Austria’s chancellor has questioned the powers of Europe’s top court with the suggestion it has strayed into areas of national competence. Vienna

The three British hostages released in the Gaza Strip have left the territory. A previously-unknown group freed aid worker Kate Burton and her

In another diplomatic blow for Syria, the country’s former vice president has claimed his boss threatened Lebanon’s ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri

Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly has rejected an appeal from Ukraine to freeze a planned steep price rise. Gazprom told Prime Minister

A happy new year for Juergen Chrobog. The former German government minister has been released along with his family by kidnappers in Yemen. They

Syrian MPs have unanimously voted for the country’s former vice-president to be tried for treason. That followed a TV interview in which the

East Asian countries have been the first to celebrate 2006, and the mood has been festive and upbeat, in marked contrast to last year when the

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has returned home after more than a month in France, where he had surgery for a bleeding stomach ulcer

Moscow and Kiev are discussing a last-minute proposal to resolve their gas row. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered Ukraine supplies at 2005

Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has returned home after treatment at a French hospital. Thousands of people flooded into the capital Algiers

A former top member of Syria’s political inner circle is claiming that the country’s President Bashar al-Assad threatened Lebanon’s ex-Prime Minister

A hostage drama in Yemen is over. Kidnappers have freed a former German government minister with his wife and three children. They had been held

Two more European countries join Ireland, Italy and Norway in banning smoking in public places. In Spain. people will not be able to light up in all