Baghdad - Iraq's parliament approved a measure Monday that regulates the makeup of provincial councils, spurring complaints from Christian groups, which say the new system leaves them underrepresented.

Lawmaker Mohammed al-Khazaali said that would mean one guaranteed Christian seat on the Basra council, one seat each for Christians and Mandaean Sabians on the Baghdad council and one seat apiece for Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks on the Nineveh council.

Lahore, Nov 3 : Senior Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has flown to India to join the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) despite his selection on Monday in the national team for three one-day internationals.

''He didn''t tell us he was going to India. We heard about it ourselves two hours back. We called up his home and his wife has confirmed he has gone to India to play in the ICL,'' Pakistan Cricket Board operations director Zakir Khan told a news conference on Monday.

New Delhi, Nov 3 : State-run oil firms on Monday cut jet fuel prices further by Rs 2,100 per kilolitre on top of the 17 percent reduction announced last week, after government exempt the fuel from payment of customs duty.

Government had on 31st October exempted jet fuel from 5 percent import duty.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had from 1st November cut jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price in Delhi by Rs 9,429.87 per kl to Rs 47,017.93 per kl, in line with fall in international oil prices.

Berlin - Tens of thousands of workers in Germany's engineering sector walked off their jobs Monday as their union expanded rolling strikes to press its demands for an 8-per-cent pay raise.

The one-day strikes, which began Saturday, are to continue at different factories each day till Friday. The IG Metall union has rejected an offer of 2.1-per-cent more income in 2009 plus a one-off bonus of 1.6 per cent.

The union called it a "provocation" that the 3.6 million employees in the metal-products and electrical industry had not been offered raises to compensate for inflation.

New Delhi, Nov 3 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asked India Inc to refrain from “knee-jerk” reactions like lay-offs after admitting that India was not untouched by the global financial crises.

Singh asserted that saving investors’ confidence is the first priority of his government. He further tried to dispel fears of investors regarding safety of bank deposits, saying that government stands behind the banks.

Vienna  - Austria on Monday nationalized a troubled bank for the first time since the global financial crisis hit, paying a token 2 euros (2.55 dollars) to rescue the nation's eighth-largest lender.

Kommunalkredit Austria, which expanded into Central and Eastern Europe in recent years, was sold to the Austrian government by Austrian financial company Oesterreichische Volksbank AG and French-Belgian group Dexia, the banks said in statements.