Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership during the Greece crisis has given her conservatives a chance of winning an absolute majority if an election were held next week, an opinion poll yesterday showed.

Angela Merkel was on track to win a third term as chancellor in a German election after her conservatives scored their best result in decades, but it was unclear whether she could avoid being forced into a coalition with her leftist rivals.

Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on track to win a third term in this weekend’s election in Germany but faced a battle to preserve her centre-right majority and avert a potentially divisive coalition with her arch rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The desecration of dozens of graves of Germans killed in the First World War and buried in a French cemetery clouded a historic meeting by the leaders of the two nations, who urged Europeans to set aside economic worries and deepen their union.

A Finn who helped mediate peace in Indonesia is tipped to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, while bookmakers favour a Turkish novelist for the literature award.

THIS week marked the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy.

Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill profiles the controversial Italian, Rocco Buttiglione.

POPE JOHN PAUL II and Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, are being given one of the most prestigious awards in Europe, the Charlemagne prize.

The Charlemagne Prize for European achievement, usually awarded to a single person, is to be awarded twice in 2004.