BRUSSELS - Falling prices in Germany and France pulled euro zone consumer inflation to a three-year low in April, while imports fell 10 percent in March, as new data showed the depth of the bloc's downturn.

I never thought a truck-driving simulator could be fun, but Euro Truck Simulator 2 proved me wrong. There is something soothing in watching the world go by from the high and mighty cockpit of a Volvo FH16 Globetrotter XL.

In place of the IMF, Asmussen suggested the eurozone could use the body set up to manage its permanent 500 billion euros rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism.

The sweeping vision also encompassed a harmonized tax system and the ability for the euro zone to borrow money by issuing its own bonds, a proposal that has been raised repeatedly over the past three years and been roundly rejected by Germany.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Saving pocket change may not end the euro zone crisis, but the European Commission hopes that scrapping the smallest coins could help penny-pinching governments cut costs.

The thing is, the euro has repeatedly bounced back. In 2012, for example, it ended the year against the dollar more or less where it started, at around $1.30, despite a summertime blast down to $1.20 or so.

In the 1990s, proponents of a common European currency hoped that the euro would be the lifeblood of an ever more united Europe.

PARIS - Europe slipped deeper into a widespread recession, according to data released Wednesday. But when European heads of state meet next week in Brussels, no big announcements about plans to stimulate growth are expected.

ONE euro crisis may be over, but another has begun. The single currency is no longer under siege in financial markets, but it will not prove politically viable unless growth returns.

Denmark is shelving indefinitely its euro adoption goal as Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says an exchange rate peg without full European monetary membership is proving the best currency regime for the Nordic nation.