The crest of the flooded Danube River is expected to reach Budapest late today but defences should keep the water out of most of the capital, according to Hungarian officials.

More than 70,000 firefighters and 11,000 soldiers are on duty fighting the most dramatic floods in Germany in more than a decade.

Shukri Ghanem, a former Libyan premier and oil minister who abandoned Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to support the rebels, has been found dead in a section of the Danube river flowing through Vienna, Austria.

At least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in Serbia’s mountains, authorities announced, as the death toll from Eastern Europe’s week-long deep freeze rose to 122.

A 97-year-old man has been cleared of war crimes charges stemming from a raid by Hungarian forces in Serbia during the Second World War.

A 97-YEAR-OLD Hungarian has gone on trial for war crimes over his role in the 1942 killings of civilians in Serbia.

A 97-year-old Hungarian man has gone on trial for war crimes over his role in the 1942 killings of civilians in Serbia.

EVERYONE curses the taxman, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time yesterday were using cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government.

Everyone curses the taxman, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time are planning to use cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government today.

THE wall of a reservoir filled with caustic red sludge will inevitably collapse and unleash a new deluge of red sludge that could flow about 1 kilometre to the north, a Hungarian official said yesterday.

The wall of a reservoir filled with caustic red sludge will inevitably collapse and unleash a new deluge that could flow about a half-mile to the north, a Hungarian official said today.

Emergency workers and construction crews in Hungary were today struggling to clear roads and homes hit by a spill of toxic red sludge.

A masked gunman shot dead a school head and a teacher in a Budapest neighbourhood.

A masked gunman shot and killed two teachers – one the headteacher – at a school tonight, Hungarian police said.

The German Interior Ministry today said the Islamic Jihad Union militant group has taken responsibility for planning foiled terror bombings in Germany, adding that the US air base at Ramstein was a target as well as US and Uzbek consulates in Germany.

Serbian police will step up the fight against sects following an apparent ritual killing of a boy and his uncle, the Interior Minister said today.

A man was arrested today after claiming he killed a five-year-old boy and his uncle and dismembered them in a satanic ritual, Serbian police said.

A planned Rolling Stones concert in Belgrade will not take place at the Serbian city’s racetrack to avoid upsetting hundreds of horses stabled nearby, concert organisers said today.

MAYBE the unusually mild winter in Brussels explains the European Commission’s new obsession with global warming.

Police dispersed the last of the thousands of demonstrators who clashed with officers in Hungary’s capital Budapest during commemorations on the anniversary of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters who later hijacked two unarmed tanks in violence that marred the 50th anniversary of Hungary’s uprising against Soviet rule.

Eleven people were killed and three are still missing in flash floods that hit northern and eastern Romania, submerging roads, farms and houses.

THOUSANDS of Romanians who fled areas flooded by the Danube River have warned they face dwindling food supplies in crowded tent communities.

THOUSANDS of Romanians who fled areas flooded by the Danube River have warned they face dwindling food supplies in crowded tent communities.

Thousands of Romanians who fled areas flooded by the Danube River are now facing crowded conditions in tent communities and dwindling food supplies, residents and volunteers told reporters.

THE Danube river broke through flood defences in southeastern Europe yesterday, driving thousands of people from their homes along its banks in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, officials said.

Floods threatened cities and fertile lands across Serbia, and record water levels in one of Europe’s longest rivers surged downstream toward neighbouring Romania and Bulgaria on today.

A swan found dead in eastern Croatia tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, authorities said today – bringing to three the number of regions in Croatia where the deadly virus has been detected since October.

Serbia’s agriculture ministry said today that initial tests conducted on a wild swan found in northwestern Serbia revealed that it had died of the H5 strain of bird flu.

A woman was arrested today over the grisly killing of her 21-year-old daughter, whose charred body – its head and hands chopped off – was fished out of the Danube River earlier this month, Austrian authorities said.

Four hens discovered dead in a remote Romanian village in the Danube Delta have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the government said today.

Romania’s agriculture minister said today that no new cases of bird flu were discovered in tests on 400 more birds from the country’s Danube Delta region.

Brienz at the foot of the picturesque Bernese Alps in Switzerland – normally packed with tourists and hikers at this time of year – is instead coated with mud and debris today after days of devastating flooding.

President George Bush said he had a “very important and constructive” summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, and that the two leaders agreed Iran and North Korea should not acquire nuclear weapons.

THE TRIAL of eight Serbs accused of committing war crimes during vicious fighting for the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991 opens today in a special Serbian court.

Romanian authorities are investigating the mysterious deaths of 48 dolphins that washed up on the shores of the Black Sea, police said today.

FLOODING spread through eastern Germany yesterday, threatening to add to the misery of tens of thousands forced from their homes as the country faced its biggest relief effort since World War II.

Floods spread through eastern Germany today, adding to the misery of tens of thousands of people forced from their homes as the country faced its biggest relief effort since the Second World War.

Czechs snaked along police barriers and crowded on to riverfront lookout points to watch the waters of the muddy Vltava River recede after some of Europe's most deadly flooding in decades.

Danica Kirka, Prague

Firefighters and volunteers fought back river waters today as unprecedented flooding threatened Prague's historic Old Town and killed at least 95 people across Europe.

Police cordoned off Prague’s Old Town today and ordered residents to evacuate as emergency workers tried to save the historic district.

Czech police have evacuated the Old Town of Prague due to the fears of flooding.

As many as 40,000 residents fled low-lying parts of Prague before dawn today, hours before the worst flood in more than 100 years was expected to hit the Czech capital.