2012-03-30

The threat of a fuel delivery strike over Easter in the UK has been averted – but there were accusations of unnecessary panic-buying with long queues

Hungarian President Pal Schmitt has refused to resign over a plagiarism scandal. The 69-year-old was stripped of his doctorate on Thursday after he

European companies could be looking forward to a boost in business with Ukraine after Kiev and Brussels moved a step closer to a free trade

In an effort to stop the gas leak in the North Sea, Total has engaged the services of the ‘Hellfighters’ who helped deal with the BP oil spill in the

An Italian professor who thought he had disproved Einstein’s Theory of Relativity has resigned after it turned out he had not. Antonio Ereditato

Dozens of suspected members of the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, have been arrested in a wave of morning raids. They took place in Cosenza in

Firefighters in Portugal have been battling to contain more than 300 wildfires in the north of the country. They have been complaining of a lack of

Diamonds could have been forever for a 34-year-old Russian woman – if she’d decided to keep them. She discovered the package in the lift of her

Ahead of elections in Myanmar this weekend, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is not optimistic about the way it will be conducted. Speaking at

Spain’s government has announced further deep budget cuts for this year in its increasingly unpopular austerity drive, one day after an

A dawn raid by French special forces on suspected Islamist radicals has resulted in the arrest of 19 suspected Islamist radicals.   In a co-ordinated

It is considered one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes of all time.   The 1984 Bhopal disaster killed thousands when chemical gases leaked

The leader of Mali’s coup has appealed for foreign help to fight insurgents in the north of the country after the rebels entered a strategic

The European Parliament has just voted to ask the International Olympic Committee to allow Kosovan athletes to take part in the London Olympic Games

Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. On Norouz, the first day of the Persian New Year, Emomali

Israeli security forces clashed with a crowd of Palestinians at a West Bank checkpoint on Friday. As many as 40 youths were wounded as the annual

The Spanish government has announced a budget of deep cuts for this year. All ministries will have their spending slashed by just under 17 percent

The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to nationalise banks and companies that back the opposition ahead of elections later this

Perama, on the fringes of the Athens port of Piraeus, is a community on the rocks, as unemployment here is 60 percent. It feels gutted by austerity

Aardman’s old school stop-motion technique film The Pirates! Band of Misfits took over a year and a half to shoot. The latest effort from the

They came from opposite ends of the earth but 33 years later Costa Rican Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah from Iran are still one of the most durable

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to boost their crisis rescue fund to 800 billion euros to prevent a new flair up of Europe’s sovereign debt

The wave of protests over government measures to tackle the financial crisis around Europe has also engulfed Poland. A huge crowd gathered outside

The European economy that has been hibernating for such a long time is finally waking up – or so it seems. EU leaders suggest that the crisis is more

Israel shut crossings into the occupied West Bank on Friday ahead of pro-Palestinian rallies around the country. The annual Land Day march, organised

Tajik leader Imomali Rakhmon hosts Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghan President Hamid Karzai for regional talks and to celebrate the

Japan says it will shoot down a missile North Korea is preparing to launch next month should it pose a direct threat to Japanese

Police in France arrested around 20 suspected radical Islamists in early morning raids on Friday in several cities, including Toulouse. France’s

At less than three months old, Germany’s new star baby animal, Anori the polar bear cub, caused a stir on March 29 at a zoo in the western Germany