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EU Strides Out with Call for Control over National Budgets

EU leaders called on Wednesday for Brussels to have power to rewrite national budgets to ensure the euro survives amid concerns that such discipline could clash with democracy.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels would have to be given the power to scrutinize national budgets and demand changes before they are adopted.

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London 2012 Olympic Torch Route Unveiled

The Olympic torch will visit famous sights such as Stonehenge on its journey around Britain before the London 2012 Games, organizers said on Monday.

The flame will also scale mountains, telescopes, take a ride on the train and a dash through a shopping center on its 70-day tour.

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Europe Reopens Greek Bailout Deal Amid Dire Crisis Warnings

European ministers embarked Saturday on overhauling a rescue package for Greece, ahead of crunch French-German talks to resolve a row over a crisis that threatens to cause global recession.

Amid dire warnings that the debt crisis is endangering all of Europe, ministers said that banks had to take a greater share of the pain in a rescue package agreed in July but already seen as insufficient to solve Greek woes.

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France Warned on Rating as EU Debt Hopes Dampened

France vowed Tuesday to do everything in its power to keep its triple-A rating following a warning from Moody's, as markets fell after Germany dampened hopes that an EU summit will resolve the Eurozone crisis.

Paris shares tumbled by as much as 2.01 percent early Tuesday after the Moody's warning, following earlier falls on Asian markets amid concerns over the spreading impact of the Eurozone's debt woes.

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Euro Fund Clears Key German Test, as Greece Awaits Audit

Europe's rescue fund cleared a major hurdle Thursday when German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to beef it up, boosting markets as attention turned to a key international audit of debt-mired Greece.

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic greeted the news with relief as Chancellor Angela Merkel survived a vote that proved a hard-fought test of her political authority as the world looks to her to defuse the euro debt crisis.

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Driverless Car Navigates Berlin Streets

It can talk, see, drive and no longer needs a human being to control it by remote. The car of the future — completely computer-controlled — is on the streets of Berlin.

All summer, researchers from the city's Free University have been testing the automobile around the German capital.

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German Police Detain Lebanese Terror Suspect in Bomb Plot

German police on Thursday detained a Lebanese-German and a Gazan suspected of obtaining potential ingredients for a bomb and searched an Islamic center where the pair had spent time.

The arrests came three days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and followed a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained "real and intensive."

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Fiat Boss Says Eurobonds only Solution to Debt Crisis

The head of Italian auto giant Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, said Wednesday that issuing Eurobonds is the only solution to the looming Eurozone debt crisis -- following Italy's lead on supporting the idea.

"I do not believe that there are any other solutions to the problem," he said on the sidelines of a conference in Rimini.

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Cars Torched in Berlin for Fourth Consecutive Night

At least 12 cars were torched in Berlin overnight Thursday to Friday, making it the fourth consecutive night such arson attacks have taken place, police said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock Thursday at these attacks, which officials attribute to apolitical vandalism.

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New Book Claims Coco Chanel was Nazi Spy

Coco Chanel: A fashion icon whose name has become shorthand for timeless French chic, a shrewd businesswoman who overcame a childhood of poverty to build a luxury supernova and ... a Nazi spy?

A new book by a Paris-based American historian suggests Chanel not only had a wartime affair with a German aristocrat and spy, but that she herself was also an agent of Germany's Abwehr military intelligence organization and a rabid anti-Semite.

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