Potential kick-start to long-awaited round of German financial consolidation as banking heavyweights consider making a combined offer for country's largest retail lender

Added: 2008-05-23

Allianz and Commerzbank eye Postbank bid

Category: varial news

Shell warns Europe on CO2 permits

Shell has threatened to halt investment in Europe if the EU pushes ahead with contentious plans to charge for carbon emission permits as part of a €60bn (£48bn) climate change programme.

'Merchant of Death' arrested in Thailand

The world's most notorious arms dealer has been arrested in Thailand, after fuelling many of the most deadly recent conflicts and running rings around investigators for nearly two decades.

Swiss to ban cat fur trade after pets vanish

Switzerland is to ban the trade in cat fur following an outcry in France over the disappearance of hundreds of domestic cats allegedly poached for their soft coats.