EUROPEAN UNION

Tens of thousands of irate Greeks staged a huge rally in central Athens on Sunday to protest the government’s plan to deepen spending cuts and increase taxes even further to meet terms of its bailout from the European union and International Monetary Fund.

Four people in the United States are suspected of having been exposed to an E. Coli outbreak in Germany after returning from travels to Hamburg, U.S. health officials said.

Bean sprouts grown in Germany have been identified as the most likely source of the E. coli outbreak which has mostly been restricted to northern Germany, state authorities said.

A team of activists from the U.S.-based organization called Sea Shepherd Conservation Society departed for Libyan waters on two ships on Wednesday to prevent illegal catch of blue tuna fish in the region.

The spot market price of Gold Bullion jumped $10 per ounce to $1539 Friday lunchtime in London - recovering the last of this week's 1.1% drop - before slipping back as the US Dollar fell on surprisingly weak US jobs data.

The number of cases related to an outbreak of infections from a deadly strain of E. Coli that has killed 17 people in Germany has jumped by 199 Since May 31, the World Health Organization reported on Friday.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a highly infectious new strain of E.coli bacteria, which is causing a deadly outbreak of food poisoning in Germany and other countries, is a never-before-seen mutation.

A killer bacteria linked to Spanish cucumbers is claiming victims all around Europe, but the news couldn't come at a worse time for the struggling country.

The escherichia coli (E.coli) outbreak has infected more than 1,500 people and killed 17 others. Vegetable sellers are suffering due to E.coli outbreak.

The Greek government has agreed to reduce its budget deficit for this year by implementing a series of spending cuts amounting to 6.4-billion euros, according to an Athens official who spoke to Reuters.

The outbreak of E. coli in Western Europe has led Russia to impose a ban on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union (EU).

Europe should consider strengthening central control of economic policy if efforts to deal with its debt crisis do not deliver results, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.

41 civilians die as Syrian forces attempt to crush pro-democracy protests, a human rights lawyer said on Wednesday, as opposition leaders met in Turkey to plot the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported.

Speculation is rising that the cash-strapped Greek government is nearing an agreement with officials from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank on then next round of bailout financing.

After the arrest and extradition of Ratko Mladic, the notorious former Bosnian Serb Commander who was on the run for 16 years, Serbia is once again reviving its hopes for EU membership.

The European Union (EU) declared that baby bottles containing Bisphenol A (BPA) will have to be removed from shops across Europe starting from Wednesday

Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic will be facing genocide charges at the U.N. war crimes tribunal within days, Reuters reported.

Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, had issued a general amnesty in a desperate effort to restore order to a country that has convulsed with rioting and violence over the past two and a half months.

Ratko Mladic has arrived in The Netherlands, where the former fugitive and suspected war criminal will face charges if committing genocide, among other crimes, during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s.

(Reuters) - Tobacco will kill nearly six million people this year, including 600,000 non-smokers, because governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank will not let Lorenzo Bini Smaghi be forced off its executive board and expects him to leave only if he is asked to head the Bank of Italy when Mario Draghi becomes ECB president in November, ECB sources have told Reuters.