Brussels - A French mountaineer who met a group of Belgian climbers in the Pyrenees recently chose an unusual way of getting them to smile for a team photo.

"What do Belgians write at the bottom of their swimming pools? 'No smoking'," he quipped, and clicked the shutter as they laughed.

Whatever European Union supporters may say about the way the bloc has created a zone of peace and harmony across the continent, its citizens still like nothing better than making jokes about each other.

Thus Belgians form the butt of a huge stock of jokes both in France and in the Netherlands, where they are seen, according to need, as stupid, naive or obsessed with food and drink.

HTC is all set to launch its Windows Mobile-based smartphone, dubbed S740 in the European market.

The slim, compact and stylish S740 comes packed with a classic 12-key numberpad together with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that offers flexibility in efficient messaging.
   
The S740 has inherited a lot of its design from the Touch Diamond, which consists of a glossy, black front.

Dublin - Ireland's Europe Minister Dick Roche has been criticised by both yes and no campaigners for saying he believes a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty will be necessary, the Irish Independent reported Tuesday.

Roche told the newspaper on Monday that it is his "personal view at this stage" that Ireland will have to vote again on the EU reform treaty the country rejected in a referendum in June.

Prior to Roche's comments government ministers had said it was too early to say how Ireland would get around the ratification dilemma. Ireland was the only EU member to hold a public referendum on the treaty which has to be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into effect.

Brussels - What do Kazakhstan, Israel and the north-eastern corner of South America have in common?

Some people count them as European.

Kazakhstan, despite being in Central Asia, is a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Israel is in both UEFA and the Eurovision Song Contest - competing in the latter rather more successfully in recent years than, say, France or Britain.

And the South American area of French Guyana is legally a province of France, which makes it officially a part of the European Union.

Hamburg - The mournful howling of wolves is echoing these days through the forested woodlands of eastern Germany for the first time in centuries, according to conservationists who say that wolves are spreading into Western Europe now that all their natural enemies have long since disappeared.

The cunning canine is even outsmarting its most dangerous mortal enemy - man. Wolves are encroaching on urbanized areas, even being spotted on the outskirts of large cities like Berlin.

US party conventions are not pure show By Peer Meinert, dpa Eds: Part of a series of stories moving prior to the Democratic convention that opens Monday; Republican convention begins September 1; epa photos available =

Washington (dpa) - The ritual at US political party conventions rarely varies. They end with a cascade of balloons and the smiling candidate on stage with family and the vice presidential pick.

Whether Democrats or Republicans, the four-day political spree is an endless celebration of the parties and their traditions - brought to viewers live by prime-time television.