Member Submitted/Breaking News

France's energy and environment minister mandates lights off between 1AM and 7AM everyday by summer 2013. The plan is to improve energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020.

Peugeot to shut down a factory in France.

Over the weekend there was a Bloomberg article quoting the Bundesbank that was telling. The German Central Bank will no longer accept the sovereign debt of Ireland, Greece or Portugal as collateral. Now my operating assumption with central banks is that they know more than we do as they have more access to information and they get it first. If a central bank rejects collateral it must be for one primary reason and that is because they think the collateral has too much risk and that they could suffer from the consequences of holding it. Further, it was interesting to note that this was an announcement; a public statement.

Why can't more people be this sensible? -- RF

The US government has proposed releasing fuel from strategic stockpiles to curb rising oil prices, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said.

Former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged over alleged involvement in a prostitution ring. He was charged after being questioned by magistrates in the northern city of Lille. Mr Strauss-Kahn has admitted attending parties where the authorities believe prostitutes were provided by a gang. But he denies knowing that the women were paid prostitutes.

"SOARING petrol prices have seen soaring numbers of thefts - and not just from petrol stations but from hauliers' yards, bus depots and even farmyards."

"French police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesting steelworkers seeking talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday as they tried to approach his campaign headquarters in Paris." -- I believe Monsieur Sarkozy has written off the election. -- MCR

Riot police surrounded the Bar du Palais in central Bayonne where Sarkozy stayed for about an hour to get away from the protesters — some of them Basque nationalists, others carrying posters of rival Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.