essar Oil is set to buy Royal Dutch Shell's Stanlow refinery in the United Kingdom for about $350 million to $400 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the development told Reuters.

A day after the App Store subscription service was announced, Google introduces One Pass while Rhapsody rips Apple.

While Wall Street is buzzing over the historic proposed merger between Germany’s Deutsche Boerse and the NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX), there is also speculation that CME Group Inc. (NYSE: CME) might also make a bid for the New York exchange.

Joerg Kretschmer, who was last week found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and handed down a 21-month suspended sentence for enabling his 17-year old son to go on a shooting rampage in 2009, has appealed the verdict.

Jens Weidmann has been named chief of the Bundesbank, replacing Axel Weber who recently quit for “personal reasons.”

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