Brussels, March 19 - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said it is "absolutely ridiculous" for Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to accuse the US of colluding with the Taliban.

"I reject the idea that was publicly launched by President Karzai that one way or the other there is a so-called collusion between NATO, ISAF, US and the Taliban. It's an absolutely ridiculous idea," reported Xinhua citing Rasmussen as saying Monday at his monthly press conference in Brussels.

Brussels, March 14 : European Union (EU) leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels Thursday and Friday to iron out measures to promote growth and create jobs in Europe which is still mired in the debt crisis.

Despite "consistent and courageous" efforts taken at European and national levels, "we have yet to tackle the most immediate fears and concerns of many of our citizens", European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday, referring to weak growth and high jobless rate.

Brussels, Feb 16 : The European Union has approved tighter controls on beef within its member states to determine the extent to which horsemeat is being fraudulently labeled as beef and sold to consumers.

The 27-member bloc also gave the green light for tests to determine whether horsemeat found at slaughterhouses contains residues of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat horses that is potentially harmful to people.

Brussels, July 24 - Moody's Investors Service late Monday lowered its outlook on top-rated Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to negative from stable, citing increasing uncertainties about the euro debt crisis as a whole.

The rating agency said its decision is also based on the growing risk of a Greek exit from the euro, which would set off "a chain of financial sector shocks" and it is the single currency's top-rated states who are going to share the burden of support, reported Xinhua.

Brussels, Sep 8 : The European Union Thursday termed as a "heinous act" the terrorist attack outside the Delhi High Court Wednesday that killed 12 people and injured more than 90, a statement said.

The explosion occurred around 10.30 a. m. outside the court where about 300 visitors were crowding a gate for passes to enter the complex.

Brussels, Aug. 26 : British Formula One racer Jenson Button has not ruled out the prospect of emulating the remarkable feat Michael Schumacher will chalk up in Sunday''s Belgian Grand Prix.

The legendary German will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Formula One debut, which took place on August 25 1991 at the Spa circuit.

Although the two decades have included three seasons in retirement, it is still an incredible achievement by the 42-year-old to be competing at motorsport''s highest level.

Brussels, Jan 8 : The UN climate change summit in Copenhagen "has reminded us of the importance of the emerging countries, like India and Brazil", the European Union's first President Herman Van Rompuy has said.

"It has also taught us some other geopolitical lessons. These developments invite us to ask ourselves: How can we best collaborate with the other players?" he said at a Christian Social Union party conference in Wildbad Kreuth, Germany.

Brussels, Jan 5 : European Union (EU) experts are to meet Thursday to discuss whether the bloc needs to improve its airport security in the wake of the failed Christmas attack on a US airliner over Detroit, officials in Brussels said.

The meeting is expected to include a debate on whether to bring in EU-wide rules for the use of controversial body scanners, which look through the traveller's clothes to produce an image of their body.

Brussels, Dec 31 : A total of 137 journalists were killed in 2009, one of the most lethal years for media workers on record, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Thursday.

The Brussels-based organization said that 113 of the journalists had fallen victim to targeted killings, overshadowing the decrease to 109 killed in 2008.

IFJ President Jim Boumelha said that the Philippines, Mexico, and Somalia led the list of most deadly countries for journalists in 2009.

Brussels, Dec 23 : The Council of the European Union (EU) Tuesday mandated its executive body, the European Commission, to negotiate a broad nuclear partnership agreement with Russia.

The European Atomic Energy Community and the Russian federation will negotiate an agreement for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, a EU official said in a statement.

Brussels, Dec 16 : The European Commission said Wednesday it has resolved its long-running dispute with Microsoft after the US software giant agreed to allow customers a choice of Web browsers.

European Union (EU) competitions commissioner Neelie Kroes said the Commission had dropped the antitrust case it opened against Microsoft for restricting the use of browsers in its Windows operating systems.

Brussels, Dec 16 - One of the lesser known aspects of the world debate on climate change is the swarm of acronyms and abbreviations it has spawned.

Some of the most outstanding follow below:

BAM: the acronym stands for Border Adjustment Mechanism.

It refers to any attempt by a country to impose special import taxes on products from states which do not have laws on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so that rival producers in the home country are not put at a disadvantage.

France is actively campaigning to have them in place, despite objections that they smack of protectionism.

Brussels, Dec 15 : Rich countries have not offered developing states enough help to clinch a deal on fighting global warming, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Tuesday as he prepared to travel to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen.

Barroso "feels that not enough progress has been made, and there I'm talking about the developed countries," on the crucial issue of funding the fight against global warming, his spokeswoman, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, told journalists in Brussels.

Brussels, Dec 11 - The European Union (EU) appears to have developed a yen for Italian pizza and has granted Neapolitan pizza a special label to protect it from any rivals.

The EU Wednesday gave pizza produced in the southern city of Naples a special label that protects it in the 27 EU countries from 'fake' or imitation 'Neapolitan pizzas'.

Neapolitan pizza is considered the benchmark for pizza everywhere in the world.

Brussels, Dec 11 - Germany is to pledge the highest single contribution to a EU fund aimed at helping poor nations cope with climate change, the German Press Agency has learned.

EU governments have so far vowed to provide a total of 3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) over the next three years to a global fund provided by rich nations.

The biggest single contribution thus far - 883 million euros - has come from Britain.

Brussels, Dec 9 :The European Union's executive Wednesday granted over 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in aid to 15 experimental clean energy projects.

The decision is part of a package of measures designed to fight the European recession and combat global warming by boosting investment into clean coal-fired power stations, offshore wind generators and international energy links.

Brussels, Dec 9 -  Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has condemned the coordinated car bomb attacks that killed over 120 people and injured 500 in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and said terrorists were "seeking to undermine the democratic electoral process in Iraq".

"I want to express my dismay and horror at the series of attacks in Iraq," Frattini told journalists in Brussels, where he was attending a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

"The attacks claimed many innocent victims," Frattini said.

The high-profile attacks targeted sensitive sites and came two days after MPs approved a new new election law to govern national polls due early next year.

Brussels, Dec 7 : The European Union leaders are to push for a cash handout of at least 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to help poor countries fight climate change next year when they meet for a summit in Brussels Thursday, according to internal documents.

The EU is keen to convince world powers to sign up to a deal on fighting climate change at UN talks in Copenhagen. The bloc had not been due to offer a concrete amount of funding until after the Copenhagen talks, but it is now keen to put firm figures on the table to pressurise other major states do the same.

Brussels, Nov 27 : European Union veterans from Finland and Spain obtained two of the most prestigious seats in the new European Commission, which was announced Friday.

Olli Rehn of Finland, an economist and outgoing enlargement commissioner, was awarded the powerful economics affairs portfolio, while the post's incumbent, Joaquin Almunia of Spain, was moved to the influential competition portfolio.

The appointments follow days of secretive consultations in Brussels and not-so-secret horse-trading among the bloc's 27 national governments.

Brussels, Nov 26 : European Union regulators Thursday formally charged Dutch electronics giant Philips and other manufacturers of cathode ray tubes (CRT) of forming a cartel aimed at inflating the price of television sets and computer monitors.

The announcement by the European Commission in Brussels follows surprise raids carried out at the manufacturers' premises in November 2007, when CRT screens were still widely available.