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FRANCE'S president, Nicolas Sarkozy, sacked his controversial foreign minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, over her apparently close links with the ousted Tunisian regime. Her job went to a former Gaullist prime minister, Alain Juppe.



The GERMAN DEFENCE MINISTER, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to quit after a long row over plagiarism in his doctoral thesis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was reluctant to lose the popular Mr zu Guttenberg, replaced him with a Christian Democrat stalwart, Thomas de Maiziere.



Two American air force servicemen were shot dead and two were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a military bus at FRANKFURT AIRPORT. A suspect, apparently from Kosovo, was arrested.



A Bangladeshi man was found guilty by a court in London of involvement in a plot to blow up AIRLINERS. Rajib Karim worked as a software engineer for British Airways, where he contacted Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric based in Yemen.



The continuing instability in the Middle East caused STOCKMARKETS in the Gulf region to tumble. Saudi Arabia's main share-price index fell to a 23-month low amid worries about the potential for unrest among the Shia population in the oil-producing east of the country, while the benchmark indices in Dubai and Kuwait hit six-year lows. Meanwhile, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency predicted that "the age of cheap OIL is over". Brent crude traded at around $115 a barrel.



In his twice-yearly report to Congress BEN BERNANKE, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave warning that surging prices in oil and other commodities could hamper America's economic recovery, but said he did not anticipate a big rise in inflation.



Revised data showed that China held $1.16 trillion in American TREASURIES at the end of 2010, around 30% more than had been thought. Japan was the second-largest foreign holder of American government debt, with $882 billion in Treasuries.



There was a political row in Bangladesh when the central bank moved to have MUHAMMAD YUNUS dismissed as managing director of Grameen, a pioneering bank in microfinance lending to the poor, ostensibly because at 70 he is above the mandatory retirement age. Mr Yunus, a Nobel prize-winner, has strained relations with the Bangladeshi prime minister.



JOHN GALLIANO was sacked as Christian Dior's lead designer for professional misconduct. This came after a video surfaced of Mr Galliano apparently making anti-Semitic remarks to customers in a Paris restaurant and declaring "I love Hitler". Mr Galliano was admitted to the French Legion of Honour in 2009.
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