Berlin - The German government threw down a gauntlet Thursday to both luxury carmaker Porsche and the European Commission, with Parliament in Berlin passing new legislation to cement state rights over Volkswagen.
Porsche has announced it will own just under 75 per cent of the giant car manufacturer when options fall due next year. A German state, Lower Saxony, owns just over 20 per cent of Volkswagen.
Washington - US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday welcomed vice president-elect Joe Biden to his official residence at the Naval Observatory in north-west Washington DC.
The meeting followed Monday's exchange between president-elect Barack Obama and President George W Bush at the White House, as part of the transition process.
As Obama prepares for inauguration on January 20, he announced Thursday that he would be resigning his US Senate seat, effective Sunday.
New York - US stocks delivered their largest rally in two weeks, adding more than 6 per cent Thursday to the three major indices and erasing more than 4-per-cent losses booked Wednesday.
The reversals were fuelled by a grab for cheap energy shares. Beleaguered real-estate companies got new wind after CB Richard Ellis Inc raised cash in a share sale and gained 43 per cent, Bloomberg financial news service reported.
Washington - Osama bin Laden has grown more isolated from al-Qaeda's operatives, but the terrorist network has rebuilt itself in Pakistan's tribal region and remains the single greatest US security threat, the central intelligence director said Thursday.
"Today virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas," CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a speech in Washington.
Milan - A ruthless and solid Juventus hammered Genoa 4-1 Thursday to temporarily go top in the Italian Serie A ahead of the weekend games.
The Turin side moved onto 24 points, drawing level with champions Inter Milan, who are away Saturday at Palermo.
Czech defender Zdenek Grygera opened the scoring before Genoa came close on two occasions, but Juve doubled up before the break through a header from Brazilian Amauri.
Cairo - Fire trucks rushed to one of the Egyptian capital's main squares on Thursday, only to find a crowd of curiosity seekers gawking at a man hanging from a wall by one bare hand.
German street performer Johan Lorbeer was putting on a display at the entrance of the Goethe Institute in central Cairo as part of an open day organized by the German cultural centre.
The arrival of the fire trucks sent a ripple of fright through the crowd.
Berlin - The German government threw down a gauntlet Thursday to both luxury carmaker Porsche and the European Commission, with Parliament in Berlin passing new legislation to cement state rights over Volkswagen.
Washington - US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday welcomed vice president-elect Joe Biden to his official residence at the Naval Observatory in north-west Washington DC.
New York - US stocks delivered their largest rally in two weeks, adding more than 6 per cent Thursday to the three major indices and erasing more than 4-per-cent losses booked Wednesday.
Washington - Osama bin Laden has grown more isolated from al-Qaeda's operatives, but the terrorist network has rebuilt itself in Pakistan's tribal region and remains the single greatest US security threat, the central intelligence director said Thursday.
Milan - A ruthless and solid Juventus hammered Genoa 4-1 Thursday to temporarily go top in the Italian Serie A ahead of the weekend games.
Cairo - Fire trucks rushed to one of the Egyptian capital's main squares on Thursday, only to find a crowd of curiosity seekers gawking at a man hanging from a wall by one bare hand.
