Prime Minister Tony Blair ended his swansong appearance on the international stage on a high note on Saturday, helping clinch a deal for a new European Union treaty and trumpeting that Europe was turning Britain’s way. And tributes flowed from his fellow EU leaders after a marathon summit in Brussels, which he said allowed the reforming bloc to ”move on” after two years of institutional inertia.
Norway is the most peaceful country in the world and Iraq the least, according to a study launched on Wednesday, which notably puts Japan near the top and Russia and Israel close to the bottom. The Global Peace Index, published a week before a Group of Eight summit in Germany, rates 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe.
Fears stoked by the post-9/11 ”war on terror” are increasingly dividing the world, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, while rapping rights abuses from China to Darfur and Russia to the Middle East. The gap between Muslims and non-Muslims notably deepened, fuelled by discriminatory counter-terrorism strategies in Western countries, warned the rights group.
Finance Minister Gordon Brown became Britain’s prime minister-in-waiting Thursday as the ruling Labour party said he was the only candidate to succeed its outgoing leader, Tony Blair. But Brown faces a six-week wait before actually taking over at 10 Downing Street, when his long-time ally-turned-rival Blair stands down at the end of June.
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/ 29 January 2007
A threatened two-day strike at British Airways (BA) this week was called off Monday after the airline hammered out a last-minute deal with unions. But the accord with cabin-crew unions will come too late to prevent some disruption to flights at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Wednesday and Thursday, the airline added.
The European Union is keen to trumpet its latest role in easing the Iran nuclear crisis, but strains and institutional limbo are clouding the bloc’s efforts to punch its diplomatic weight, officials admitted on Thursday. EU foreign policy head Javier Solana stands ready to return to Tehran to negotiate with the Islamic republic over a package of trade and political incentives.
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/ 23 January 2006
It may not have the Eiffel Tower’s global renown, but Belgium’s hi-tech Atomium hopes to super-charge its pulling power when it reopens next month, in all its shiny glory after a two-year renovation. In fact, the parallels with the world-famous Paris monument are striking: the steel-and-aluminium Brussels landmark was built for a World Fair; and it attracts hordes of foreign tourists.
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/ 20 December 2005
British Prime Minister Tony Blair pressed European Union lawmakers on Tuesday to back a hard-won budget deal to unlock money for poor EU newcomers, while stressing the need for a reform of the whole funding process. But party group leaders bluntly warned that the EU legislature will fight for more money.
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/ 25 October 2005
The European Union prepared on Tuesday to slap a global ban on imports of pet birds into Europe, amid rising alarm over the growing avian influenza threat from Asia. EU veterinary experts in Brussels were studying proposals for an initial one-month ban on imports of pet birds such as parrots and other exotic species from the rest of the world.
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/ 16 October 2005
The growing threat of lethal bird flu spreading across Europe will soar to the top of European Union leaders’ menu this week, after the deadly Asian strain of the virus landed on the continent for the first time. The H5N1 virus was confirmed in Romania at the weekend, only two days after its presence was identified in Turkey.