EUROPEAN UNION

EU donors and international companies face huge obstacles in making investment in Greece work, even if billions of euros flow back to the stricken economy, one of the EU's top economic official said on Wednesday.

China's engagement in resolving the euro zone debt crisis has been a topic of contention. High-profile Chinese leaders, such as Vice Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping, have reassured the European countries that China would invest in alleviating the debt. However, a financial plan has yet to be communicated.

The European Central Bank gave the world's financial system a €529.5 ($712) billion Leap Year Day gift, providing financial institutions with that amount in one percent-interest, three-year loans this week, the bank announced Wednesday morning.

Almost 1.3 million people will die of cancer in the European Union this year, but death rates from the disease are on a steady decline, according to new research released on Wednesday.

Crude oil is predominantly priced and traded in U.S. dollars, although Iran has already accepted payments in some other currencies.

The European Central Bank is expected to pump half a trillion euros into the euro zone's troubled financial system for the second time in as many months on Wednesday in what it hopes will be the last such operation to fight the euro zone crisis.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be classified as a war criminal, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as the United Nations announced more than 7,500 civilians had been killed by his forces since the start of the revolt.

Apple has its feet firmly on the ground though Proview is trying to drag the tech giant into the quicksand with the iPad trademark dispute which is brewing in China, and now in the U.S. The Cupertino-based company announced Tuesday that it will hold a special event on March 7 at Yerba Buena Center for the Art in San Francisco. The media invite for the event, which will kick off at 1pm ET, read, “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” The invite shows the bottom of a device, which...

Ireland will hold a referendum of its people on the European Union's new fiscal treaty, the first poll test of public opinion on the anticipated tighter budget discipline in the 17-country euro zone.

Spain's Banco Santander, the biggest lender in the euro zone by market capitalization, said Tuesday that it will take over Poland’s Kredyt Bank from Belgium’s KBC Group in an all-share deal that values the combined entity at $6.69 billion.

Proview Technology has filed a lawsuit against Apple, saying that the California company has committed fraud and unfair competition. The China-based technology company accused Apple of misrepresenting itself when securing the iPad trademark, according to The Washington Post.

Syria had welcomed the Hamas leadership following their expulsion from Jordan in 1999

Chancellor Angela Merkel's room for maneuver on future euro zone bailouts, in doubt after a revolt by coalition lawmakers, shrank further on Tuesday when Germany's top court raised a hurdle to swift action in financial rescues.

On one of the bloodiest days of the yearlong uprising in Syria, survivors of an alleged massacre at a checkpoint in Homs said women had been kidnapped. Later, in farmland near Abel, 64 bodies were found with bullet holes and stab wounds.

President Barack Obama, following through on a promise to beef up enforcement of trade agreements, on Tuesday will sign an executive order creating a new government team to make sure China and others play by the rules, the White House said.

Germany's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a parliamentary panel formed to approve urgent action by the euro zone bailout fund is in large part unconstitutional. The decision could hamper efforts to tackle the European debt crisis.

The euro zone's 17 leaders will meet briefly during a summit of all 27 EU leaders on Thursday to reelect Herman Van Rompuy as president of the European Council, EU diplomats said on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank said on Tuesday it was temporarily suspending the eligibility of Greek bonds for use as collateral in its funding operations and that national central banks would have to provide banks with liquidity using an emergency measure.

Standard & Poor's has announced that its rating on Greek sovereign debt has been downgraded to selective default, subsequent to agreement by banks to write off more than half of their Greece debt holdings.

The announcement came as the European Union imposed further sanctions on Syria, including freezing assets and banning travel by Syrians closely linked to Assad.

As Syrians head to the polls, the European Union imposed a new set of sanctions on Monday in an attempt to get President Bashar al-Assad to call off his assault on the city of Homs and on opposition protestors.