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Lausanne, Switzerland - The inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in 2012 will take place in Innsbruck or Kuopio, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.

Brussels - Inflation in the European Union is set to fall sharply thanks to lower oil prices, giving countries such as Poland and the Baltic states a better chance of joining the euro, the EU’s top economist said Monday.

Paris - The highly respected French weekly L’Express on Monday protested the Moroccan government’s ban of its latest issue on the grounds that it insulted the Islamic religion.

Hamburg - Lewis Hamilton’s coronation as the youngest champion in the history of Formula following a nail-biting finale in the Brazilian Grand Prix has left racing audiences throughout the world crying out for more.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has threatened to nationalize any French bank receiving emergency government aid that does not extend loans to businesses, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Monday.

Wiesbaden, Germany - Plans for a provincial alliance between Germany’s co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and the small opposition Left party foundered Monday, with dissenting legislators in the state of Hesse saying they would not vote for it.

Hamburg - Former racing greats have been lining up to praise Lewis Hamilton following the McLaren-Mercedes driver’s achievement in becoming the youngest Formula One world champion.

Frankfurt - Shares in Commerzbank AG bounded ahead Monday after Germany’s second biggest bank said it was tapping the government’s bank rescue fund for an 8.2 billion-euros (10.6 billion dollars) capital injection after posting a third-quarter loss.

Nairobi - US presidential election favourite Barack Obama’s life is being depicted in musical form in his ancestral homeland Kenya in the last days before the US election.

Sydney - Sixty per cent of Australians think that during the two-term Bush administration the world has become more dangerous and more than 70 per cent want Barrack Obama to beat John McCain and become the next president of the United States, a Sydney-based political pollster said Monday.