AFP - US and European markets were higher Tuesday as investors hoped another vote on the US financial bailout package would see the plan passed and a start made on reining in the global turmoil.

AP - Shares in troubled bank Fortis NV plummeted Monday despite a 1.2 billion euro ($16.4 billion) government bailout, amid growing signs European banks have been hit harder by the U.S. financial crisis than they have been willing to admit.

AP - As retail stocks plunged on Monday, Paris designers came up with antidotes to the economic blues plaguing the luxury industry.

AFP - London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares tumbled 2.32 percent to 4,707.02 points shortly after the start of trading on Tuesday in the wake of a rout across Asia markets and on Wall Street overnight.

Reuters - Shares in Europe's second-biggest travel firm, Thomas Cook, were the biggest FTSE-100 riser on Monday after its 53 percent shareholder Arcandor said it would not need to sell any of its stake in the group.

AP - Fortis NV said Monday it will become a smaller but financially stable bank after three European governments agreed on an 11.2 billion euro ($16.4 billion) bailout package.

AFP - Indian and French leaders vowed to boost nuclear energy cooperation Monday at an annual summit on EU-India ties dominated by trade, global warming and the world financial crisis.

AFP - The leading stock exchange nosedived by more than 5 percent on Monday as the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley rattled investor hopes that the financial crisis can be contained by a massive US bailout plan.

AP - Dutch-Belgian bank and insurance giant Fortis NV was given a 11.2 billion euro ($16.4 billion) lifeline to avert insolvency as part of a wider bailout plan agreed to by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, officials said Sunday.

AP - In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy says the death knell has rung for freewheeling, U.S.-style capitalism. German's finance minister calls it downright "dangerous." Even the leader of more Wall Street-friendly Britain says financiers need closer watching, maybe on a global scale.