European Union leaders today decided to personally punish Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko after an election widely seen as rigged – announcing “restrictions” against the authoritarian leader that would likely include a travel ban from Europe.

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds resigned today after she was accused of lying to the media about the shutting down of a far-right website that solicited cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

ENVIRONMENTALLY progressive Scandinavian nation Sweden has announced one of its most ambitious goals yet: to completely end its dependency on petroleum - and do it in the next 15 years.

Ukraine’s foreign minister warned yesterday that his country’s dispute with Russia over the price of natural gas supplies revealed the vulnerability of all of Europe.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei said today he thinks the US will need to give Iran a security guarantee before a final agreement can be reached regarding the country’s atomic programme.

IRELAND will argue against British proposals to reduce EU spending on rural development and cut money for the new member states at a special meeting in Brussels today.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told 160 world leaders at the UN summit they had little to be proud of.

WORLD leaders united yesterday to demand a global ban on incitement to terrorism but they fell short of ambitions for a fundamental reform of the United Nations at a summit on its 60th anniversary.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today urged other countries to offer help to the United States as it deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Saddam Hussein’s legal representatives today made an appeal to justice ministers in Sweden to consider staging the former dictator’s trial for crimes against humanity.

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson has expressed his concern about the wording of the proposed EU constitution.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is expected to face down European Commission president Romano Prodi over the issue of a two-speed Europe at their first official meeting in Dublin today.

IT will be another ten years before Sweden considers adopting the euro, Prime Minister Goran Persson said yesterday.

A SHOCKED Sweden pushed ahead with plans for a referendum on the euro yesterday despite the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh by a mystery knifeman.

WAR in Iraq may be convincing Swedes that a united Europe is needed, a bank said yesterday, as it published the first poll for weeks showing advocates of joining the euro zone ahead of their opponents.

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson is suing a pharmaceutical company after claiming it used his name commercially.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says the Government is ensuring that the strictest measures are in place to prevent the foot and mouth virus entering the Republic.

The Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson is in Ireland today for talks with the Taoiseach.