European Union

Diplomats from European Union countries angered Cuba when they went Thursday to the home of a jailed dissident to express their concern about the case and what they view as government efforts to quell dissent. Cuba's government summoned ambassadors or charges d'affaires from the five countries whose diplomats made the visit -- Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Britain -- to say they had threatened recently renewed EU-Cuba dialogue. The diplomats met with the wife of physician Dariel "Darsi" Ferrer.

LONDON - With investor confidence draining away and the value of the euro plunging, Europe struggled anew Wednesday to come up with a united game plan to keep its currency union intact and its economies from collapsing. Competing visions embraced by the continent's political heavyweights, France and Germany, clashed at an informal summit of European Union leaders with little chance of reconciliation even as fears grew that Greece could be forced out of the Eurozone and into a chaotic default.

General Electric Co.'s last-minute proposal to European regulators to win approval of the company's $46-billion purchase of Honeywell International Inc. was rejected, sources familiar with the situation said Thursday. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti is poised to scuttle the transaction when the commission meets next week, a move that would mark the first time the European Union has acted alone to kill a merger. A rejection would be a blow to General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Welch, who delayed retirement to oversee the company's largest-ever acquisition.

Question: My wife and I recently returned from a nine-day trip to London, and we noticed that all the hotel staff was from non-British European countries and a few from countries in Africa. We also noticed that all the staff at the restaurants and some of the staff at the pubs where we ate and enjoyed their ales were from other European countries. Is this because these are jobs British workers do not want to do, or are there other reasons for this? Ben Juarez Los Angeles Answer: If you don't believe London is a world city, take a look at its restaurants.

European leaders were scrambling Friday to find a new path to a more powerful and manageable European Union after Irish voters rejected a treaty meant to bolster the alliance's government. The rejection threw into doubt nearly a decade of efforts to overcome widespread public skepticism and develop a European constitution. The reforms would create a powerful European presidency and diplomatic corps and improve cooperation on law enforcement and defense. Because the measure must be ratified by all 27 member states of the alliance, Ireland's rejection struck a potentially fatal blow.

Fourth-generation farmer Greg Massa was in the middle of the rice harvest and he was dirty, angry and depressed. The price of the gasoline that powers his water pumps and rice harvester has never been more expensive. A late planting season, hot summer and rising expenses had ensured a less-than-stellar harvest, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasting a 13% drop compared with last year.

Like an overladen container lorry laboring up a steep hill, the European Union is close to stalling. Greece is the most urgent part of this crisis. Between the fury on the streets of Athens and the continued disunity of decision-makers in Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg, the crunch could come any day. But it's not just Greece. In Ireland, Portugal and Spain too, the anger is boiling over, as people feel that the young, the poor and the unemployed are being forced to pay for the selfish improvidence of their politicians — and of the French and German bankers, who loaned profusely where they should not have loaned at all. Across the Continent, the legions of the indignados , as they are called in Spain, and the aganaktismenoi (the outraged)

Investor anticipation is building ahead of meetings in Europe on Thursday and Friday that are being billed as a possible turning point for the continent's bruising economic crisis. In advance of the emergency meetings among leaders from all European Union nations, French leader Nicholas Sarkozy and German leader Angela Merkel wrote a joint letter Wednesday saying that "steps need to be taken now without further delay. " Stock trading has nearly ground to a halt this week, with major stock indexes barely budging, as investors wait to see what Europe's next move is. Analysts and politicians warn that failing to stem the government debt crisis could put the future of the euro currency in doubt.

The EU gets it together Re "Cracks in EU effort to speak with one voice," Nov. 19 The derisive tone of your article on the European Union reminds me of similar commentary when the euro was introduced in 1999. It was largely lampooned by the American press, and some predicted its early demise. Initially introduced at $1.18 per euro, it now trades at about $1.50 and is threatening the dollar's supremacy as the reserve currency of the world. Yes, the European Union is proceeding in baby steps toward further integration, and the first president of the EU may not match the charisma of a Barack Obama or Tony Blair, but that is precisely what is needed at this point in time.

Only 16 months after shooting it down the first time, voters in Ireland have decisively approved a wide-ranging treaty to overhaul how the European Union is run and to give the 27-nation body a more forceful presence on the world stage, early returns showed today. And the biggest winner may turn out to be someone who couldn't even cast a ballot: former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is the hot favorite to become the EU's first president under the new system, which would vault him firmly back into the international limelight that he basks in. Returns in Ireland today, the day after voters went to the polls, showed the so-called Lisbon Treaty passing by a wide margin.

The European elections have concluded and the results are clear: Voters in France and Greece are a lot smarter than economic policymakers in the United States. Or at least they're a lot more attuned to the folly of relying on austerity as a tool of economic growth. If you've missed the weekend's headlines, French voters elected their first Socialist president since Francois Mitterand left office in 1995. The new president, Francois Hollande, won after promising to loosen the reins of economic austerity and impose more sacrifices on the rich.

The European Union's antitrust regulators have approved Sony Corp.'s $2.2-billion acquisition of EMI's publishing business, clearing a major hurdle in Sony's ambition to create the world's largest music publishing group with rights to about 2 million songs, including some by David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Pink. The deal announced Thursday still needs to clear U.S. regulators, who have historically been more lenient than their European counterparts. Nevertheless, antitrust experts cautioned against celebrating too soon.

  Syrian First Lady Asma Assad, a glamorous, British-born ex-banker once thought to be at the vanguard of change in her adopted land, was hit by European sanctions Friday after embarrassing reports about shopping sprees as her husband's forces were accused of killing civilians. The latest round of European Union sanctions against President Bashar Assad's inner circle came as demonstrators across the country marched to the slogan "Damascus, here we come. " The rallying cry signaled the opposition's intention to take its campaign to oust the president to the Syrian capital, largely insulated from the unrest sweeping the nation.

Stock markets rallied on Thursday as positive economic data on jobs and housing outweighed concerns about the European economy. The Dow Jones industrial average finished within sight of 13,000 points to close at its highest point since the 2008 financial crisis. The blue-chip index rose 46.24 points, or 0.4%, to 12,984.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.8 points, or 0.43%, to 1,363.46. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 23.81 points, or 0.8%, to 2,956.98.

Greece's precarious financial and political situation was shaken further Friday by a nationwide strike and a wave of Cabinet resignations over demands by the European Union for ever-deeper spending cuts. Four Cabinet members — two Socialists and two far-right conservatives — quit their posts in protest over the demands. Their exit forced Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to consider an urgent reshuffle to stanch the tide of defections before a crucial parliamentary vote on the austerity measures, scheduled for Sunday.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers is feeling like a bad dream today. The Dow Jones industrial average surged Friday morning, taking it past highs reached last year and up to the highest level since May 2008, before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and the economy went into the toilet. The Dow was recently up 139.64 points, or 1.1%, to 12,845.05. That brings it above the highs reached last  April and July, which were killed by concerns about a double-dip recession in the United States and a European financial collapse.

The European Union wants to become a more influential and higher-profile alliance, but its leaders picked a pair of relative unknowns Thursday to represent the continent on the international stage. Herman Van Rompuy, the prime minister of Belgium, is to become the EU's first full-time president on Jan. 1, filling a post aimed at helping strengthen and streamline the alliance. Known as an effective mediator and a composer of haiku, including a widely circulated poem on hair loss, Van Rompuy will move from one office to another in Brussels, the seat of both the Belgian government and EU headquarters.

The government welcomed a European Union decision to ease sanctions imposed on Nigeria three years ago to nudge the West African nation toward democracy. The 15-member EU's decision, which will take effect Sunday, lifts diplomatic and sporting sanctions but retains an embargo on arms sales and military cooperation. The move will allow Nigerian officials and their families to travel to EU nations, and high-level visits will be restored.

European leaders grappling with a stubborn debt crisis reaffirmed their commitment Monday to sign a new pact limiting public spending, but pledged also to spur growth and create jobs in an acknowledgment that austerity cuts alone will not pull the continent out of its economic funk. European Union officials said they would make special efforts to tackle youth unemployment, which has swelled to alarming levels in countries such as Spain. They promised to increase apprenticeships, remove impediments to further liberalize trade within the EU and dip into an untapped pot of more than $100 billion in development funds to launch new projects.