Stockholm: Volvo, the Swedish carmaker owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, will get a 3.55- billion krona (€396.9m) loan from the European Investment Bank, the Swedish government said.

The French government today moved to ban WikiLeaks from French servers, part of a series of moves threatening the group’s presence on the internet.

Turkey has today threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Israel if it does not apologise for its deadly raid on the Gaza aid convoy or accept an international inquiry into it.

PERMIT me to ask some simple questions of the Government and its partisan Planning Appeals Board? Where is the validity to classify hazardous toxic waste incineration as “national strategic infrastructure” when:

Lower speed limits, more bicycles, electric cars and legally-enforced thermostat settings were among emergency energy-saving measures approved by Spain today.

King Abdullah II of Jordan plans to visit Iraq soon in the first trip by an Arab leader since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003, officials said today.

An explosion caused several cars to burst into flames in a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital Beirut today.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe today said there was no going back on price controls and told MPs they faced a massive task in guiding Zimbabwe through what he called “adverse challenges” in the nation’s economic crisis.

A blackout that struck Spain’s second-largest city, Barcelona, today will continue to leave more than 100,000 households and businesses without power for at least another day, authorities said.

Tight security will surround the visit to the Middle East of Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern later this month.

A book of condolence will be opened in Dublin tomorrow for assassinated Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

Syria suggested it may not cooperate with a planned international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri because Damascus was not consulted on the plan, according to a letter circulated at the United Nations.

India will pursue bilateral trade agreements with the European Union, Japan and other countries after the collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks, a top official said today.

At least 25 people have been murdered in gangland-style killings in Iraq’s third-largest city this week.

Iraqi police stormed a farm north of Baghdad early today and freed at least 17 people who were snatched a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of 64 workers and family members at the end of a factory shift.

The four bosses of Airbus parent EADS met for closed-door talks today, days after the European defence group was hit by costly new delays to the A380 superjumbo and questions about stock sales beforehand.

French utility Gaz de France SA said today there had been a “significant deterioration” in natural gas flows from Russia, after the price dispute which led to Moscow cutting off gas supplies to neighbouring Ukraine.

Spanish and Catalan leaders said today that power over collecting taxes is shaping up as their biggest dispute as they digest a divisive proposal to give the north-east region much greater autonomy.

THE French government is drawing up a list of key sectors it wants to shield from foreign takeovers.

Five of the top Sunni Arabs in government spoke out against the draft constitution today – a major blow to deadline efforts to craft a document that can win the backing of all Iraqi groups.

Egypt’s top envoy to Iraq was kidnapped in Baghdad just weeks after arriving in the country, Egyptian diplomats said today.

A car bomb exploded today in central Iraq, killing five people, including four police officers on patrol, while gunmen killed an education official in Baghdad.

The Thai prime minister fired his agriculture and defence ministers today as part of a high-level shake-up aimed at tackling a deadly outbreak of bird flu and a bloody separatist insurgency in the Muslim-dominated south.

Alitalia shares were suspended after falling 15% on the Italian stock exchange, and government officials warned the struggling carrier could go bankrupt as talks with unions continued on a plan to rescue the company.

Shares of Aventis SA, France’s No.1 drug maker, rose as much as 2.6% on optimism the government won’t oppose an effort by Switzerland’s Novartis AG to top Sanofi- Synthelabo SA’s €45.8 billion ($55 billion) hostile offer.

Parmalat Finanziaria SpA has begun proceedings to sell its US interests, but has decided to keep its Australian, Canadian and South African businesses, according to unsourced Italian news reports.

A GROUP of investors in Parmalat, the troubled Italian dairy giant, are challenging Italy’s new bankruptcy law to ensure bondholders get a say in the company’s debt repayment.

Italy tried to make amends today after a government official branded Germans as “stereotyped blondes with a hyper-nationalist pride”.

The British Government is to invest £70m in electronic technologies aimed at transforming business practices and bringing computer power to everyday gadgets.