Brussels - Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to meet top European Union officials next week during her first visit to Europe as US Secretary of State, diplomatic sources in Brussels said Thursday.

Officials said Clinton was expected to hold talks on March 6 with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the bloc's rotating presidency.

Brussels - The interior ministers of Italy, G

Paris/Brussels - French-Belgian bank Dexia said Thursday that it had lost 3.326 billion euros (4.25 billion dollars) in 2008 primarily because of losses related to the US subprime crisis.

Turnover fell by nearly half compared with 2007, to 3.556 billion euros, with the financial crisis eating nearly 6 billion euros out of the bank's earnings, Dexia said in a statement.

Dexia suffered more than half of that negative impact in the fourth quarter of last year, when it posted a loss of 2.6 billion euros.

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.