Europe News

LONDON (AFP) - Former world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan romped to a fourth UK Championship on Sunday with a ruthless 10-2 win over Scotland's Stephen Maguire.

ROME - Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday against seeking happiness in drugs or other "artificial paradises" and the self-centered quest for "pleasure at all costs."

TURIN, Italy (AFP) - The Dalai Lama on Sunday wrapped up a private 11-day visit to Italy during which he met fellow Nobel peace prize laureates and appealed for continued support for Tibet's bid for autonomy.

LONDON (AFP) - William Gallas punished a rare mistake by Petr Cech to give Arsenal a hard-fought 1-0 win against Chelsea on Sunday that proved Arsene Wenger's side are ready to fight for the Premier League title.

LONDON (AFP) - Two people died after a mid-air collision between two light aircraft Sunday, British health officials confirmed.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's President expects Russia, China and some other U.N. Security Council members to back further talks on the status of Kosovo, though the West says all avenues of possible compromise have been exhausted.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expelled a journalist on Sunday who had alleged Kremlin malpractice in this month's parliamentary election and tracked funds flowing from Kremlin officials to foreign banks.

BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - Iraq formally took security control of the southern oil province of Basra from British forces on Sunday, paving the way for Britain to sharply reduce its nearly 5,000-strong troop presence.

BERLIN (AFP) - German auto giant Volkswagen on Sunday said it had sold a record number of 3.37 million VW vehicles in the first 11 months of 2007.

ANKARA, Turkey - A Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach and hospitalized Sunday in the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey, officials said.

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's prime minister and president clashed Sunday over the future of the country's mission in Iraq, with the premier warning that failure to resolve the dispute could force Warsaw to start withdrawing its 900 soldiers this month.

MINSK, Belarus - Belarus will pay nearly 20 percent more for Russian gas beginning next year, Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly said Saturday.

SEVILLE, Spain - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi began his first official trip to Spain Saturday with a private visit to a luxury country resort hotel after arriving from France where he sealed business deals worth billions of dollars.

ROME - A fugitive Naples crime boss who built one of the most dangerous cartels has been captured, Italian authorities said Saturday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Rashid Rauf, a British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners, escaped from police custody in Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Shifting tactics, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the Bush administration has decided to tone down its appeals to NATO allies for more troops and other aid in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

LONDON - The archbishop of Canterbury said Friday he will not reverse his decision to exclude a gay U.S. bishop from joining other bishops at a global Anglican gathering next year.

TURIN, Italy - Counterfeiting is a dangerous and growing enterprise controlled by organized criminals who are exploiting the same trade routes used for trafficking drugs, arms and human beings, the United Nations said in a report released Friday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union leaders backed away Friday from offering Serbia a fast-track to membership and again cautioned Belgrade that its future entry hinges on full cooperation in handing over war crime suspects for trial.

MADRID, Spain - The armed Basque group ETA has claimed responsibility for the killing of two Spanish Civil Guards in southern France earlier this month and warns it will attack Spain's security forces "wherever they may be," a Basque newspaper reported Friday.

VIENNA, Austria - A teenager who went into hiding for days to avoid expulsion to Serbia's restive Kosovo province will be allowed to finish the school year in Austria, but she cannot stay longer, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

MINSK, Belarus - The leaders of Russia and Belarus pledged closer cooperation on military, economic and foreign policy but gave no indication Friday that the ex-Soviet neighbors were moving closer to a long-discussed full merger.

MOSCOW - Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, a candidate in numerous Russian elections since the 1991 Soviet collapse, will not run for president next year, his spokeswoman said Friday.

OSLO, Norway - When it comes to wiping out a bank account, forget holiday shopping. Just parking their cars cost some Norwegians between $37,000 and $148,000.

LONDON - A British student who was killed nearly six weeks ago in the Italian apartment she shared with an American roommate was buried Friday in a private funeral in south London,

LONDON - The number of British army soldiers testing positive for illegal drugs has increased sharply, according to research published Friday.

LONDON - British artist Damien Hirst has donated four of his works to the Tate collection, including a replica of his prize-winning installation of bisected cows in formaldehyde, the museum said Friday.

MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister charged Friday that Britain had been deliberately worsening relations between the two countries, prompting Moscow to shut the regional offices of a major British non-governmental organization.

LONDON - Princess Diana's letters to "Darling Dodi" were read Friday at the British inquest into the deaths of the couple, giving a glimpse of the passion of a new romance that ended in a car crash in Paris.