Eurozone gross domestic product rose by 0.4 per cent compared with the previous three months, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office. The US economy expanded by 0.9 per cent in the same period but the UK remained in recession.

The latest data followed five consecutive quarters of falling eurozone GDP. Powering the rebound was a 0.7 per cent expansion in Germany’s economy, the 16-country region’s largest. Italy also performed well, expanding by 0.6 per cent, ending its recession. But the 0.3 per cent pick-up in France — the same as in the previous quarter — fell short of expectations.

State prosecutors in Cologne said the students paid between €4,000 and €20,000 to the academics after being told by the consultancy firm that the money would go a “long way” to ensuring that their doctorates “were in the bag”.

The investigation follows a raid on the premises of the Cologne-based Institute for Scientific Counselling last year in which hundreds of company files were confiscated by police.

The company has since closed down, but Günther Feld, the Cologne state prosecutor said the documents had produced a wealth of incriminating evidence which was now being used to investigate the academics concerned.

The consumer ministries in the two states confirmed they had ordered retailers to pull the drink off their shelves after a food safety institute in North-Rhine Westphalia found the drug in samples.

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“The institute examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine,” said Bernhard Kuehnle, head of the food safety department at the federal ministry for consumer protection.

Authorities said the cocaine levels did not pose a health threat but were not permitted in foodstuffs.

The investigation found the drink to contain a non-cocaine extract of coca leaf in the drink.

That means the drink cannot be classified as a foodstuff but as a narcotic and needs a special license, authorities said.

“The ground reality is that we do not have a two-thirds majority in the Parliament” required for a successful impeachment, Zardari said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (ESJ).