EU

Severe winter weather continues to dominate several eastern European countries with air and road travel disrupted and gas supplies running low.

The government on Friday insisted that the issue of German World War II reparations to Greece remained unresolved despite the International Court of Justice in The Hague rebuffing a Greek reparation claim for atrocities committed by Nazi troops in the village of Distomo, central Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Italy's Mario Monti were appointed within days of each other last November to replace politicians who took their countries to the brink of financial collapse.

In 2003 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that banning the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NPD) -- the most significant neo-Nazi party to emerge since 1945, which campaigns on an anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic platform -- was unconstitutional.

A deal to restructure some 200 billion euros of privately-held Greek sovereign debt that would pave the way for a new financial rescue is "within reach," the European Commission said on Friday.

Landlords in Britain's capital are evicting tenants so they can cash in on this summer's Olympic Games by charging tourists many times the usual rent.

The UN's highest court has ruled that Italy was wrong to allow its courts to make claims for compensation against Germany for Nazi war crimes.

The Cyprus parliament has taken the unusual step of rebuking United Nations envoy Alexander Downer over perceived bias it says is hindering long-running reunification talks.

A Paris court has fined the Church of Scientology in France for fraud and handed five of its members fines and suspended sentences.

A German proposal to tie Greece’s future with a pledge to never default looks barmy. The euro zone already has a hard enough time getting Greece to reform its economy, partly because Greece can wield the threat of a messy default.