Europe News

LONDON (AFP) - A housekeeper who works for former England football captain David Beckham denied any wrongdoing on Tuesday after a newspaper said he and his wife were arrested on suspicion of theft.

BERLIN - Daimler AG said Tuesday that its North American truck division will drop its Sterling brand and end truck production at two plants in the U.S. and Canada by mid-2010 as it moves to deal with depressed demand.

LONDON - Key lending rates between banks in the U.S. and Europe continued to fall slowly on Tuesday in response to combined pledges from governments to inject money into banks and guarantee their debt. But rates remained abnormally high, a sign of the stress in the world financial system.

LONDON (AFP) - England flew to Minsk for a potentially treacherous World Cup qualifier against Belarus on Tuesday without half their first-choice defence and with midfielder Steven Gerrard apparently beset by doubts over his international future.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Thieves who stole 300 kg (660 lbs) of hazelnuts in Germany have been urgently warned not to eat them.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Three people who showed up at Singapore's supreme court in T-shirts printed with a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown will be brought to court for contempt, Singapore's attorney general said on Tuesday.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - The German auto and truck maker Daimler said Tuesday it would cut 3,500 jobs in the United States and Canada in the face of slumping demand.

ALCOENTRE, Portugal (AFP) - Shears in hand, proudly tasting this year's award winning grapes, Joao Manuel is no ordinary oenologist. He is a second term prisoner at Alcoentre penitentiary in the middle of one of Portugal's prime wine-making regions.

LONDON (AFP) - British 12-month inflation surged to a 16-year high point of 5.2 percent in September owing to soaring energy bills, official data showed on Tuesday but analysts said it would plunge in the coming months.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Officials say four former Bosnian Serb police officers have been arrested for allegedly having participated in the wartime execution of 200 civilians.

KIEV, Ukraine - Allies of Ukraine's prime minister vowed Tuesday to block President Viktor Yushchenko's efforts to push ahead with early parliamentary elections.

KOROLYOV, Russia - A Russian spacecraft carrying an American computer game designer and two crewmates has docked with the international space station.

PODGORICA, Montenegro - Montenegro's police have banned a pro-Serb rally later this week after violent clashes injured at least 34 people on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS - The top war crimes judge for the former Yugoslavia on Monday urged the immediate arrest of the last two fugitives, Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and ex-Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

UNITED NATIONS - Talks on the Caucuses region's stability following the Georgian-Russian war have been downgraded to a "technical" session because of a dispute over participation, diplomats said Monday.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A document written by the Czech Communist police claims that Milan Kundera — author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" — once informed on a purported Western spy, a state-sponsored institute said Monday. Kundera quickly denied the claims.

PARIS - Guillaume Depardieu, the often-troubled son of renowned French film star Gerard Depardieu who gained praise for his own career as an actor, died Monday, hospital officials said. He was 37.

PARIS - Europe put $2.3 trillion on the line Monday to protect the continent's banks, a figure that dwarfs the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue program, in its most unified response yet to the global financial crisis after a stumbling start.

VIENNA, Austria - North Korea declared Monday that it will resume shutting down its nuclear program and allow U.N. experts to monitor the process, including making sure the plant that produced plutonium for its test bomb remains disabled.

PARIS - France's first lady has become personally involved in the case of a former leftist terrorist from Italy, visiting the severely depressed woman in a hospital, the president said Monday.

ROME - A top official of the Vatican bank has offered assurances that its deposits are safe from the world financial meltdown, an Italian Catholic magazine said Monday.

LUXEMBOURG - The European Union has temporarily lifted a travel ban on the president of Belarus, a country regarded as Europe's last dictatorship, as relations start to thaw.

LUXEMBOURG - EU nations were divided Monday over whether to resume talks on a political and economic pact with Russia that were frozen in protest over its war with Georgia.

VILNIUS, Lithuania - Voters dealt a major blow to Lithuania's leftist government by boosting the conservative opposition as well as some populist leaders — including an impeached ex-president — in weekend elections, according to official results released Monday.

READING, England - Computers argued, cracked jokes and parried trick questions Sunday, all part of an annual test of artificial intelligence carried out at the University of Reading.

ROME - Italian police say they have arrested five people, including the mayor of a small town, for suspected ties to the local mob.

GENEVA - Swiss authorities say they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products.

LONDON - The British government said Monday it would provide up to $63 billion to boost the balance sheets of three of Britain's largest banks but demanded in return the departure of some of the country's top bankers.

LONDON - Dozens of renowned British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation Sunday, publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge for up to 42 days.