Home  > News > Europe

Yushchenko calls on supporters to block election challenge
29 December 2004
The orange hordes were set to return to the streets of Ukraine, last night, after Viktor Yushchenko, the clear winner in a re-run of a rigged presidential election asked them to block the efforts of his rival to challenge the result.

Pius XII barred Jewish children returning home
29 December 2004
The bitter, long-running controversy over the attitude of Pope Pius XII to the Holocaust has taken a new turn with the publication of diaries that prove he opposed the return of Jewish children to their parents after the Nazis' defeat.

Villagers buy St Bernards a future
29 December 2004
St Bernards, the great dogs of the Alps who for centuries bounded and snuffled through snowdrifts to rescue lost travellers, are to stay in the monastery where they originated.

Yushchenko sweeps to victory but opponent refuses to accept result
28 December 2004
Viktor Yushchenko swept to election victory in Ukraine yesterday, while his bitter rival, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, refused to accept the outcome of the presidential re-run and vowed to challenge the result.

Ukraine to meet Russia as equal and strengthen ties to West
28 December 2004
Ukraine's incoming Foreign Minister said the new government would mend bridges with Moscow but there would be no return to the subordinate role of the bad old days.

Yushchenko claims victory in Ukrainian presidential election
27 December 2004
Viktor Yushchenko last night claimed victory in Ukraine's presidential election. Early exit polls from the unprecedented third round of voting gave the pro-Western candidate a commanding lead.

Fears grow of plan to wreck Ukraine poll
26 December 2004
With Viktor Yushchenko heading for victory, the government may try to hold on to power by declaring result invalid

Orthodox priests 'selling prayers', claims Russia's Patriarch Alexey
26 December 2004
Russia's "everything and everyone is for sale" culture has infected an unlikely and venerable institution - the Orthodox Church.

MP attacks 'useless' minister's failure to free French hostages
24 December 2004
After the joy, the recriminations. France's mood of national euphoria following the release of its two journalist hostages in Iraq gave way to an unseasonal public slanging match yesterday between the government and one of its own parliamentarians.

Greek police officers 'tortured Afghans'
24 December 2004
Greece has launched an emergency inquiry into allegations that police tortured a group of Afghan immigrants using "Abu Ghraib" tactics at an Athens police station last week.

EU retreat on cod ban may drive species to extinction
23 December 2004
Cod, once a staple of the British diet, could be fished close to extinction, environmentalists warned yesterday.

Did France pay to free hostages?
23 December 2004
As two French journalists arrive back in Paris after 124 days in the hands of Iraqi captors, questions are asked about why they were released.

German opposition hit by subsidy scandal
23 December 2004
The Christian Democrats in Germany were plunged further into crisis yesterday after a payments scandal forced their deputy leader to become the fourth senior figure to step down in two months.

Ukraine separatists given Russian arms, warns opposition
22 December 2004
Fears are mounting that Boxing Day elections in Ukraine will be wrecked by an orchestrated campaign of violence after reports that pro-government "thugs" were being supplied with weaponry from a Russian naval base in Crimea.

EU forced to drop North Sea fishing ban
22 December 2004
Far-reaching plans to close about one-fifth of the North Sea to trawlermen were abruptly dropped last night, as the European Commission caved in to pressure from a group of countries, including Britain.

Italian army woman to face abuse inquiry
22 December 2004
An investigation into an alleged attack on a young Italian army recruit by a woman non-commissioned officer has undermined claims by the defence ministry that the army's notorious bullying culture has been eradicated.

Yushchenko tells TV audience: 'PM tried to steal the election'
21 December 2004
Ukraine's bitter presidential rivals clashed last night on live television in their first face-to-face encounter since the massive street protests that propelled the country into the international spotlight and overturned the election result.

Former mental patient held over nurse murders
21 December 2004
A former psychiatric patient was yesterday arrested for questioning about the macabre double murder of a nurse and auxiliary nurse at a mental hospital in Pau in the French Pyrenees at the weekend.

Ukrainian presidential candidates come face to face in a 'gloves-off' TV debate
20 December 2004
As the dramatic Ukrainian presidential election rerun enters the final week of campaigning before the Boxing Day ballot, supporters of Viktor Yushchenko rallied support for their candidate in a motorcade that has taken them into the eastern region of the country, long considered the stronghold of his opponent.

Spanish suffer lack of sleep as globalisation ends siesta
20 December 2004
Globalisation is killing Spain's siesta, according to a citizens' advice group. With so many multinational companies operating in the country, business people cannot disappear from their desks for hours, says the Independent Association.

Champion £28,000 truffle is laid to rest in Tuscany with full honours
19 December 2004
The champion white truffle that changed hands last month for £28,000 and then went bad in a Knightsbridge restaurant was yesterday returned to its native sod.

France counts storm casualties
19 December 2004
France was recovering last night from its worst winter storms for five years which killed seven people, including two in the centre of Paris.

IoS Appeal: Zhenya is 12 and lives in a cellar. 'I want to escape,' he says. With your help, he can
19 December 2004
For the children living on the streets of one Siberian city, a donation of just £10 could transform their lives

Yushchenko confident of victory in Ukraine
19 December 2004
Ukraine's two presidential contenders square off tomorrow in a television debate which is sure to see accusations that the Western-backed candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned with dioxin by backers of his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.

Italy opens its first refuge for divorced fathers
19 December 2004
Italy is the country of "mammismo", the hegemony of the dominating mamma. Many children are shackled to their mothers by a virtual umbilicus that can last a lifetime. Father, on the other hand, often has only a bit part in the family drama. And when the family falls apart, he can find himself with all the financial burden, but no emotional role at all.