Mons, Belgium - NATO is to divert seven warships, bound on the alliance's first-ever visit to Asia, to the coast of Somalia to fight piracy later this month, alliance ambassadors decided Friday.

The fleet of six frigates and a tanker, which had long been scheduled to visit Pakistan, Singapore and Australia, will first spend a month fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa, NATO said in a press release issued at the alliance's military headquarters.

Brussels/Strasbourg - Britain's Conservative party is to leave the main centre-right group in the European Parliament to form a eurosceptic bloc of its own after elections in June, parliament officials in Strasbourg said Thursday.

The move would be a blow to the conservative European People's Party (EPP), of which the Tories are the second-largest member.

But British conservatives insisted that it would not hand more power to socialist parties, since they would still vote with their former partners on key matters.

Brussels - A row over VAT rates on nappies looked set to get dirty on Wednesday as the European Union's executive said it would have to discipline five countries for levying too little tax on disposable diapers.

"Sooner or later, the European Commission has to go ahead with those infringement (proceedings) and ask the (European) court to give an interpretation," commission taxation spokeswoman Maria Assimakopoulou told journalists in Brussels.

Brussels, Mar. 11 : The European Union has revealed a secret list of items banned from hand luggage following a legal challenge by a man, who was barred from flying with a tennis racquet.

Austrian sportsman Gottfried Heinrich was kicked off a plane for carrying a tennis racquet, and the European Commission was forced to reveal the contents of the confidential memo to airlines outlining which everyday objects were considered a potential terrorist threat, reports The Telegraph.

Brussels - The European Union's executive has raided former French power monopoly EDF, suspecting it of breaking the EU's rules on fair trading, officials in Brussels confirmed Wednesday.

The European Commission "has reason to believe that EDF may have violated (EU) antitrust rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant market position ... The suspected illegal conduct may include actions to raise prices on the French wholesale electricity market," the Brussels-based body said in a statement.

Brussels (Belgium), Mar. 11 : United States Vice President Joe Biden has claimed that at least 70 percent of Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan are mercenaries fighting only for money.

He said that these elements could be persuaded to lay down their arms.

Stepping up U. S. calls for outreach to "moderate" elements of the insurgency, The News and the Washington Times both quoted as saying that he was in favour of applying the same tactics used by American troops in Iraq's Anbar province.