Europe News

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - A Russian environmentalist says a rare Siberian tiger fitted with a radio-tracking collar by Vladimir Putin has vanished.

LONDON (AFP) - Top civil servants were grilled Wednesday over fears Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction -- used to support the 2003 invasion but never borne out -- at a British inquiry into the conflict.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Witnesses testifying against two Congolese warlords at the International Criminal Court have been threatened and the court does not have the resources to fully protect them, a senior investigator testified Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Chancellor Alistair Darling on Wednesday defended his decision to allow the Bank of England to secretly lend nearly 62 billion pounds to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS last year.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal have ordered the resumption of a Serb nationalist's trial almost a year after it was suspended amid claims of witness intimidation.

LONDON (AFP) - The London Stock Exchange announced on Wednesday that six-month net profits nosedived by almost 40 percent, as a result of depressed markets and increasing competition.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain remains stuck in a record recession, official data showed on Wednesday, but economists forecast a return to growth before the end of the year and ahead of a general election.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Less than a year after he stepped down amid a banking scandal, Yves Leterme became Belgium's prime minister for the second time on Wednesday.

BERLIN (AFP) - A top General Motors executive completed a tour of Opel's four German plants on Wednesday pledging that none would be shut down as the US giant takes the axe to its loss-making unit.

PARIS - The Great Debate gets under way Wednesday, led off with a grand question: "For you, what does it mean to be French?"

LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says 10 NATO nations are ready to offer about 5,000 more troops for the war in Afghanistan.

BRUSSELS - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt "alone, lonely, frustrated" in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents have been charged with attempting to kill an off-duty police officer near the province's border with the Republic of Ireland last week, police said Tuesday.

GENEVA - President Barack Obama's top military adviser attended the latest talks with Russia to replace an expiring Cold War-era arms control agreement, the U.S. said Tuesday.

VIENNA - Six world powers have readied a resolution critical of Iran's nuclear program, diplomats said Tuesday, as Tehran suggested it was still ready to discuss a U.N.-backed plan meant to delay the Islamic Republic's ability to make a nuclear weapon.

LONDON - An inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war kicked off Tuesday with top government advisers testifying that some Bush administration officials were calling for Saddam Hussein's ouster as early as 2001 — long before sanctions were exhausted and two years before the U.S.-led invasion.

LONDON - British authorities say they're searching for a leather-bound notebook Charles Darwin used in developing his theory of natural selection.

BRUSSELS - Man once thought in coma says he feels like newborn baby after regaining power to communciate.

LONDON - British defense secretary Bob Ainsworth says the United States' delay in deciding how many reinforcements to send to Afghanistan has harmed his country's ability to rally public support for the war.

ROME - A convicted Mafia boss who got out of jail by faking paralysis and anorexia has been arrested at a restaurant after more than two months on the run, police in Sicily said Tuesday.

ROME - The prostitute at the center of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandal claims in a new book that she slept with him on the understanding he would help her set up a countryside inn but she got "nothing" in return.

WARSAW, Poland - A Warsaw court on Tuesday began hearing a lawsuit filed by Lech Walesa in which the Solidarity founder is demanding damages from Polish President Lech Kaczynski for having called Walesa a communist-era agent.

LONDON - Britain's defense ministry says it will formally order a public inquiry this week into the alleged abuse and killing of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers.

PARIS - France's foreign minister has praised the courage of a journalist who has led a fight against a law in Sudan allowing for women to be flogged for wearing pants.

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher made another leap forward Monday by circulating beams of protons in opposite directions at the same time and causing the first particle collisions in the $10 billion machine after more than a year of repairs, organizers said.

LONDON - Former British leader Margaret Thatcher returned to London's Downing Street Monday as she unveiled her own portrait, which has been installed in the official residence of Britain's prime minister.

LONDON - A convicted murdered who once served as the personal assistant to the duchess of York has escaped from a low-security prison in southern England, British officials said Monday.

LONDON - Four British lawmakers could face criminal charges over the expenses they claimed from taxpayers, prosecutors said Monday, marking the latest twist in a scandal over lavish spending by elected officials.

BUCHAREST, Romania - The third-place candidate in Romania's presidential election threw his support Monday behind the Western-backed socialist who faces the centrist president in a runoff seen as key to the country's emergence from political and economic crisis.