ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: Unstoppable Fires Tear Through Southern Forests

Just like every summer in recent years, residents in Southern Europe are bearing horrified witness to the fires that are consuming hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests.

ENVIRONMENT: The Tipping Point Could Come Earlier

A significant rise in temperatures across European cities suggests that a crucial two-degree rise in global temperature could come earlier than feared.

LABOUR-EU: No Flood From the East, Only a Heavy Trickle

The enlargement of the European Union in May 2004 has not led to the feared floodgate of cheap labour from new member states seeking jobs in the West, according to a new study by a civil rights watchdog.

GERMANY: The Blind Lead the Way to a Unique Food Experience

"It's like entering a completely different world, suddenly everything in your own world just disappears," says Ralf Mechlinski, manager of the world's first restaurant staffed entirely by the blind and visually impaired, where patrons are invited to experience what it is like to live without sight.

RIGHTS: Czechs Want a Check on Govt

Human rights groups in the Czech Republic have said the president should call for the resignation of the prime minister and interior minister over recent police action that they say was "more brutal" than anything under the repressive communist regimes of the past.

ICELAND: Police Pack Off Environmentalists

The police have closed down a camp set up to protest against construction of the Kárahnúkar hydroelectric power plant in Iceland.

POLITICS: Putin Fights Opposition in the Shadows

State prosecutors have launched a criminal case against former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov barely six months after he hinted that he might run for presidential elections due 2008.

RIGHTS: French Show Immigrants a Sick Way Out

The French government decision to tie medical care to legal status has cut off about 400,000 illegal immigrants from access to treatment.

BALKANS: Ten Years Later, Lost Homeland Beckons

Ten years ago Dragoslav Dupor woke up one day to the sound of Croatian artillery shelling his village Karin Gornji on the Adriatic Coast.

POLITICS-EU: Who Pays for Think Tanks

The financial transparency of many European Union think tanks is "seriously inadequate", according to a new survey from a lobbyist watchdog.

SOCIETY-BALKANS: Violence Rocks Families from Within

"Katarina died of tonsils infection," 27-year-old Ana Filipovic told her parents after her three-year-old daughter died in a Belgrade hospital last week.

PORTUGAL: 25 Percent of Forests Lost in Five Years

While Portugal is already facing its worst drought in three centuries, the environmental outlook was made even bleaker this week by a stunning announcement: almost 25 percent of the country's forest cover has been lost to fire in the past five years.

BRITAIN: Something Has Gone Out of Life in Stockwell

Bunches of flowers lie piled up in a corner at the entrance of the Stockwell underground station in London, close to the spot where Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by the police Jul. 22.

DEVELOPMENT-RUSSIA: People Want Oil Money Flowing Their Way

Most Russians want new oil money spent on social projects, a new survey shows.

SPAIN-BRITAIN: Not Quite Eye to Eye on Terrorism

British Prime Minster Tony Blair and his Spanish counterpart José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero agreed Wednesday to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, although their policies do not completely coincide.

SPAIN: Gay Marriage Takes Root Despite Opposition

The recent legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain is taking root, in spite of continued opposition from conservative parties and the Catholic Church.

POLITICS-EU: New Measures to Crack Down on Terrorist Financing

The European Union unveiled new proposals Tuesday aimed at cutting off funding for terrorist networks.

RELIGION: A British Offer to the Islamic Way

How do you ever engage in banking without interest coming into it? Well, if you want to do it the Islamic way, you just have to find a way.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ITALY: But There’s a Mafia Outside the Movies, Too

A spate of new films on the mafia comes with a health warning - the mafia may have gone off the news, but it is not gone yet.

BRITAIN: Police Response More Frightening Than the Killing

That an innocent Brazilian was shot dead on the London Underground is tragic; but the near justification of that killing by the police is frightening.

MOLDOVA: Communist Success Looks For a Future

Moldova, the poorest country in Europe sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania is hardly the most recommendable destination in Eastern Europe today.