News stories by David Cronin, page 6

Although the links between tax evasion and global poverty are officially recognised, the European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the European Union (EU), has no qualms financing banks known to stash away money in tax havens.

French arms sales to Israel are 'in total contradiction' of European Union rules on the defence industry, the author of a new study has said.

A founding member of Hamas says he hates all weapons and insists that his organisation is not anti-Jewish.

Gazans have a colloquial term to describe the buzzing of Israeli warplanes that is an ever-present feature of their lives: zanana.

A report published Friday by a United Nations agency has warned that the problems facing the people of Silwan, who are facing eviction from their homes, are replicated throughout East Jerusalem.

Peter Sutherland, chairman of British Petroleum, never realised his goal of becoming president of the European Commission. Back in 1994, Britain recommended him for that post – at a time he was director-general of the World Trade Organisation - yet he failed to secure the crucial backing of the government in his native Ireland.

European Union officials are seeking evidence to support claims that fruit and vegetables from Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are being exported under false pretence.

Faced with a crisis that sent shockwaves through the markets and continues to cause immense pain in the real economy, the European Commission charged eight bankers and economists with drafting a blueprint for how financial regulation should be approached in the future. It might seem odd, then, that all members of this panel, which presented the results of its discussions this week, have displayed an aversion to regulation in the past.

Food should be treated differently to other economic goods during international trade talks, a new United Nations report has recommended.

Sixty of the remaining detainees in Guantanamo Bay should be given new homes in the European Union, human rights campaigners have urged.