The recent highly-publicised suicides at France Telecom may or may not be statistically unusual. But they have certainly caught attention and lifted the lid on the high levels of depression among French workers, the BBC reported. A crisis meeting between French Labour Minister, Xavier Darcos, and France Telecom's chief executive, Didier Lombard illustrated that both sides have begun to regard the industrial suicide problem very seriously.

The U.K. and Belgium on Monday demanded the European Commission scrutinize the sale of General Motors Co.'s European operations to a consortium led by car-parts maker Magna International Inc. to ensure that rules on government aid aren't breached, The Wall Street Journal reported. The governments of both nations fear that GM factories in their countries will bear the burden of job losses that the deal will bring. Magna confirmed Monday it plans to cut 10,500 jobs from GM Europe's work force of about 50,000.

Serbia will have to lay off about a fifth of its public sector -- 14,000 employees -- to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund to receive more financial aid, an official said Monday. Serbia's Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic said it is planning cost cuts before the government resumes its talks with the IMF on Oct. 20, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Even as France and Germany begin to show signs of economic recovery, weaker members of the European common-currency union remain mired in recession, The Wall Street Journal reported. The euro is at its strongest level against the dollar this year, and interest rates suggest investor fears over a debt default by a euro-zone member have eased since earlier in the year. Despite this, the euro zone's toughest times could lie ahead. To understand why, it is worth taking a look at Spain.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is having to defend the sale of the troubled carmaker Opel to a Canadian-Russian consortium, just days after hailing the deal, The New York Times reported. Criticism grew sharper over the weekend on the terms of the deal, which was announced on Thursday in Berlin, beginning with unions that said more jobs would be cut than expected. Among the most vocal critics were government representatives of the Opel Trust, which was established in May to oversee the search for a buyer of 65 percent of Opel.

Hundreds of millions of euros in German state aid planned for carmaker Opel is earmarked for operations in Russia, an Opel trustee with reservations about the project was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview. "More than 600 million euros ($876 million) of the 4.5 billion (in German aid) is supposed to be used to modernize the Russian automotive industry according to the Magna plan," Dirk Pfeil told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview, part of which was released ahead of publication on Monday.

An exclusive resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands that catered to celebrities and offered personal butlers and a pillow menu has closed after less than two years of operation, The Associated Press reported. The owner of Nikki Beach Resort & Spa — Leeward Resort Ltd. — has been placed into receivership, General Manager Jonathan Steers said. The resort, which the Travel Channel rated No. 2 on its list of the "21 Hottest Caribbean Escapes" this year, is the latest one in the region to close amid the global economic crisis.

Spansion Inc. has asked a bankruptcy judge to put a halt to a patent infringement suit filed against it in Germany by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. over the manufacture and sale of flash memory chips, citing the automatic stay in the technology company's bankruptcy proceedings, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson won't make a specific recommendation on what to do with the company's Opel unit when he meets with GM directors Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new board, conducting only its second formal meeting since it was formed after GM's July release from bankruptcy protection, could ultimately decide to postpone a decision on the German operations until later in September, these people said.

France will not impose unilaterally an overall ceiling on bankers’ bonuses after it narrowed differences with other countries over pay at a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers, the Financial Times reported. French officials insisted that in spite of Nicolas Sarkozy’s outrage at what he called the “scandal” of bonuses, Paris would not impose its own cap. The president, who has played to public outrage over rewards to executives in an industry blamed for the economic crisis, had called for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this month to find ways to cap bonuses.