Paris  - Zimbabwe's embattled prime-minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai Tuesday charged that entrenched Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had denied him a passport, forcing him to travel on special documents through Europe.

"It is really ridiculous that the prime minister of a country has no passport," Tsvangirai said in Paris. "I hope that this changes soon."

New Delhi - Europe's largest car maker Volkswagen said Tuesday it would go ahead with its investment plans in India and was optimistic that car sales would pick up, news reports said.

Volkswagen had earlier announced it would invest 500 million Euros (about 632 million dollars) for its factory in the southern Indian city of Pune.

Brussels - The European Commission and China agreed Monday to beef up controls on potentially dangerous Chinese products and foods exported to the European Union.

The deal follows a major scandal involving contaminated milk powder that left at least four infants dead and 53,000 others hospitalized in China.

China will now be obliged to inform the European Union about what it is doing to track down dangerous goods.

In return, Chinese officials will be given access to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF), where controlling authorities can exchange information about what measures are being taken to ensure food safety.

Brussels - The 15-member eurozone officially slumped into recession Friday after its economy contracted by 0.2 per cent for a second quarter in a row, the European statistical office said.

Frankfurt - The European Central Bank (ECB) pushed Thursday for tougher regulation of financial markets and closer links among central banks as remedies for the global financial crisis.

Lucas Papademos, the ECB deputy president, told a conference, "The worst financial crisis in decades has made clear that coordination between central banks and regulators is necessary."

He was speaking at a meeting in Frankfurt of European central bankers on the lessons and challenges posed by the euro.

Prague - Roma children continue to suffer discrimination in the Czech Republic's schools, a year after the Europe's human rights court ruled that their segregation was unlawful, a Roma rights group said Thursday.

The Budapest-based European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) said a survey of 20 so-called practical elementary schools, which provide education to disabled children, showed that Roma children were overrepresented in such schools.

In a landmark verdict for the Roma activists, the European Human Rights Court ruled in Strasbourg a year ago that segregating the Roma children in such schools amounted to unlawful discrimination.