BIODIVERSITY-EUROPE: Sturgeons Return to the Danube

A century ago, when the Danube was still blue, it teemed with beluga sturgeon, as did the Rhine with salmon. But industrialisation and the construction of canals and dams have destroyed the habitat of both species of fish.

EAST EUROPE: “Inevitable” Budget Cuts Anger Unions

Trade unions in Romania and Bulgaria are embarking on a spring of protests in response to the governments’ anti-crisis measures involving considerable cuts in budget expenditure.

BELARUS: Crackdown on Dissent Feared Ahead of Elections

Civil rights leaders in Belarus are facing a campaign of persecution and harassment as autocratic President Aleksandr Lukashenko looks to crack down on the opposition ahead of local and presidential elections over the next year, rights activists warn.

ECONOMY: Greek Crisis Impacts the Balkans

Serious concerns are being raised about the impact of the ongoing recession in Greece on the political and economic situation in the neighbouring Balkans.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Aid Industry is Part of the Problem’

Aid organisations perpetuate humanitarian disasters. That is one of the conclusions made by war correspondent Linda Polman in her latest book as she describes the world of humanitarian aid.

RIGHTS: EU Selling Torture Equipment

Equipment designed for torturing prisoners is still being exported from European Union (EU) countries despite a four-year-old ban on such trade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

ENVIRONMENT: So That Vans May Pollute More

Three years after vehicle-makers succeeded in weakening new European Union (EU) pollution standards for cars, many of the same firms are hoping to frustrate efforts to make vans more fuel-efficient.

BALKANS: Farming Prospers as Farmers Suffer

Official statistics put Serbian agriculture as the single most productive branch of the economy and one that not only survived the financial meltdown but chalked up a record trade surplus of almost a billion US dollars in 2009.

ICELAND: They Also Serve Who Wait For a Prison Seat

After a nail-biting wait of more than a year Jon Palsson (not real name) is happy to have secured a place in the city jail and get an early enough chance to serve out a four-month sentence for drunk driving.

EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise

A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.

HEALTH: Potato Drags GM Food Into Europe

Genetically modified (GM) foods appear to be back on the European Union's political menu - thanks to a potato.

EUROPE: Violence Comes Home

Development does not protect women. The number of women physically and psychologically abused at home is at alarming levels across Europe.

EAST EUROPE: Taxing Fast Foods for Health

Health experts have called on European governments to use a pioneering tax on fast foods to be introduced in Romania as a model for the entire continent as the battle with obesity spreads to the former communist bloc.

RIGHTS-AUSTRIA: Migrants Issue Stokes Political Passions

Support for the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) in Austria has soared amid debate over controversial plans for the construction of a new centre to house asylum seekers.

ECONOMY-GREECE: Austerity Measures Unsettle Public

Xristos Kiriakou, 30, joined the Feb. 24 strike against the austerity measures announced by the Panhellenic Socialist Party (Pasok), although he has never been involved in public protests before.

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Military Technology to Track Down Migrants?

Arms manufacturers have been asked to advise an official European Union (EU) body on how their products can be used to stop asylum seekers entering the bloc’s territory.

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Policy Ignores Deeper Questions of Migration

European Union immigration ministers will hold a special meeting Thursday to adopt a new policy to protect the region's external borders against undocumented migration, French immigration minister Eric Besson has announced.

MADEIRA: Disaster Blamed on Chaotic Urban Planning

Prominent Portuguese environmentalists blamed the Dantesque scene in the tourist island of Madeira Monday, in the wake of flash floods that claimed at least 42 lives over the weekend, on seriously flawed urban planning.

CULTURE-FRANCE: Alexandre Dumas Loses Colour in Film

A new film about Alexandre Dumas, the author of ‘The Three Musketeers’, has sparked a racial row here because a white actor is playing the role of one of France’s most-read writers who was of mixed race.

BULGARIA: Govt Forced Down on Genetically Modifed Crops

Campaigning by environmental groups and the general public has weakened the determination of the Bulgarian government to allow the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in this country.

ECONOMY: Euro not for Europe’s Poor

For 329 million, people shopping with the euro is a part of everyday life. Since its notes and coins were introduced on New Year's Day 2002, this single currency has made it possible to travel across a 16-country zone stretching from Cyprus to Ireland without having to change the money in one's pocket or handbag.