LONDON  - British Prime Minister David Cameron is bracing for a fresh Conservative rebellion over Europe this week as about 100 of his party's lawmakers look set to defy him in a parliamentary vote.Tory divisions over Britain's membership of the European Union, never far below the surface, ...

istanbul - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering ways to help small businesses in emerging Europe, including through direct lending, as the region suffers lacklustre growth, its president said on Saturday.The European Central Bank and the International Monetary ...

STRASBOURG, France :-Prisons are overcrowded in nearly half of the countries across western and eastern Europe, where there are in some cases 150 prisoners for 100 places, a report published Friday showed.   Twenty of the 47 countries in the Council of Europe have more prisoners than ...

STRASBOURG, France  - The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that Ukraine's detention of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was unlawful, in a decision the opposition leader's camp saw as a key step towards her release."The court considered that the detention had been ...

In the East where the Azaan is called loudly from mosques five times a day, calling to Salah and promising ‘Falah’, people don’t feel the importance of the Azaan and what it does to the soul of a Muslim. At many places, it can be observed that despite hearing the call to prayers, ...

MOSCOW Egypt, struggling to meet domestic energy demand, has asked Russia to help it fulfil its gas supply contracts with Europe, Russia's Energy Minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.He also said Egypt had offered some Russian companies, including Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil and Novatek, ...

MOSCOW - Ukraine is using a "fraudulent scheme" to carry out reverse shipments of Russian gas from the European market, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said late on Saturday, further raising tensions in a price dispute with Kiev.Ukraine, a transit route for more than half of Russian gas shipped to the ...

PARIS - Icy roads were disrupting transport as northwestern Europe remained in the grip of unseasonable weather on Wednesday but many services were resuming after a severe late-winter snowstorm.The snowstorm on Monday and Tuesday, only a few days before the official start of spring on March 20, ...

PARIS/LONDON  - Heavy snowfall hit large parts of France on Sunday, putting Paris under a picturesque blanket of white stuff but causing major disruptions to air, road and rail transport.With up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow falling in the most-affected areas over the weekend, more ...

LONDON  - Extreme winter weather swept across western Europe Saturday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at London’s main international airport and claiming several lives in Spain, Portugal and France, including those of three Mali-bound soldiers.The frigid temperatures also ...

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Immediate safety upgrades requiring billions of euros in investment are needed in nuclear power plants “nearly everywhere” in Europe, according to the results of EU nuclear “stress tests” released Thursday. Ordered in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima ...

JACKSON HOLE - Euro zone commitments to tackle the region’s two-year sovereign debt crisis have comforted financial markets but must now be translated into action or risk investor patience souring again, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.“Europe has made decisions and now ...

STOMACH bugs are being caused by a new bacteria group that has emerged in northern Europe due to manmade climate change, according to researchers.A paper written by a group of international experts offers some of the first firm evidence that the warming patterns of the Baltic Sea have coincided ...

WASHINGTON  - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Friday urged European leaders to act without delay to overcome the eurozone crisis. Speaking in New York, Lagarde said that five years into the crisis, the goal of a safer financial system has not yet been ...

PARIS - Severe financial hardship caused by the eurozone crisis is an added motivation for players competing in European football's showpiece tournament, stirring hopes they can give their countries a boost in troubled times.All four of the so-called "PIGS" (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain), ...

LONDON (AFP) - THE St Cuthbert gospel, Europe’s oldest intact book, will remain in Britain after a record-breaking fundraising campaign by the British Library, it said Tuesday.Half of the £9million ($14.2m, 10.8m euro) required to purchase the 7th Century copy of the Gospel of St John ...

BRUSSELS  - With recession looming in debt-struck Europe, governments face growing pleas to move away from all-out austerity and inject growth policies as leaders struggle to revive their economies.European Union leaders used two summits this year to begin discussions on how to jumpstart ...

COPENHAGEN- With a decision to expand its anti-crisis “firewall”, the eurozone has thrown the ball firmly back into the court of other economic powerhouses who pledged more cash for the IMF if Europe stumped up first.After providing loans to help debt-wracked countries such as Greece, ...

LONDON (Reuters) The MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) will be held on November 11 in Frankfurt, returning to the Germany city which also hosted the annual ceremony in 2001, the music channel announced. The EMA show is billed as a celebration of music from around the globe, although it tends to focus ...

PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened in a key election rally Sunday to pull France out of Europe’s 26-nation visa free zone unless the EU does more to keep out illegal immigrants.Sarkozy, who this week said France had too many foreigners, made the threat at a mass meeting which he ...

SINGAPORE  - Capital-starved airlines worldwide are turning to Asian lenders to fund their ambitious fleet upgrades as the industry's traditional streams of financing in the West dry up, experts say.In another sign of the world's shifting economic fortunes, Asian banks, capital markets and ...

WASHINGTON  - US President Barack Obama said Friday the European Union had made “some progress” in resolving its eurozone sovereign debt crisis, but warned there was much more to do on the continent.“We agreed that there has been some progress in resolving the sovereign debt ...

MUNICH  - Australia’s foreign minister launched a fierce broadside at Europe Saturday, saying the financial crisis has caused it to turn in on itself and warning it risked an “early grave” amid Asia’s rise.Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Kevin Rudd warned ...

A total of 223 people have died from the cold weather in the last seven days according to a foreign news agency tally, with Ukraine suffering the heaviest toll. People have been found dead on the streets in some countries, while thousands have been trapped in mountain villages in Serbia. In Italy, ...

LAHORE - The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Thursday, while calling for market diversification, has urged the businessmen to make inroads in Eastern Europe which is an untapped market and has a huge potential for Pakistani goods.The LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh was talking to ...

NEW YORK  - Stock investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns next week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region’s ...

TEHRAN - US allies in Asia and Europe voiced support on Thursday for Washington’s drive to cut Iran’s oil exports, though fear of self-inflicted economic pain is curbing enthusiasm for an embargo that a defiant Iran says will not halt its nuclear program.As a newspaper close to the ...

MILAN (AFP) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti shored up support for a plan of budget cuts and pension reforms due to be unveiled on Monday in a bid to defeat a crisis that has threatened to destroy the eurozone. The measures are aimed at calming a wave of panic on the market that helped oust ...

BERLIN (AFP) - Denmarks Lars Von Trier late Saturday won the prize for best European film of 2011 for his movie Melancholia at a ceremony put on here by the European Film Academy. Melancholia follows two sisters, the bride Justine (Kirsten Dunst) due to get married in the sumptuous romantic castle ...

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The Group of 20 major economies come to the French Riviera this week, with Europe out to make the most of its debt crisis deal to demand its partners now do their bit for the world economy. At the G20 meeting in Cannes Thursday and Friday EU leaders will meet up with the United ...