AFP Archives

Hundreds of US paratroopers have arrived in Ukraine to train its forces fighting pro-Russian rebels in the east, the US army confirmed today (17 April), a move Moscow warned could "destabilise" the war-torn ex-Soviet country.

Poland will build six watchtowers to survey its 200-kilometre-long border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the police said yesterday (6 April).

Cyprus on Monday (6 April) signalled a return to financial normality in scrapping capital controls two years after they were imposed to halt a banking meltdown, the finance ministry said.

Turkey on Monday (6 April) blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over the publication of images of a Turkish prosecutor killed by leftist militants during a hostage standoff last week.

Relations between the West and Russia remain at their lowest since the Cold War, on the first anniversary of the start of the Ukraine conflict. But all bridges have not yet been burned, analysts say.

Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband face their one and only live television debate of the election campaign on Thursday (2 April), along with five others, in a seven-way contest.

Lisbon's Socialist mayor Antonio Costa, tipped to succeed centre-right Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, stepped down Thursday (1 April) to fight Portugal's parliamentary elections this autumn.

Sparsely attended far-right rallies in Britain highlight the decline of a movement in disarray, but experts say that some of its ideas have found new expression in the Eurosceptic UKIP ahead of elections in May.

Catalan nationalist parties have signed a road map to secede from Spain in 2017 if independence movements win a September regional vote.

The European Union announced that it was broadening its negotiations with Montenegro on EU membership on Monday (30 March), even though the 28-nation bloc has frozen expansion over the next five years.

The EU executive warned on Monday (30 March) that Greece and its creditors had yet to hammer out a new list of reforms despite talks lasting all weekend aimed at staving off bankruptcy and a euro exit.

Clutching a bag of pasta, canned pears and beef, David Kirk leaves a food bank in one of Britain's poorest corners -- his sixth visit in a few weeks.

EU member states are divided on how to stop the spread of a disease affecting olive trees in Italy that could result in around a million being cut down, officials said Friday (27 March).

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker cancelled his visit to Ukraine today (30 March) due to health reasons. Instead, an EU-Ukraine summit will take place on 27 April in Kyiv, with the participation of EU heads of state and government.

Bitter exchanges between Macedonia's government and the opposition, including wiretapping and claims of million-euro bribes, have pushed the Balkan state into a deep crisis that could further hamper its already stalled bid for EU membership.

The European Union kept Hamas on its terrorism blacklist Friday despite a controversial court decision ordering Brussels to remove the Palestinian Islamist group from the register.

A leaked secret dispute-settlement provision of a pending US trade deal with Asia is raising concerns among nonprofit groups which say it favors big companies over governments.

The EU announced that it will impose anti-dumping duties for six months on some steel imports from China and Taiwan on Wednesday (25 March), as a new trade row erupted between Brussels and Beijing.

Hungary said on Wednesday (25 March) that it has reached a compromise with EU nuclear body Euratom over plans for Russia to be the sole supplier of nuclear fuel to the country's Paks power plant.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday (25 March) said he will visit Kyiv next week on his first bilateral trip since taking office in November, in a show of support for Ukraine's embattled government.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Da?i? became the first government official to visit Pristina at Kosovo's invitation since the territory unilaterally declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.

The EU and United States will likely miss a year-end target to seal the world's biggest-ever free trade deal, current European president Latvia said Wednesday (25 March).

Marine Le Pen, the head of France's far-right National Front party, has said she will ask the French people to vote on pulling out of the EU if she is elected president in 2017.

German courts have declined to hand over inmates to Bulgaria due to concerns over dire prison conditions in the European Union's poorest country, authorities said yesterday (23 March).