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.

Brussels - US Vice President Joe Biden was Tuesday holding talks in Brussels with the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with European ambassadors to NATO on how to step up the alliance's efforts in Afghanistan.

The talks come just five days after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the NATO headquarters, suggesting the new US administration was keen to re-engage with its European allies as it struggles to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

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Brussels - The European Union is giving 700,000 euros (890,000 dollars) in aid to help provide drinking water, blankets and medicines to some 50,000 people affected by recent floods in Pacific islands, officials in Brussels said Monday.

The decision acts on an EU fact-finding mission to the region, which identified the region's most urgent needs.

These include the provision of clean drinking water, fixing sewerage systems and medicines designed to treat and prevent outbreaks of diarrhoea, respiratory infection, malaria and dengue fever.