AP - The Bank of England said Wednesday its interest rate setting committee had voted unanimously to cut its benchmark rate to a 53-year low of 3 percent earlier this month.

AP - Russia spent $57.5 billion from its foreign currency reserves in September and October to support the declining ruble during the financial crisis, the Central Bank chief revealed Wednesday.

AP - The European Union's industry chief said Wednesday that 'extraordinary measures' are justified to keep car maker Adam Opel GmbH in business and shore up the entire car industry, blaming problems on U.S. car companies and the U.S.-spawned financial crisis.

AP - Russia's finance minister sought Wednesday to reassure investors and citizens that the economy will survive the global financial turmoil, thanks to ample gold and currency reserves.

AP - The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading Wednesday morning. Gold fell.

AP - Russia says a former U.N. diplomat convicted in the United States of money laundering and fraud will serve the last 16 months of his sentence in a Russian prison.

AP - German solar energy company SolarWorld AG said Wednesday it plans to offer euro1 billion ($1.26 billion) in cash and credit for some assets of car maker Adam Opel GmbH, the German subsidiary of financially strapped General Motors Corp. GM said it wasn't selling.

AP - British manufacturers' expectations about output are the weakest for nearly 30 years because of falling demand resulting from the economic slowdown, Britain's largest employers' group said Wednesday.

AP - Wingas Transport GmbH & Co. KG said Wednesday it has halted plans for a natural gas pipeline in southern Germany, blaming the financial climate and pricing regulation.

AP - Spain's budget numbers are slumping fast and could hit a 3 percent deficit by the end of the year, the Bank of Spain said Wednesday.

AP - The Bank of England said Wednesday it considered an even bigger rate cut than the 1.5 percentage point trim to a 53-year low of 3 percent it made earlier this month — catching markets offguard — to counter a sharp deterioration in the economic outlook and inflationary expectations.

AP - The Romanian government will suspend a tax on new cars to protect jobs in the auto industry, which has been hit by the world economic crisis, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said Wednesday.

AFP - The European Commission is planning a 130-billion-euro (163-billion-dollar) economic stimulus programme, a spokeswoman for the German economy ministry said Wednesday.

AP - Italy's Economic Development Ministry says the government has approved the sale of assets in the bankrupt Alitalia airline to a group of Italian investors for at least euro1.052 billion ($1.33 billion).

AP - Russian prosecutors will aggressively monitor how media outlets report on the ongoing financial crisis, authorities said Wednesday.

AFP - EU nations reached agreement Wednesday, though not unanimously, on boosting supervision of the increasingly multinational insurance sector.

AP - Auto manufacturer Renault Trucks, a subsidiary of Sweden's Volvo, said Wednesday it would temporarily close three sites in France for up to 90 days in 2009 due to falling demand amid an economic slowdown.

AP - The Italian government has approved an offer from a group of investors to buy the assets of the bankrupt Alitalia airline after getting them to raise the bid to at least euro1.052 billion ($1.33 billion).