Europe

A fossil jawbone, rudimentary tools and animal skeletons from a cave in Spain extend the earliest occupation of Europe by human ancestors back to as much as 1.3 million years ago, half a million years earlier than previously believed, researchers reported Wednesday. The findings suggest that early hominids swept out of Africa, through the Near East and into Europe much more rapidly than previously believed, said Spanish researchers who reported the find in the journal Nature.

From the world's poorest corners to its most prosperous, people are facing much higher prices for food. Increases are driven by the high cost of energy to grow and transport crops, poor harvests in major exporting countries such as Australia, increased demand in developing nations including China and India, and a rush to produce biofuels. High prices and shortages have led to violent protests and political turmoil.

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin failed Sunday to overcome their greatest conflicts on a missile defense system the United States plans to build in Central Europe but narrowed difference over one key element.

For a decade, the French author and comic Phil Marso has been fighting a losing battle against the ubiquity of jangling mobile phones. He even tried to promote a cellphone-free day in February titled "A Day without blah blah." Not that anybody noticed. Monsieur Marso, fasten your seat belt. The European Commission just issued new rules that pave the way for in-flight mobile phone use across Europe.

World champion Italy and 2006 World Cup runner-up France launch their European Championship quests today when they play the Netherlands and Romania, respectively. The Italians and the Dutch, two of the top teams in the 16-nation tournament being jointly staged by Austria and Switzerland, should provide one of the event's early highlights. Both are attack-minded teams and both feature some of soccer's premier players.

Barack Obama's trip to Europe and the Middle East, seen as crucial to burnish his foreign policy bona fides, will play out before big audiences. All three television network anchors plan to interview the Democratic presidential candidate during the tour. Political analysts see the combined audience of 20 million as a potential boon to Obama, but also a bust if he makes any major missteps.

On his trip to the Middle East and Europe, Barack Obama hopes to reassure Americans that he has the foreign-policy expertise to keep the nation safe. Images beamed back from Jerusalem, Berlin and other cities next week will show him meeting heads of state with all the formal trappings of summitry. If the all-but-certain Democratic nominee avoids mistakes, the intense news coverage -- three network anchors will accompany him -- could ease voter doubts.

Barack Obama's electoral rival is John McCain, but Obama's overseas trip this week has given heartburn to another Republican -- President Bush. In stop after stop across the Middle East and Europe, Obama was embraced as the man whose promise of change meant a change from Bush: on Iraq, Mideast peace, the treatment of terrorism suspects, climate change, alliance relations and more. The tour has brought into focus how world leaders already are positioning themselves for a new American president.

It's a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street. The finance minister of Italy's conservative and pro-U.S. government warned of nothing less than a systemic breakdown.

As the $700-billion U.S. financial system bailout gets underway, Europe is struggling to contain its own banking turmoil. After European leaders failed to agree Saturday on a comprehensive plan to deal with rising bad loans and crumbling banks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that the government would guarantee all personal bank deposits -- a bid to prevent a meltdown of consumer confidence.