Hutchison Whampoa will win EU approval to take over Telefonica’s O2 Ireland unit as soon as Wednesday after a key EU panel backed the deal.

GERMAN stocks including Deutsche Telekom AG rose. Shares of the country’s largest phone company gained after Royal KPN NV reported an unexpected earnings increase and Portugal Telecom SGPS SA received a takeover offer.

Vodafone Group PLC's German mobile unit Vodafone D2 GmbH is to launch tests for selected corporate customers of its third generation UMTS services in the coming weeks, although not with a mobile phone, but with a card that can be slotted into a laptop.