Brussels - Inmates released from the infamous Guantanamo prison camp would have to undergo security tests before being allowed into the European Union, under proposals being debated by the bloc's interior ministers Thursday.

Moreover, several ministers are expected to ask that inmates who arrive in one member state be prevented from travelling to another EU country.

Brussels  - The torrent of abuse was triggered by a pair of new shoes. Alina bought them because her best friend Alex already had the same brand of footwear. Unfortunately, this did not go at all well with Alex who was quick to vent her anger.

Alina realised this when she logged in as usual onto SchuelerVZ - a popular social Internet platform in Germany for schoolchildren and their pals.

"You rotten bitch" was the post left behind on Alina's virtual notice board and before she knew what was happening, the girl found herself on the receiving end of a tirade of hatred.

Brussels - The European Union should ease its rules to allow new members to swap their national currency for the euro more rapidly, Hungary's prime minister said Tuesday.

"The best protection against foreign-exchange problems is to join the eurozone ... We should see how the steps towards the euro could be made quicker," Ferenc Gyurcsany told journalists in Brussels.

In particular, countries which have met the EU's strict rules on inflation and budget discipline should be allowed to join the single currency without having to spend two years in the preparatory Exchange Rate Mechanism 2 (ERM 2), he said.

Brussels - Ambitious plans to kickstart the European Union's economy by putting 5 billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) of community funds into high-tech projects went back to the drawing board Monday, as EU foreign ministers argued over where the money should come from.

Failure to reach an agreement on the proposal would represent a major embarrassment for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who has called it a key part of the bloc's response to the economic crisis.

Ministers meeting in Brussels agreed that the money should not come out of the EU's budget for 2008, as had been originally proposed by the EU's executive, but failed to agree on alternative sources of funding, diplomatic sources said.

Brussels - Officials in Brussels on Monday urged European Union governments to back their plans for a 600-million-euro (756-million-dollar) plan designed to boost ties with their former-Soviet neighbours.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external affairs commissioner, said the bloc's so-called "Eastern Partnership" had become even more necessary in the wake of the August conflict between Georgia and Russia and January's gas standoff between Russia and Ukraine.

Brussels - The foreign ministers of France and the Czech Republic said Monday they would be holding regular talks following extensive media reports suggesting strong disagreements between the former and current presidencies of the European Union.

"We were sometimes very surprised to discover in the press that we were in a bad mood, Karel (Schwarzenberg) and I. This is not true at all," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.