Strasbourg, France  - While overshadowed by talks about Afghanistan and Russia, France's return to NATO's military command structure is a defining event of the alliance's summit being held Friday and Saturday in France and Germany.

The decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to return his country to full NATO membership may not change a great deal for France in practice, since Paris has participated in all NATO conflicts, including the war in Afghanistan.

But it has enormous symbolic significance for the future of the alliance.

Frankfurt - Falling inflation and a deepening recession is likely to pave the way for the European Central Bank (ECB) to deliver another hefty rate cut Thursday, trimming borrowings costs to an historic low of 1 per cent.

Thursday's widely forecast 50-basis-point reduction in the cost of money in the 16-member eurozone will bring the total rate cuts made by the ECB since October to 325 basis points reflecting its effort to spur economic growth.

Hamburg  - England, the Netherlands and Spain maintained their 100-per-cent records Wednesday to stay well on course for places at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Spain had to come from behind to beat Turkey 2-1 in their Group 5 match, while John Terry scored a late winner for England in their Group 6 game against Ukraine. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands comfortably beat Macedonia 4-0.

Hamburg  -

Hamburg - Bulgaria closed in on leaders Italy and Ireland in Group 8 of the European World Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 victory against Cyprus in Sofia on Wednesday.

Ivelin Popov and Dimitar Makriev scored the goals for the Bulgarians, who continued their unbeaten run in the qualifying campaign, but have just seven points from their five matches after drawing their opening four games.

Italy and Ireland, who clash in a later game in Bari, head the group with 13 and 11 points respectively.

Geneva  - Starting in 2013, up to 100 European airports will take part in a plan to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the continent's airspace by half a million tonnes a year, aviation industry groups said Tuesday.

The plan to the use the so-called Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) for landing, where aircraft fly a smooth approach into an airport rather than the classical stepped approach, announced at the Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva, would reduce carbon output and fuel usage.