washingtonpost.com - Europe

Global Markets Fall Despite Reassurances

Craig Whitlock and Blaine Harden — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BERLIN, Oct. 10 -- Fear seized investors around the world Friday as stock markets dropped to levels not broached for several years. National leaders tried to intervene with reassurances and stopgap measures, to no avail.

Ex-President Of Finland Is Awarded Peace Prize

Edward Cody — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Oct. 10 -- Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president who has been a tireless mediator in conflicts around the world for more than three decades, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and expressed hope that the prize will help him raise funds for further peacemaking in hot spots...

Ex-President Of Finland Is Awarded Peace Prize

Edward Cody — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

NATO to Target Afghan Drug Lords Who Aid Taliban

Peter Finn — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BUDAPEST, Oct. 10 -- NATO defense ministers reached a compromise agreement Friday that allows forces operating in Afghanistan to target heroin networks funding the Taliban. The deal, viewed by the Pentagon as critical to beating back a resurgent Taliban, essentially allows some members of the...

Asian, European Stocks Plummet

Blaine Harden — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:24:59 EDT

TOKYO, Sept. 10 -- Punctuating its worst week in history, Japan's main stock index plummeted nearly 10 percent Friday, as a mid-size Japanese life insurance company went bankrupt and fear-driven selling drove markets down across Asia.

Gates Urges NATO to Take On Afghan Drug Traffickers

Peter Finn — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BUDAPEST, Oct. 9 -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on NATO allies Thursday to target Afghanistan's drug traffickers as part of a wider effort to confront a resurgent Taliban, which he said is using heroin money to fund the insurgency.

Financial Crisis Tests Limits of Unity Within the E.U.

Edward Cody — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Oct. 9 -- Three weeks ago, as the Bush administration struggled to salvage collapsing U.S. investment banks, European leaders calmly reassured their people. Banks on this side of the Atlantic are more wisely regulated, they said, and unlikely to succumb to the chaos on Wall Street.

'Nordic Tiger' Iceland Finds Itself in Meltdown

Keith B. Richburg — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Oct. 9 -- The bad news just keeps coming for Icelanders, who in the last week have seen the international financial empire that they built on this remote North Atlantic island start to crumble, piece by piece.

Europe's Stocks Plunge Despite Massive British Rescue Plan

Kevin Sullivan — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

LONDON, Oct. 8 -- Britain's mammoth new bank bailout plan, potentially nearly as large as the rescue package in the United States, failed to calm European investors Wednesday after its early morning emergency announcement. All over the continent, stocks dropped sharply again and even some of the ...

Gates Seeks European Troops for Afghanistan

Peter Finn — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

OHRID, Macedonia, Oct. 8 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday asked defense ministers from southeastern Europe to send more troops to Afghanistan, a message that he is likely to forcefully echo at a meeting with other NATO defense officials this week.

Gates Asks Europe to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

Peter Finn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:05:58 EDT

OHRID, Macedonia, Oct. 8 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday asked defense ministers from southeastern Europe to send more troops to Afghanistan, a message that he is likely to forcefully echo at a NATO summit this week.

3 Physicists Win Nobel Prize

Nelson Hernandez — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

An American and two Japanese physicists won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics yesterday for their discovery of tiny breaks in the symmetry of nature's fundamental particles that help explain why our universe exists and the rules that govern it.

In Visit to Kosovo, Gates Underlines U.S. Support

Peter Finn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Oct. 7 -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Kosovo on Tuesday and reiterated U.S. support for the newly independent state, which has failed to achieve the broad recognition it expected because of opposition from Russia and NATO allies such as Spain.

E.U. Seeks A Unified Approach To Crisis

Edward Cody — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Oct. 7 -- The European Union raised its guarantee on private savings from $27,200 to $68,000 Tuesday and pledged anew to increase coordination among its 27 member governments in containing an outbreak of bank failures threatening to crash the continent's financial system.

Europeans Put Hope In Farseeing Banker

Craig Whitlock — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:06:58 EDT

BRUSSELS, Oct. 7 -- With European lawmakers still bickering over how to respond to a string of bank failures and a fading economy, expectations are rising that a clairvoyant French banker will come to the rescue.

World's Stock Markets Plunge

Kevin Sullivan and Edward Cody — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

LONDON, Oct. 6 -- World stock markets suffered one of their worst days ever Monday amid fears that government responses to the global financial crisis, including the U.S. bailout and inconsistent moves by European leaders, would not be sufficient to prevent a worldwide recession.

Crisis Is Putting Brakes on Russia's Construction Boom

Philip P. Pan — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

MOSCOW, Oct. 6 -- Less than a year ago, one of Russia's wealthiest tycoons, along with the nation's powerful railways chief and the mayor of Moscow, unveiled plans to build a glittering new neighborhood of apartment towers, skyscrapers, schools, parks and shopping malls on a vast stretch of the c...

Germany Drafts Plan to Shield Banking Sector

Craig Whitlock — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BERLIN, Oct. 6 -- German lawmakers said Monday that they were drawing up a massive intervention plan to protect the country's financial system as Europe's biggest economy braced for the possibility of more bank failures.

Germany to Guarantee Private Bank Accounts

Craig Whitlock — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BERLIN, Oct. 5 -- Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Sunday that Germany would guarantee all private bank accounts in an attempt to calm depositors as officials tried to resurrect a failed bailout plan for a blue-chip lender.

Feeling the Pain As Irish Property Values Plummet

Mary Jordan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

SUTTON, Ireland -- Denis Finn spent about $4 million on a grand house in this pretty seaside town north of Dublin three years ago, but it was the mansion's grassy grounds where he saw the real money to be made.

No Joint European Strategy On Banks

Edward Cody — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Oct. 4 -- The leaders of Europe's four largest economic powers vowed Saturday to protect their banks from the continuing reverberations of the increasingly global financial crisis but could not agree on a common Europe-wide strategy.

Blast Kills 7 Russian Troops in S. Ossetia

Philip P. Pan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

MOSCOW, Oct. 3 -- A car bomb exploded outside Russia's military headquarters in South Ossetia on Friday, killing seven soldiers and two others in what leaders of the Kremlin-backed separatist region immediately described as a terrorist attack launched by Georgia.

U.S. Plans to Move Embassy in London to Enhance Security

Kevin Sullivan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

LONDON, Oct. 2 -- The U.S. government plans to build a new embassy near the River Thames, moving from historic Grosvenor Square, which has been associated with the United States since shortly after the nation was born in 1776.

European Leaders Split on Rescue Strategy

Edward Cody and Kevin Sullivan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Oct. 2 -- European governments struggled Thursday to find a joint strategy to contain a growing banking crisis before it collapses additional shaky institutions and inflicts further damage on credit-starved European economies.

Europe Beginning to Realize Its Lenders Share in the Blame

Craig Whitlock and Edward Cody — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BERLIN, Oct. 1 -- Europe moved to shore up more teetering banks Wednesday, as officials struggled to answer a basic question: How did their highly regulated banks, many of them state-owned, get suckered by the same speculative investments that have flattened Wall Street?

Somalia Embraces Foreign Assistance Against Pirates

Ellen Knickmeyer — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

CAIRO, Oct. 1 -- With U.S. warships offshore and a Russian missile frigate on the way, Somalia's president, Abdullahi Yusuf, said Wednesday that he welcomed international intervention against Somali pirates roaming a main East-West shipping route.

E.U. Monitors Begin Mission in Georgia, Meet No Resistance

Matt Siegel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

KARALETI, Georgia, Oct. 1 -- European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory Wednesday, and Russian troops allowed some of them into a buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia, despite earlier warnings from Moscow that they would be blocked.

Russia's Last Czar Exonerated By Court

Philip P. Pan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

MOSCOW, Oct. 1 -- Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday recognized the nation's last czar, Nicholas II, and his family as victims of "groundless repression," formally rehabilitating the Romanovs more than 90 years after their execution in a basement in the eastern Urals signaled the Soviet embrace of...

Financial Hubs See an Opening Up at the Top

Ariana Eunjung Cha — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

SHANGHAI -- Looking down from his building's 87th floor at the glittering signs of multinational banks along the river here, Fan Dizhao declared confidently that Wall Street's reign as the world's No. 1 financial hub is coming to an end.

Global Bankers Anxiously Watch U.S.

Craig Whitlock and Mary Jordan — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

BERLIN, Sept. 30 -- Central bankers and elected leaders around the world acknowledged Tuesday that they lacked a comprehensive strategy to protect their countries from the global financial crisis and were as dependent as ever on Washington to come up with a solution.

As Contagion Spreads, Moods Abruptly Shift

Edward Cody and Mary Jordan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

PARIS, Sept. 29 -- The turmoil that began on Wall Street now spans the globe.

U.S. Navy Bolsters Watch Over Ship Seized by Somali Pirates

Ellen Knickmeyer — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

CAIRO, Sept. 29 -- The U.S. Navy on Monday strengthened its force of warships standing watch over a hijacked Ukrainian-operated vessel off Somalia, intent on ensuring that the pirates holding the vessel do not unload its cargo of 33 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks and other arms, a U.S. Navy spokesman...

Fall of Britain's Flamboyant Financiers Fuels a Debate About Greed

Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

LONDON -- Ilchester Place screams wealth, from the towering brick townhouses to the Rolls-Royce and Bentley parked next to lovely stone curbs.

Low-Profile U.N. Chief Struggles as Diplomatic Peacemaker

Colum Lynch — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

UNITED NATIONS -- In the days after Georgian and Russian troops marched into the separatist province of South Ossetia, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon frantically telephoned key leaders and offered the United Nations' diplomatic help in stemming further violence. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev...