ROME - Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi is on a three-day visit to the Italian capital to mark the second anniversary of a pact between the two countries that normalized relations and closed the painful chapter of Italian colonization.
Colonel Gaddafi has pitched a giant traditional Bedouin tent for his three-day visit to the Italian capital. […]

LONDON - France’s expulsion of Roma (gypsies) was due to begin on Thursday with 79 expected to fly out of the country. The European Commission says it’s following very closely France’s controversial dealings with the gypsies.
Thursday marked the beginning of France’s controversial move to expel around 700 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy […]

ROME - A team of marine archeologists using sonar scanners has discovered new underwater treasures in the Italian seas.  Trading vessels dating from the first century BC to the 5th through 7th centuries AD were found in the waters of the Pontine Islands.  Their cargoes were found to be intact.
Italian culture authorities and the Aurora […]

MOSCOW - Wildfires are raging across Russia as the country experiences the hottest temperatures on record. Russia’s Emergency Ministry officials say 52 people are dead, thousands of homes have been destroyed and crops across the country have been devastated. The Russian government has admitted that it can’t get some of the blazes under control, as […]

WARSAW - Polish officials are demanding Russia turn over documents they say are needed for their probe into the April plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday that with the investigation entering its final phase, cooperation with Russia is worse now than it was at the start.
Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper […]

PARIS - A French court on Wednesday convicted Panama’s former military ruler Manuel Noriega on charges of laundering drug money, sentencing him to seven years in prison.
Manuel Noriega spent most of the past two decades behind bars in the United States.  Now a French court has sentenced him to another seven years in prison.  He […]

LONDON - The British government says it will withdraw its troops from a volatile region of southern Afghanistan and handover control to U.S. Marines later this year.
Britain’s Defense Secretary Liam Fox made the announcement at an appearance in parliament Wedneday, saying that 1,000 British troops will pull out of Sangin district in the north of […]

WARSAW - Results from Poland’s presidential election Sunday indicate center-right candidate Bronislaw Komorowski has defeated conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Mr. Kaczynski conceded Sunday night as his opponent, Speaker of the Parliament and acting President Bronislaw Komorowski pulled ahead in the vote count. Later, the official tally gave Mr. Kaczynski 47 percent of the vote, and Mr. Komorowski […]

KRAKOW - The United States and Poland Saturday signed an amended agreement under which U.S. missile interceptors, aimed against a developing Iranian threat, will be based on Polish soil.
Secretary of State Clinton said the revised program will make a system operational sooner than one promoted by the Bush administration, and will pose no threat to […]

LONDON - Britain’s new coalition government has passed an emergency budget after warning the state of the country’s finances is much worse than anticipated.
The Clapham Park Estate was once voted one of the worst social housing developments in London.  The window frames are crumbling, the apartments are dark and damp and the estate suffers from […]

BUDAPEST - Hungary’s parliament has elected the country’s new president, amid opposition concerns he will be too accommodating to plans of the ruling center right Fidesz Party, which include changing the nation’s constitution.
Hungary’s parliament applauded Pal Schmitt, a leading figure of the ruling center right Fidesz party, after he was elected president with an overwhelming […]

ROME - Italian transportation workers have staged a strike to protest austerity cuts by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government designed to bring the deficit under control.
CGIL, Italy’s largest union, says Friday’s strike will effect the country’s public transportation systems for at least four hours.  Other workers may be off for a longer period.
The union says […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. and Romanian officials are working out details of a proposal to place interceptors in Romania as part of a U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe.
The U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, Ellen Tauscher, began talks with Romanian officials in Bucharest late Thursday.
The officials say they are working on details to place […]

WARSAW - Poland is preparing to elect a new president on Sunday, with a center-right and far-right candidates in the lead.  The election is being held earlier than originally scheduled, following the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash.  The crash is still casting its shadow over Polish politics.
Sunday, Polish voters cast […]

BERLIN - Austerity is on everyone’s mind as European governments — one after another — introduce spending cuts to get deficits under control and shore up the beleaguered Euro. Most experts agree belt-tightening is needed, but it’s not always popular and comes at a cost, often to social benefits.
Austerity is the order of the day […]

WASHINGTON - The Kyrgyz government said Sunday it is sending reserve forces to the country’s troubled south, as a third night of gun battles brought the death toll to 80 and left more than 1,000 wounded.
Kyrgyzstan’s interim government gave shoot-to-kill powers to its security forces after deadly riots erupted between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in […]

MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says the international community must accept responsibility for the fight against illicit drugs from Afghanistan. He told an anti-drug conference in Moscow that worldwide Afghan heroine has killed nearly one-million people under the age of 35 in the past eight years.
Speaking at an international anti-drug forum in Moscow, President […]

WARSAW - U.S. troops and Patriot missile batteries arrived in Poland this week, where they will be stationed in the northern town of Morag, just 64 kilometers from the Russian border.  The training mission ties Poland more firmly to NATO, but also re-ignites Russian concerns over missile defense in the region.
Here in Morag, a small […]

BUDAPEST - Hungary’s new parliament has adopted a controversial law that will grant citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring nations nearly nine decades after the country lost two-thirds of its territory. The law comes Wednesday despite a major
diplomatic row with neighboring Slovakia which has immidiately retaliated with legislation banning double citizenship.
The Hungarian new law […]

PARIS - Spain has followed Greece Wednesday in announcing a package of new, tough austerity measures to rein in its soaring public deficit and debt. 
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced new belt-tightening measures to parliament.  He said it was critical for Spain to make a singular and extraordinary effort to reduce the public […]

LONDON - Britain has a new Prime Minister and a new government as five days of political deadlock has come to an end. Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigned as Britain’s top politician on Tuesday evening, making way for Conservative leader David Cameron.
Queen Elizabeth appointed Conservative leader David Cameron as the Prime Minister Tuesday evening.
He is […]

ATHENS - The Greek parliament approved tough new austerity measures to help curb its soaring debt and deficit as thousands of people demonstrated against them in Athens. European Union leaders are holding an emergency meeting on the crisis on Friday.
Thousands of protesters again took to the streets of Athens (on Thursday) to register their dismay […]

ATHENS - Greek authorities say at least three people have died in central Athens in a fire during huge street demonstrations against harsh new government austerity measures.
Early reports say the victims died in a burning bank building apparently set on fire by the protesters.  
Across much of the central city Wednesday, riot police armed with stun […]

ATHENS - Greek police have clashed with protesters rallying against the government’s plans to make deep budget cuts to ease a crippling debt crisis.
Protesters struck police with sticks and threw fire bombs in the Greek capital Saturday as thousands gathered for May Day celebrations.  Police responded by firing tear gas to break up the crowds.
Greece’s […]