Health & society 

MEPs oppose football quotas

European Parliament backs report that opposes quotas on foreign footballers but stresses need to nurture local talent.

A brave new era for GM crops?

A short conversation over coffee did not give the European Union's policy on genetically modified (GM) crops a new lease of life. Nevertheless, some [...]

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Lifestyle 

The very model of a modern EU orchestra

MEPs want tax break for voluntary groups

Report argues that economic and social value of volunteering justifies additional funding and exemption from VAT.

Comment 

Winning gold medals for hypocrisy

There was a tell-tale edge of hysteria to Beijing's denunciation of a British newspaper editorial which last week (23 March) compared the Chinese regime to the Nazis and the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Games in Nuremberg.

Europe's ‘parallel' civil service?

A thorough evaluation of existing decentralised agencies and inter-institutional dialogue will help answer the question of how to organise European administration.

An angel and the devil in hell on earth

Timur's first memory was the sound of Russian bombs smashing Grozny. At age one his father, a Chechen resistance fighter, was killed in a rocket attack. At age three his mother died. At age five, when the second Chechen war started, he and his grandparents lived in a cellar for months to hide from the bombardment. At age seven he was sent back to Grozny to live with an uncle, where he and a long-lost half-sister were savagely abused and forced to beg on the streets. At age 11 Timur ran away to live in a rubbish dump, strangling pigeons for food. Eventually he was taken in by Hadijat, a local woman who with her husband runs an unofficial home for Chechnya's lost children. Locals know her simply as “the angel of Grozny”.

Business 

Spain facing court over Endesa case

European Commission threatening to take Madrid to the European Court of Justice.

US, EU begin fresh ‘open skies' talks

Second phase of liberalisation talks focuses on mergers and aligning rules governing the US and EU aviation markets.

Do manufacturers lack drive for greener cars?

A UK expert on greener vehicles has no sympathy for foot-dragging carmakers.