A letter bomb sent to Deutsche Bank Chief Josef Ackermann was "operational" and could have exploded, German state police said Thursday after the envelope was intercepted.

"Preliminary investigations show it is an operational letter bomb," police in Hesse, the western state where Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters is located, said in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Sunday expressed deep regret over the storming of the British embassy in Tehran and pledged to prevent future attacks, the German foreign ministry said.

"On the issue of the attack on the British embassy in Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister expressed that he was deeply sorry for what has happened," the ministry said in a statement, recounting a meeting between Salehi and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

About 45,000 people were being evacuated from their homes in the western German city of Koblenz Sunday ahead of work to defuse a World War II bomb, officials said.

The 1.8-ton British bomb was discovered in the River Rhine after water levels fell. It was due to be de-activated later Sunday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's uncompromising stance on Europe's financial crisis faced mounting criticism Saturday as senior political figures urged her to reconsider her rejection of Eurobonds.

"One cannot categorically rule out resorting to Eurobonds. They could become vital," European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview with Die Welt.

A rally on global markets stalled Thursday as euphoria over major central banks' coordinated cut to borrowing costs wore off and investors sought confirmation that European leaders will next week deliver a long-term solution to the debt crisis.

Markets had jumped on Wednesday when the central banks of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland made it cheaper for banks to borrow dollars, helping them to operate smoothly at a time of tight credit. China's central bank also acted to release money for lending and shore up growth by lowering bank reserve levels for the first time in three years.

Eurozone finance ministers turned to the IMF for more help to keep the monetary union together late Tuesday after they missed their goal of boosting their own bailout fund to one trillion Euros.

With fears rising that Italy will need a bailout after its borrowing costs soared to record heights, ministers scrambled to tame a debt crisis threatening to break apart the 17-nation Eurozone.

The story of men, women and children plucked from their homes in the West's colonies and exhibited like zoo animals is the focus of a major show that opened on Monday at Paris' tribal arts museum.

"Exhibitions: the invention of the savage", at the Quai Branly museum, shows how up until the mid-20th century, labeling indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Oceania and America "savages" helped to justify the brutality of colonial rule.

Europe is reeling from warnings it faces a "deep depression" if the eurozone collapses and that every EU nation's credit rating could be hit without firm action to resolve the debt crisis.

An updated growth report from the OECD on Monday said the crisis was now just one step away from plunging advanced economies into an abyss of recession and could trigger waves of bankruptcies.

A hospital in Berlin announced Friday the birth of a super-size baby boy, weighing in at six kilograms (13.2 pounds), whose 40-year-old experienced mother had a natural birth for her 14th child.

"According to our research, there has never been a child of such heavy weight born without a (caesarean) operation in Germany," said Dr Wolfgang Henrich, head of the neo-natal unit at the hospital, in a statement.

Asian markets mostly fell on Friday as a meeting between the eurozone's three biggest economies highlighted their differences on finding a solution to the region's debt crisis.

Traders remained nervous at the end of a week that saw fears over Europe deepen as the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds sat dangerously high and even Germany -- the bloc's pillar -- failed to sell all its bonds at auction.