Europe News

SYDNEY (AFP) - The Wallabies' abject loss to lowly Scotland was Australian rugby's worst Test defeat in decades, newspapers said on Sunday. Full Story »

BUCHAREST, Romania - Romanians began voting for a new president on Sunday in an election that could open the door to an international loan aimed at ending the country's deep recession. Full Story »

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Polls opened Sunday in Romania's presidential election, as the country struggles with a severe recession and the political turmoil following the government's fall mid-October. Full Story »

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Polls opened Sunday in Romania's presidential election, as the country struggles with a severe recession and the political turmoil following the government's fall mid-October. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - Business leaders gather here on Monday for an annual conference expected to focus on how companies can recover from the country's longest recession on record. Full Story »

WARSAW (AFP) - The European Union may have inched out of its sharpest recession since the global slump of the 1930s, but green shoots are not emerging uniformly across the 27-nation bloc's eastern member states. Full Story »

MINSK (AFP) - Scorned as Europe's last dictatorship, ranked dismally by rating agencies and possessing few natural resources, Belarus has struggled to attract foreign investors. Full Story »

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United can take charge of the title race if they reach the New Year in touch with leaders Chelsea. Full Story »

LIVERPOOL, England (AFP) - Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez brushed aside his team's stuttering form to insist that they will finish in the top four. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger refused to blame the absence of Robin van Persie as his team failed to score for the first time this season in a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland. Full Story »

PERUGIA, Italy - Prosecutors on Saturday requested life in prison for an American student and her ex-boyfriend accused in the fatal stabbing of her British roommate during a drug-fueled sex game — charges the U.S. woman dismissed as "pure fantasy." Full Story »

BERN, Switzerland - A bear has attacked a man who entered its enclosure at a new park in Switzerland, and a policeman opened fire on the animal to defend the intruder. Full Story »

VATICAN CITY - After offering a home in his church to disaffected Anglicans, Pope Benedict XVI assured the archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday that he is still committed to seeking closer relations between Catholics and Anglicans. Full Story »

ROME - Italian police on Saturday arrested a Pakistani father and son who allegedly spent just over $200 to set up a reliable and untraceable phone network that was used by the militants who carried out last year's terror attacks in Mumbai, India. Full Story »

BAKU, Azerbaijan - President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said Saturday his nation may resort to military force if talks with Armenia on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute produce no result. Full Story »

BERLIN - A German government official says the nation will send an observer to the upcoming trial in New York of the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and four accused henchmen. Full Story »

PERUGIA, Italy - Prosecutors request life in jail for US student on trial for killing British roommate in Italy. Full Story »

ROME - A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery. Full Story »