EUROPE - latest news report on Europe, European politics, society, culture, business, institutions, EEC, EU

FOOTBALL

Europe rocked by massive match-fixing scandal

Around 200 European football games are under investigation over match fixing allegations, including three in the Champions League. For UEFA officials, its the largest ever match-fixing scandal.

WEATHER

Floods batter Britain, hundreds rescued from inundated homes

Torrential rains lashed parts of Britain, flooding homes and buildings as rescuers worked through the night to evacuate about 200 people from the northern English county of Cumbria.

EUROPEAN UNION

Van Rompuy set to bring quiet diplomacy to EU top job

After weeks of backroom dealings, Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy has been appointed the EU’s first president while Britain’s Catherine Ashton was selected the 27-nation bloc's first foreign affairs chief.

DIPLOMACY

Putin says compromise gas deal reached with Ukraine

Speaking after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko late Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the two countries had reached a compromise deal on the thorny issue of gas supply.

2010 FIFA WORLD CUP

Irish PM backs football association's demand for replay of France-Ireland match

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen backed calls by the Football Association of Ireland for football's governing body FIFA to order a replay of Wednesday's controversial World Cup qualifier between France and Ireland.

(8) comments

JUSTICE

European Commission to take France to court over waste water

The European Commission announced Friday that it is taking France to court over its failure to properly treat waste water in over 60 large towns, including Avignon, Bordeaux and Lyon.

RUSSIA

Constitutional Court forbids use of the death penalty

Though a moratorium on the use of the death penalty is due to expire in January, the Constitutional Court in Russia has ruled that the punishment is contradictory to the International protocols the country has signed.

BRAZIL

Supreme court backs extradition of ex-militant Battisti

Brazil's supreme court has decided to grant the extradition of an Italian ex-militant wanted for multiple murders, Cesare Battisti. The court will decide whether or not President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have the final say in the case.

AGRICULTURE

UN hunger summit failed for lack of leaders, say agricultural groups

The absence of leaders from the world's wealthiest states undermined the UN Hunger Summit, rendering it a "total failure" that did nothing to help resolve the current hunger crisis, a farmers' movement said on Wednesday.

(1) comment

ENERGY

Russia-EU summit likely to focus on energy security

Energy issues are expected to top the agenda at an EU-Russian summit in Stockholm on Wednesday as Europe seeks to avoid the interruptions in the supply of Russian natural gas that it saw last winter.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Celebrations to mark 20 years since 'Velvet Revolution'

Celebrations get underway today to mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution that toppled the Communist regime in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. Four years later the country split into the Czech and Slovak republics.

AFP

Violence flares at Greek marches

Greek police fired tear gas and detained more than 200 people as clashes broke out with stone-throwing protesters at a march to honour a 1973 anti-junta student revolt in Athens on Tuesday.Three police officers were injured as violence flared at the

AFP

Top Rwandan Hutu rebels 'arrested in Germany'

Two leading Rwandan Hutu rebels were arrested in Germany on Tuesday on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes this year and in 2008 in DR Congo, prosecutors said. The pair, Ignace Murwanashyaka, 46, and Straton Musoni, 48, are the ...

GERMANY

Ex-SS soldier, 90, charged over Nazi massacre

A 90-year-old former SS soldier has been charged with 58 counts of murder for the killings of Jewish forced labourers in the final weeks of World War II.

(1) comment

KOSOVO

Both major parties claim victory in landmark elections

Both main parties have claimed victory in the country’s first election since independence, with surprising numbers of minority Serbs joining in the vote.

(1) comment

AFGHANISTAN

UK's Brown proposes conference to discuss handover timetable

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured) said in a speech Monday that he wanted London to host a meeting to discuss a handover to Afghan forces as early as 2010.

CHECHNYA

First international flight in 15 years takes off from Grozny

The first international flight in 15 years has taken off from an airport in Grozny, the capital of Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya, carrying hundreds of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.