In Wednesday's French papers - a ruling party MP plans to scrap dual nationality, nine year olds will have to sing the national anthem at school, and Le Parisien takes aim at benefit cheats.
Is Venezuela open for business? President Hugo Chavez has been upping the pressure on foreign and domestic firms: either they buy into his economic model or they face nationalisation. Last year alone, some 250 companies were nationalised. But despite the hazards of doing business there, it seems many multinationals will not be discouraged.
Bolivian police took over four electric companies on May Day following a nationalisation decree by President Evo Morales (pictured) that secures 80 percent of that industry for the state. One of the firms is partially owned by France's GDF Suez.
The French postal service, La Poste, is to be made a publicly owned limited company as of March 1, according to a law passed by parliament Tuesday. Unions fear this is a first step towards privatisation.
In a televised address, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (pictured) announced the nationalisation of several iron and steel companies as part of plans for an "industrial complex" that would allow the firms to become a "platform of socialism".
Shareholders of the second-biggest banking group in Germany, Commerzbank, have approved almost unanimously the goverment acquisition of 25 percent of the bank in order to have enough cash to face the financial crisis.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that his government will go ahead with the nationalisation of the local unit of the Spanish bank Grupo Santander. The bank owns Banco de Venezuela, one of the largest in the OPEC nation's financial system.
Venezuela's rice processing industry was put under military control Saturday, with President Hugo Chavez threatening to nationalize any mill that halts production or tries to sidestep government food price regulations.
Germany temporarily allowed the nationalisation of troubled banks in a "last resort" move to expropriate shareholders that will end on June 30. It should pave the way to nationalise struggling property lender Hypo Real Estate.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan declared in an interview with the Financial Times that he would approve a temporary nationalisation of certain US banks in order to restructure them.
