Europeans traded blame Monday over the source of a mysterious bacterial outbreak that has killed 14 people and sickened hundreds across the continent.

Spanish cucumbers are being blamed for an E. coli outbreak that killed 10 people in Germany and sickened hundreds. Video courtesy of Reuters and photo courtesy of Getty Images.The outbreak forced Russia to ban imports of some fresh vegetables from Spain and Germany out of fear they could be contaminated, while Austrian authorities sent inspectors to supermarkets to make sure Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination have been removed. In Italy,...

Group of Eight leaders pledged to support pro-democracy movements in North Africa, announcing a mix of loans from international development banks and direct aid totaling at least $40 billion.

Institutions such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank could provide more than $20 billion for Egypt and Tunisia through 2013, including 3.5 billion euros ($5 billion) from the European Investment Bank, to support “suitable reform efforts,” said a statement today on the so- called Arab Spring after a two-day summit in the French seaside resort of Deauville.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a press conference, said G-8 countries will...

Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago stalled three times before plunging into the sea, killing all 228 people on board

Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago stalled three times before plunging into the sea, killing all 228 people on board, information from the plane's flight recorders shows.French investigators said on Friday that data from the devices, known as black boxes, revealed the final minutes of the air disaster, with two co-pilots struggling to regain control of the Airbus jet.The emergency began with a stall warning two and...

David Cameron has confirmed British Apache attack helicopters would be deployed for the campaign against Muammar Gaddafi.

The Prime Minister insisted the time was right to "ratchet up" the pressure on the Libyan leader.The decision follows claims the embattled dictator was becoming increasingly paranoid and "on the run".MI6 told the PM it had discovered the ruler's behaviour was becoming more erratic as Nato airstrikes take their toll.Mr Cameron, speaking in France as the G8 summit ended, said Col Gaddafi was "feeling the pressure"."There are signs that the momentum...

A judge ruled on Friday that Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, the alleged mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities, was fit to face international justice at a war crimes court.

The ruling came amid pleas from Mladic's family that he was too ill to be transferred to the UN court in The Hague and that he was not guilty of organising the Srebrenica massacre - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II - and the 44-month siege of Sarajevo."It has been established that Ratko Mladic's health condition makes him fit to stand trial.... We have decided the conditions for transfer have been met," judge Maja Kovacevic...

EU prepares for emergency restoration of visa rules

European Union could temporarily reintroduce visas for some travellers from outside the bloc in case of a sudden influx of migrants from a specific country, under plans presented by the EU executive on Tuesday.The proposal addresses concerns by some EU governments about a sharp increase in asylum seekers from the western Balkans, where countries won the right to visa-free travel to the 25 member states of Europe's border-free Shengen area.It also...

Roman Catholic order of priests sacked its leader in the Netherlands and disciplined another priest Monday after the two publicly defended pedophile sex

Roman Catholic order of priests sacked its leader in the Netherlands and disciplined another priest Monday after the two publicly defended pedophile sex, an issue haunting the worldwide Church in recent years.The scandal erupted over the weekend when RTL radio reported the priest, named only as Rev. Van B, had been a board member of a lobbying group advocating sex between adults and children. He told RTL that few children suffered from such relationships.Asked...

Spain's governing Socialists suffered a crushing defeat in nationwide municipal and local elections held Sunday.

The Socialist Party, or PSOE, lost one of its traditional strongholds, the central autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, and could lose Extremadura once all the votes are tallied.The center-right opposition Popular Party, or PP, won the municipal elections nationwide by a margin of 10 percentages points and secured a clear victory in the regional elections as well in a vote that had been widely touted as a bellwether for the general elections...

Fiscal uncertainty in Spain and a cut in Italy's ratings outlook pushed Bund prices to 5-month highs

Fiscal uncertainty in Spain and a cut in Italy's ratings outlook pushed Bund prices to 5-month highs and held Spain's 10-year yields close to recent peaks on Monday, with room to rise further if a T-bill sale struggles.Standard & Poor's cut its outlook for Italy to "negative" from "stable" on Saturday, while a crushing defeat for Spain's ruling socialists in local elections raised worries about Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodrigo Zapatero's ability...

KLM suspends 16 flights over ash cloud concerns

Dutch airline KLM has cancelled at least 16 flights to and from northern Britain and Scotland due to the shifting plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland, the company said late Monday."I can confirm that six flights have been suspended until 11:00 am (0900 GMT) tomorrow...

Property firms fined €330m for fraud, forgery and tax-dodging

Some 600 building and property development firms have been fined and surcharged for trying to avoid tax on €1bn-worth of deals since 2007, according to finance ministry figures.The building companies paid €330m in fines and back taxes following the intervention of tax and finance ministry investigators. In total, 1,291 companies were looked into.‘If there is something wrong at half of the companies looked at, then there is something very wrong in...

Goldsmiths suspected in €500 million tax scam

An alleged tax fraud in Italy worth tens of millions of euros perpetrated by goldsmiths in northern Italy was uncovered by police in the the wealthy northeastern Veneto region.Police on Thursday announced that nine people directly involved in the goldsmith industry and three others may face charges of falsifying 500 million euros in receipts enabling them to dodge 40 million euros in tax payments.Suspects in the city of Vicenza doctored inventory...

‘abroad fraud’, where Britons claim benefits back home while living in Spain, is a problem that refuses to go away.

‘abroad fraud’, where Britons claim benefits back home while living in Spain, is a problem that refuses to go away.Such a big problem, in fact – estimated at 80 million euros a year – that the UK authorities are launching a fresh purge on the problem, joining forces with their counterparts overseas to find new ways of addressing benefit fraud.Fraud investigators at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are working alongside the land registries,...

Thousands of young people camped out overnight in the main square of Madrid to protest against high unemployment and the Spanish government's austerity measures.

Thousands of young people camped out overnight in the main square of Madrid to protest against high unemployment and the Spanish government's austerity measures.The demonstrations who woke Saturday in Puerta del Sol plaza had made up on the largest crowd yet in nearly a full week of protests.The demonstration was deemed illegal, but by morning, the number of protesters had thinned enough to allow cleaners in and traffic to flow as the sun rose.Police...

A cruise ship crew member is presumed dead after he disappeared when he jumped from the vessel into the freezing waters of the English Channel.

A cruise ship crew member is presumed dead after he disappeared when he jumped from the vessel into the freezing waters of the English Channel.Eclipse was believed to have been en route from Cherbourg to SouthamptonAn overnight search for the 31-year-old Filipino man has been called off.It has been revealed he was captured on CCTV climbing over a railing and jumping from the Celebrity Eclipse cruiser about 10.15pm on Friday.The luxury liner, owned...

AP Moller-Maersk A/S, owner of the world's largest container shipping company, CMA CGM SA and Hapag-Lloyd AG are among companies raided by European Union antitrust officials over possible collusion.

AP Moller-Maersk A/S, owner of the world's largest container shipping company, CMA CGM SA and Hapag-Lloyd AG are among companies raided by European Union antitrust officials over possible collusion.The European Commission made unannounced inspections at the offices of companies active in "container liner shipping in several member states," it said in an e-mailed statement today. It didn't name the companies involved.EU regulators said they had "reason...

European Union countries presented plans to curb the short-selling of government debt and shares

European Union countries presented plans to curb the short-selling of government debt and shares Tuesday, as the bloc edged closer to tighter controls on speculators many blame for compounding the credit crisis.The proposal, to allow a European watchdog to halt some trading and impose restrictions on the short-selling of state debt and company shares, will be the basis for negotiations with the European Parliament, which is demanding stricter rules.The...

I.M.F. Chief May Claim Consensual Sex as a Defense

As Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, spent his first full day on Rikers Island, the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault was struggling with what her lawyer said was a life upended by the case.The woman, 32, a widowed immigrant from Guinea who was granted asylum seven years ago, has not been publicly identified and has made no public statements about what prosecutors have charged was...

The IFA has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Enterprise, Richard Bruton

The IFA has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Enterprise, Richard Bruton, following the raid by the Competition Authority on the organisation's headquarters in Dublin last Friday.Farm officials were left stunned when 16 officials from the Competition Authority and the Garda arrived with search warrants (right) at the IFA's nerve centre in west Dublin at 10am last Friday.For the next six hours, IT experts and officials from the Authority,...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be sitting in a Rikers Island jail cell on charges of sexual assault, but officially, he's still managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrest can't distract EU from Greece That hasn't stopped governments around the world from looking for a successor. The list of possible replacements is already long – and also indicates that the jockeying for Mr. Strauss-Kahn's post could be contentious and...

AFTER Labour had lost the General Election but before the coalition, Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, signed us up to the EU Financial Stability Mechanism, a bail-out fund designed to prop up the euro.

AFTER Labour had lost the General Election but before the coalition, Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, signed us up to the EU Financial Stability Mechanism, a bail-out fund designed to prop up the euro. That is why, despite being £1trillion in debt ourselves, we may be forced to hand money over to Greece so the Greeks can carry on spending. That is a national scandal and Darling should be asham...

Multi-million euro cork fraud tried

This week the Santa Maria da Feira judicial tribunal will begin hearing 98 of almost 260 suspects accused of being involved in a tax fraud scheme within the cork industry and who are believed to have swindled the State of €48 million by issuing fake invoices. Due to the high number...

David Cameron has announced that 400 British troops will withdraw from Afghanistan this year

David Cameron has announced that 400 British troops will withdraw from Afghanistan this year in the first stage of his plan to remove all UK combat troops by the end of 2014. The move, given greater urgency by the killing of Osama bin Laden, had been initially resisted by defence...

EU governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership

EU governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership but will make a formal decision next week about whether to impose them on President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said. The European Union decided last week to impose sanctions, such as travel bans...

Can the stranglehold of Big Four auditors be broken

The competition watchdog said "there are competition problems in the audit market", and added that it could ask the Competition Commission to conduct a detailed investigation, because the "statutory test" for a reference to the Commission had been passed.But although the OFT has deep concerns about the stranglehold of the Big Four accounting firms over the business of auditing big companies, it is not quite sure what the remedies might be.Here's...

8 million euro is being refunded to bank customers who made ATM withdrawals without taking any cash.

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has announced 71,000 people will be paid back the money owed from a period covering more than seven years, with compensatory interest.It revealed some customers were debited for some ATM cash withdrawals between 2003 and 2010, even though they did not take the cash which was dispensed by the ATM.An AIB spokesperson said an undisclosed donation will also be made to charity in lieu of several unidentified customers whose accounts...

The maid who claims that Dominique Strauss–Kahn sexually assaulted her at an upmarket New York hotel has been named by the French media.

The woman is a 32-year-old West African immigrant who is married and has a 16-year-old daughter. Her 43-year-old brother described her as a "wonderful, hard-working woman" who loved her job and had been left devastated by what happened. The woman's brother, in interviews with...