News stories by David Cronin, page 7

European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognised as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.

Rarely a week goes by without a problem of water scarcity hitting the headlines. The acute droughts in Kenya, Argentina and the U.S. state of California are among the latest phenomena to illustrate that the global environment has been dangerously degraded. And participants in the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, heard that the planet could be destined towards 'water bankruptcy'.

The intimate involvement of the private sector in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq received international attention in September 2007, when staff with the security firm Blackwater shot dead 17 civilians in the vicinity of Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

Brussels officials have rejected calls from three southern African governments for a reassessment of a new trade accord with the European Union.

Ever since the horror movie Jaws was released in 1975, sharks have been regarded as deadly creatures in the public imagination of many countries. The deep irony - as a senior European Union official stressed Feb. 5 - is that humans pose a far greater danger to sharks than vice-versa.

Ever since the horror movie Jaws was released in 1975, sharks have been regarded as deadly creatures in the public imagination of many countries. The deep irony - as a senior European Union official stressed Feb. 5 - is that humans pose a far greater danger to sharks than vice-versa.

A European Union body has cast strong doubts over efforts to boost police cooperation between the 27-country bloc and Israel.

Figures indicating how much the European Union should give to poor countries affected by climate change have been removed at the last minute from a new environmental blueprint published in Brussels Jan. 28.

Ireland's rejection of the European Union's Lisbon treaty has led Brussels officials to plan a major publicity campaign aimed at convincing voters that they should respond favourably to the bloc's economic, social and foreign policies.

Israel's refusal to allow civilians any exit route from Gaza as its defence forces rained bombs down on schools and houses appears unprecedented in modern warfare, a United Nations investigator has said.