Brussels - European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to raise the minimum level of bank deposit guarantees for their citizens, from 20,000 euros (25,000 dollars) to 100,000 euros by the end of 2011.

In the meantime, the safety net is to be raised to 50,000 euros at the end of June 2009.

Individual member states will be free to raise these minimum levels, while the pay-out period in the event of a bank going bankrupt will be reduced, from three months to three days.

New York, December 2 : Paris Hilton’s search for a record label to release her sophomore album has not got over as yet.

"I''m not sure which label I''m doing it with," the New York Daily News quoted the multifaceted heiress, who got the boot from Warner Bros. earlier this year, as telling Entertainment Weekly.

"I''m figuring it out right now," she added.

She is presently gearing up to release an as-yet-untitled follow-up album on an independent label called Heiress Records, the Warner Bros. sub-label she formed in 2004.

Heiress and its founder are no longer affiliated with Warner Bros.

New York, Dec 2 : Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps has turned into a party and poker animal.

It has been reported that Michael spent most of his Thanksgiving weekend playing 10-20, no-limit hold-''em at the Borgata in Atlantic City, although he lost thousands of dollars.

The Olympic champion was again back the next day at the poker table, reports the New York Post.

He was seen spending his free time hanging out with poker legend Doyle Brunson.

Beijing - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi telephoned Hillary Clinton to offer his congratulations on her nomination as US secretary of state, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

The spokesman said Yang expressed satisfaction at the state of relations between the two countries and looked forward to cooperation with Clinton so that ties could develop further.

The spokesman, Liu Jianchao, made no reference to differences between Clinton and outgoing President George W Bush over the US position on human rights in China.

London, Dec. 2 : Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the winner of the 2008 Ballon d''Or award.

According to The Independent, Ronaldo hailed it as "one of the most beautiful days of my life" and vowed to keep improving.

The Manchester United winger was named as 2007 winner Kaka''s successor after convincingly seeing off competition from Barcelona''s Lionel Messi and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

New York, December 2 : Supermodel Naomi Campbell may have passed the trouble buck to her beau, Vladimir Doronin, especially after the billionaire hit tailing photographers, according to sources.

The real estate mogul is said to have "punched a photographer in the gut” while he stood “a good distance away” at the posh Setai in Miami.

The Russian had come “out of nowhere to hit him twice in the stomach” as the beachgoers witnessed the incident, reports the New York Post.