Athens - The assassination of his father by Taliban militants forced 13-year-old Jahid to escape his home in Afghanistan.

But his long perilous journey toward asylum in Europe has left him and thousands others trapped for months in a makeshift camp in Greece's western port city of Patras.

Dumbfounded by the government's neglect and the European Union's tough immigration policies, Jahid's future lies in limbo.

London - An historic cushion-shaped diamond with a European royal history of more than 300 years was Wednesday sold for 16.4 million pounds (24.2 million dollars) at Christie's auction house in London.

The Wittelsbach Diamond, an extremely rare 35.56-carat greyish-blue diamond, was offered to the international market for the first time in 80 years.

It had been estimated to fetch a maximum of 9 million pounds.

London, Dec 8 : Every Monday in December before Christmas has been dubbed as a ‘Mega Monday’, as it is the one day of the week when online sales are the busiest.

According to the commercial director of Visa Europe, more than two million Internet purchases take place on a Monday, reason being that when buyers fail to find what they want in the shops during the weekend they end up turning to the net.

“Monday is almost always the biggest shopping day of the week, and Mondays in December are usually huge,” Sky News quoted James Roper, IMRG head, as saying.

Beijing  - China reacted angrily Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to meet with the Dalai Lama over the weekend in Europe.

"This development is indeed an unwise move which not only hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, but also undermines Sino-French ties," state-run Xinhua news agency said of Saturday's meeting in the Policsh city of Gdansk.

"The Dalai Lama has long been engaged in activities worldwide to split China. He can by no means conceal the separatist nature of his activities no matter what by whatever disguise and whatever florid rhetoric he may use."

Copenhagen  - The Italian film Gomorrah, about the criminal underworld in Naples, cleaned up Saturday night at the European Film Awards in the Danish capital, receiving five of the 15 top awards.

In addition to receiving the prize as the top European film of 2008, director Matteo Garrone was named best director and Toni Servillo named the best actor.

Servillo's award also included his work in Il Divo (The Star.)

Gomorrah also received the prize for best script, and Garrone's cameraman Marco Onorato was named for the best photography.

Brussels, Dec. 5: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that retention of innocent people's DNA and fingerprint records by police is illegal.

The unanimous judgment by the Strasbourg court condemned the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of powers given to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in collecting and storing DNA and fingerprint evidence of suspects.

According to The Independent, the British Government has not immediately said it will comply with the ruling by bringing in laws that would destroy nearly a million DNA samples taken from suspects who have been exonerated by the police and courts.