German prosecutors said on Friday they had charged the former head of Deutsche Post with tax evasion as part of a huge scandal involving Liechtenstein which blew up in February.

Prosecutors plan to charge Deutsche Post`s former boss with tax evasion for hiding money in the alpine principality of Liechtenstein, a newspaper report said Thursday.

Klaus Zumwinkel could be charged as early as Friday or next week at the latest, business daily Handelsblatt said in an article to be published on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

Liechtenstein said Friday it may raise bank deposit guarantees, in order to stay `competitive` with other European states which are planning hikes as part of measures to stabilise the banking system.

`Basically it is a matter of competition for us,` Max Hohenberg, the government`s spokesman, told AFP.

BERLIN, September 12, 2008 (AFP) - Berlin brushed off Friday comments attributed to Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II suggesting that Germany today was a 'Fourth Reich.'

'The German government adheres to international law,' government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular news conference, saying the prince's remarks quoted by a Swiss paper on Thursday were 'of a private nature.'

GENEVA, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II was accused Thursday of trivialising Nazi crimes by suggesting that Germany today is a 'fourth reich,' Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported.

Liechtenstein ruler Prince Alois on Friday said the principality should cooperate with foreign ...

BERLIN, August 2, 2008 (AFP) - A bank in the tiny Alpine principality of Liechtenstein, which has been rocked since February by a major tax evasion scandal, was allegedly blackmailed into paying over 13 million dollars, a report said Saturday.

BOCHUM, July 18, 2008 (AFP) - A 66-year-old real estate tycoon went on trial Friday in the first case brought to justice in Germany in connection with a major Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal.

MADRID, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Spanish police have carried out nationwide raids as part of an investigation into a tax evasion scandal in Liechtenstein, the interior ministry said Tuesday.

Police staged 19 raids on the premises of tax consultancies, investment companies and a private bank, located in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Zaragoza.

BRUSSELS, June 27, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein, at the centre of a major tax fraud row early this year, has pledged to boost cooperation with the EU in an effort to avoid future problems, a government spokesman said Friday.

BRUSSELS, May 14, 2008 (AFP) - EU Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said Wednesday he saw support among finance ministers in the bloc to broaden out rules against tax dodgers who stash cash in offshore accounts.

BRUSSELS, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission is to recommend tightening EU rules against tax dodgers who stash their cash in offshore accounts, a senior official told AFP.

With Berlin and Liechtenstein mired in a standoff over tax evasion, the bloc's finance ministers asked the commission in March to step up a review of 2005 savings tax directive.

MADRID, April 22, 2008 (AFP) - Spanish tax authorities saidon Tuesday they had given prosecutors the names of 198 people suspected of involvement in the growing Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal.

GENEVA, April 5, 2008 (AFP) - The tax evasion row surrounding Liechtenstein prompted the European Union to revise an anti-tax evasion directive, EU Finance Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said in an interview published Saturday.

VIENNA, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Fifty-seven Austrians have reported themselves to the police for tax evasion via Liechtenstein in the hope of receiving a more lenient punishment, Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer said Wednesday.

In Austria, people can escape criminal proceedings and must only pay a fine if they voluntarily own up to tax fraud before being investigated.

VADUZ, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein on Monday said a Spaniard arrested in connection with a probe into the financing of Spain's Basque separatist movement ETA had established a foundation here but denied that a bank account had been blocked.

MADRID, March 30, 2008 (AFP) - Authorities in the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein have frozen bank accounts suspected to be linked to Spain's Basque separatist group ETA, a newspaper reported Sunday.

ROME, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - Italian authorities are investigating 390 suspects in connection with the tax probe sparked by the leaking of a list of account holders in Liechtenstein banks, news agencies reported Wednesday.

PARIS, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - France is to investigate 20 people on suspicion of tax evasion via bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Budget Minister Eric Woerth said Wednesday.

ROME, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - Italian authorities are investigating 390 suspects in connection with the tax probe sparked by the leaking of a list of account holders in Liechtenstein banks, news agencies reported Wednesday.

The RadioCor agency said the probe centred on 388 indidvidual and two companies alleged to have submitted 'erroneous' or incomplete tax returns.

BERN, March 19, 2008 (AFP) - Switzerland's finance minister on Wednesday criticised Germany's handling of its tax fraud inquiry and launched a fierce attack on foreign critics of Swiss banking secrecy laws.

In an address to parliament, Hans-Rudolf Merz said Germany's methods in its investigation of tax evasion were 'uncommon between neighbouring and friendly states.'

ROME, March 18, 2008 (AFP) - An Italian MEP figured on a list of people suspected of involvement in the Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal uncovered by Germany, according to press leaks on Tuesday.

VADUZ, Liechtenstein, March 18, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB), the second-biggest bank in the tiny prinicpality, said on Tuesday its 2007 net profit held up well despite turbulence on the global markets.

VADUZ, March 14, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein's parliament on Friday approved a reform of trust regulation in the principality, which has been at the centre of an international tax evasion scandal, Swiss news agency ATS reported.

VADUZ, March 12, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein's police said Wednesday they had issued an international arrest warrant for a former bank employee suspected of selling client information to German secret services and sparking a giant tax fraud probe.

ZURICH, March 11, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein's royal household said Tuesday it will suspend loans of art works from its collection to Germany, marking a new low in ties between the two countries embroiled in a tax scandal.

VADUZ, March 11, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein's royal house said Tuesday it had refused to lend paintings to an exhibition in Germany and might extend the boycott because of the row over Berlin's violation of its banking secrets.

VIENNA, March 11, 2008 (AFP) - Some 150 Austrians are on a list of Liechtenstein bank customers obtained by the German secret service as part of a massive tax evasion inquiry, Austria's finance ministry announced Tuesday.

BERLIN, March 8, 2008 (AFP) - An informant who provided German authorities with data from a Liechtenstein bank that sparked a massive tax fraud probe has said his life is threatened, two news magazines are to report Monday.

BERLIN, March 7, 2008 (AFP) - The German finance ministry said Friday it had declined an opportunity to buy information about a second bank in Liechtenstein as part of a vast tax fraud probe centred on the principality.

'No information passed into our hands,' finance ministry spokesman Thorsten Albig told reporters.

VIENNA, March 6, 2008 (AFP) - Austrian citizens are on the list of alleged tax evaders using Liechtenstein bank accounts, a spokesman for the prosecutor general in Vienna said Thursday, as the scandal continued to grow.

VADUZ, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein remains vulnerable to money-laundering despite efforts by authorities to tighten regulations, International Monetary Fund and Council of Europe experts said Wednesday.

GENEVA, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Swiss non-governmental organisation Berne Declaration is urging Switzerland to expand an information exchange agreement on tax evasion that it currently has with the United States to other countries.

VADUZ, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Liechtenstein remains vulnerable to money-laundering despite efforts by authorities to tighten regulations, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

VADUZ, March 4, 2008 (AFP) - The head of Liechtenstein's banking federation defended the principality's financial institutions on Tuesday, saying they were the victims in an international tax scandal centred on the tiny country.

BRUSSELS, March 3, 2008 (AFP) - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Monday he expected the support of EU colleagues in cracking down on tax fraud amid an escalating standoff with Liechtenstein.

ROME, March 3, 2008 (AFP) - Italian authorities are investigating around 400 people and firms suspected of dodging taxes by hiding income in Liechtenstein, financial police said Monday, amid a growing international scandal.