Germany announced on Thursday that a deadly infection there which has killed three people and left more than two hundred ill has been traced to Spanish cucumbers.

Germany announced on Thursday that a deadly infection there which has killed three people and left more than two hundred ill has been traced to Spanish cucumbers.The outbreak, which began in northern Germany and has now spread to the south, is a particularly aggressive strain of E.coli and is resistant to many antibiotics. Hamburg’s health senator, Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks, said the city’s Hygiene Institute have discovered the bacteria on three cucumbers from Spain, and investigations are currently under way to determine their exact source.Europa Press reports that the bacteria were identified on a fourth cucumber whose country of origin is not yet known.The Senator however noted that the analyses have only been carried out on produce in Hamburg, adding that other produce may have been the...

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Posted in: Germany announced on Thursday that a deadly infection there which has killed three people and left more than two hundred ill has been traced to Spanish cucumbers.

Spain is seeking to extend guarantees on about 80 billion euros ($113 billion) of bank bonds beyond the end of June to help lenders’ access to funding.

The government asked the European Commission for an additional six months for the backing first made during the credit crisis in 2008, according to a Madrid-based official at the Spanish Treasury, who declined to be identified because of ministry policy.Spanish lenders are under pressure as the deficit crisis that triggered bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland makes investors wary of bank debt. Bondholders want 189 basis points in extra yield to buy a five-year Spanish covered bond, the most popular type of debt issued by the country’s banks, instead of a note issued by a German lender. The difference was 143 basis points in April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“Clearly, this move signals that the overall funding conditions for some Spanish banks remain challenging and that for...

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Posted in: Spain is seeking to extend guarantees on about 80 billion euros ($113 billion) of bank bonds beyond the end of June to help lenders’ access to funding.

The International Monetary Fund is still willing to consider giving Greece "more time" to repay its loan

The International Monetary Fund is still willing to consider giving Greece "more time" to repay its loan as the country struggles with a debt crisis, an IMF spokeswoman said Thursday."As we have said for some months, there was a question of whether the program for Greece should be extended to give more time, whether it should switch to an extended-fund facility" or EFF, spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said at a news briefing in Washington."If Greece needs more time to get to a position where they are finished with the program, EFF allows for a longer period," she said.The 30-billion-euro ($42.7 billion) IMF loan extended to Greece in May 2010 calls for repayments through 2015. The EFF, a loan program used for countries facing longer-term economic adjustments, would extend the repayment schedule...

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Posted in: The International Monetary Fund

Six more boatloads of migrants, mostly Libyans, arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday,

Six more boatloads of migrants, mostly Libyans, arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday, exacerbating a refugee crisis that already appears to have ended the long-standing Schengen arrangement for passport-free movement around Europe.In Italy, which has born the brunt of waves of migrants fleeing turmoil first in Tunisia and now Libya, key members of the government were again warning about the repercussions of Nato's bombing campaign across the Mediterranean."For this reason we have continually pressed for a strong diplomatic response to the situation in Libya," said Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni, of the anti-immigration Northern League party, who has repeatedly called for an end to Italy's role in Nato air raids. "Otherwise there is no way to stop the boats."Ignazio...

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Posted in: arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday,mostly Libyans,Six more boatloads of migrants

Markets are expected to react negatively on Monday to the news of Mr Strauss-Kahn's detention in New York

.The former French finance minister had been a key ally for the European Union as Greece, Ireland and Portugal all sought billion pound bail-outs to pay their debts.Europe's finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Monday to hammer out the final details of a €78bn (£69bn) IMF-backed bail-out for Portugal and discuss further funding for Greece.Mr Strauss-Kahn had been due to brief German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Sunday on the IMF's position as well as attend meetings in Brussels.Economists said Mr Strauss-Kahn's absence could not have come at a more sensitive time. Concerns are growing that Greece will fail to hit IMF imposed targets to qualify for June's €3.3bn payment from last year's original €110bn bail-out. Simon Ward, chief economist at fund manager Hen-derson, said: "I would...

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Posted in: Markets are expected to react negatively on Monday to the news of Mr Strauss-Kahn's detention in New York

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday Greece could be granted an extension to the repayment of its massive debt but only if private creditors are also involved.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday Greece could be granted an extension to the repayment of its massive debt but only if private creditors are also involved.In an interview with ARD public television, Schaeuble insisted on waiting for the results of an examination of Greek public accounts next month before deciding if new measures were required.But if they prove necessary, "a central point will be avoided (...) to relieve private creditors at the expense of the taxpayer"."We must have a clear rule: if there is a rescheduling (of the debt), all credit must be rescheduled," he said.Officials from the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank are examining Greek finances and the progress of an austerity programme imposed as a condition of last year's international bailout.They...

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Posted in: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday Greece could be granted an extension to the repayment of its massive debt but only if private creditors are also involved.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn decides to seek diplomatic immunity to avoid sexual assault charges

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn decides to seek diplomatic immunity to avoid sexual assault charges, he will likely have an uphill climb, a Reuters review of U.S. and international laws and treaties, International Monetary Fund policies and recent U.S. court rulings suggests.Under the IMF's Articles of Agreement, employees are granted a limited form of diplomatic immunity known as "acts immunity," which refer to actions related to activities performed in the course of their work for the Fund. Article IX of the agreement notes that the Fund's staff "shall be immune from legal process with regard to acts performed by them in their official capacity." Even then, the agreement says, the IMF may elect to waive immunity.The IMF's limited immunity provision is unlikely to protect Strauss-Kahn...

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Posted in: IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn decides to seek diplomatic immunity to avoid sexual assault charges

Greece demands more help and Portugal awaits a bailout

As Greece demands more help and Portugal awaits a bailout, the euro zone crisis is creating political turmoil. Bruno Waterfield in Brussels and Philip Aldrick report.An undercurrent of anger and mistrust will permeate tonight's critical meeting of euro zone ministers in Brussels as they grapple with a spiralling Greek debt crisis and try to seal a €78 billion ($104 billion) bailout for Portugal. As if the euro's problems were not enough, seething resentments will add a new political dimension to the talks.The inclement mood was set 10 days earlier. On May 6, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and chairman of the euro group of single currency members, called a secret meeting of the European Union's most powerful countries at the Chateau de Senningen on the outskirts of the tiny...

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Posted in: Greece demands more help and Portugal awaits a bailout

Europe has moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent

Europe has moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent on Thursday when a majority of EU governments agreed on the need to reinstate national passport controls amid fears of a flood of immigrants fleeing the upheaval in north Africa.In a serious blow to one of the cornerstones of a united, integrated Europe, EU Interior Ministers embarked on a radical revision of the passport-free travel regime known as the Schengen system to allow the 26 participating governments to restore border controls.They also agreed to combat immigration by pressing for “readmission accords” with countries in West Asia and North Africa to send refugees back to where they came from.The policy shift was pushed by France and Italy, who have been feuding and panicking in recent weeks over a small...

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Posted in: Europe has moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent

5.2 magnitude earthquake was felt across the Murcia region, where hundreds of British expatriate live, from Alicante to Malaga and as far away as Madrid.

The epicentre was registered in the Tercia mountain range close to the town of Lorca, where several buildings were destroyed including a medieval church bell tower. It was the worst earthquake in Spain for 50 years.Authorities confirmed that at least ten people had died, including a child of 13 years old.Francisco Jodar, the mayor of the town said: "Unfortunately people have died as a result of cave-ins and falling debris. We're trying to find out if people have been trapped inside the collapsed houses."Television images showed streets in the historic quarter of the town strewn with rubble and crushed cars. There were also reports that historical heritage sites as the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Huerta and several local temples had been damaged.The local hospital was evacuated raising fears...

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A 97-year-old Hungarian accused of massacring civilians in Serbia in 1942 has gone on trial in Hungary.

Sandor Kepiro was listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as the world's most wanted Nazi war crimes suspect.More than 1,200 Jewish, Serb and Roma civilians were murdered over three days by Hungarian forces in a notorious massacre in the city of Novi Sad.As Mr Kepiro arrived at court he told reporters he was "completely innocent" and called the trial a "circus".After using a walking stick on his way into the court in Budapest, he took his seat and displayed a printed sheet of paper stating: "Murderers of a 97-year-old man!"The former police captain is accused of "complicity in war crimes".Prosecutor Zsolt Falvai detailed the charges. He said Mr Kepiro was directly responsible for the death of 36 Jews and Serbs - including 30 who were put on a lorry on the defendant's orders and taken away and...

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Posted in: A 97-year-old Hungarian accused of massacring civilians in Serbia in 1942 has gone on trial in Hungary.

A body from the 2009 Air France crash that killed all 228 people aboard has been raised from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Floating wreckage was recovered soon after the crashThe body has been preserved by high pressure and low temperatures while it lay in the submerged wreckage for nearly two years.And it was still belted to an airline seat as French investigators brought it aboard their search vessel off Brazil's northeast coast from a robot submarine.The search party located the wreckage a month ago after nearly two years of scouring the seabed.In recent days they also found the Airbus A330's cockpit voice recorder and 'black box' data memory unit.The black box recorder located after two yearsIf the units are in good condition, they could solve the mystery about why Flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris fell into the Atlantic during an intense high-altitude thunderstorm.They were discovered about 3,900m...

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Posted in: A body from the 2009 Air France crash that killed all 228 people aboard has been raised from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The surge of north African migrants into Italy and France will mean Europe will impose internal passport border controls once again to stop the flow of illegal arrivals

The surge of north African migrants into Italy and France will mean Europe will impose internal passport border controls once again to stop the flow of illegal arrivals, if proposals before EU home ministers are approved.The so-called Arab spring has led to a massive wave of immigration from north-western Africa to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa following the Tunisian uprising and air strikes in Libya.Most of the young immigrants arrive in overcrowded fishing boats and have paid traffickers. They are processed on Italian soil and provided with temporary papers before heading north to France in the search of work.Advertisement: Story continues below Italy has granted temporary permits to more than 25,000 Arab migrants in the past couple of months, although the mainly French-speaking Tunisian...

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Posted in: The surge of north African migrants into Italy and France will mean Europe will impose internal passport border controls once again to stop the flow of illegal arrivals

EU looking at reintroducing national border controls

The European Union's executive has proposed allowing the reintroduction of national border controls in exceptional circumstances, even though the development of a "borderless" continent had long been hailed as a prime EU achievement.The EU Commission made the proposal Wednesday after France and Italy insisted on action to revamp the so-called Schengen system, which allows for unfettered travel across many European borders for citizens, but also for illegal immigrants.EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said that "it may also be necessary to foresee the temporary reintroduction of limited internal border controls under very exceptional circumstances."Malmstroem said one reason for such border checks could be when "part of the external border comes under heavy unexpected pressure"...

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Posted in: EU looking at reintroducing national border controls