London, Dec 8 : Every Monday in December before Christmas has been dubbed as a ‘Mega Monday’, as it is the one day of the week when online sales are the busiest.

According to the commercial director of Visa Europe, more than two million Internet purchases take place on a Monday, reason being that when buyers fail to find what they want in the shops during the weekend they end up turning to the net.

“Monday is almost always the biggest shopping day of the week, and Mondays in December are usually huge,” Sky News quoted James Roper, IMRG head, as saying.

Beijing  - China reacted angrily Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to meet with the Dalai Lama over the weekend in Europe.

"This development is indeed an unwise move which not only hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, but also undermines Sino-French ties," state-run Xinhua news agency said of Saturday's meeting in the Policsh city of Gdansk.

"The Dalai Lama has long been engaged in activities worldwide to split China. He can by no means conceal the separatist nature of his activities no matter what by whatever disguise and whatever florid rhetoric he may use."

Copenhagen  - The Italian film Gomorrah, about the criminal underworld in Naples, cleaned up Saturday night at the European Film Awards in the Danish capital, receiving five of the 15 top awards.

In addition to receiving the prize as the top European film of 2008, director Matteo Garrone was named best director and Toni Servillo named the best actor.

Servillo's award also included his work in Il Divo (The Star.)

Gomorrah also received the prize for best script, and Garrone's cameraman Marco Onorato was named for the best photography.

Brussels, Dec. 5: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that retention of innocent people's DNA and fingerprint records by police is illegal.

The unanimous judgment by the Strasbourg court condemned the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of powers given to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in collecting and storing DNA and fingerprint evidence of suspects.

According to The Independent, the British Government has not immediately said it will comply with the ruling by bringing in laws that would destroy nearly a million DNA samples taken from suspects who have been exonerated by the police and courts.

Brussels  - European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet ruled out Thursday any moves to ease the tough rules for euro membership so as to help pave the way for nations wanting to join the common currency.

The euro has been enjoying a new-found popularity as a result of the financial firestorm that has swept through world markets this year.

In particular, this is because some nations outside the currency bloc have found their national currencies and capital markets under attack as the crisis unleashed by the US mortgage meltdown has taken hold.

Copenhagen - Two films from Italy were in the running for the European film of the year award to be announced in Copenhagen on Saturday.

Danish Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian-born wife Crown Princess Mary were to add extra sparkle to the event as guests of honour at the 21st edition of the European Film Awards.

Italian entries Il Divo and Gomorrah were pitched against The Class from France, British director Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, Spain's The Orphanage, and Waltz With Bashir - a co-production between Israel, France and Germany.