Brussels, Dec. 5 : Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama, has said that if China wants to be seen as a super power in the 21st century, it has to first acquire and improve its moral authority.

Brussels  - European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet ruled out Thursday any moves to ease the tough rules for euro membership so as to help pave the way for nations wanting to join the common currency.

The euro has been enjoying a new-found popularity as a result of the financial firestorm that has swept through world markets this year.

In particular, this is because some nations outside the currency bloc have found their national currencies and capital markets under attack as the crisis unleashed by the US mortgage meltdown has taken hold.

Brussels - The 14th Dalai Lama called for "warm-heartedness" and mutual trust Thursday, and rejected claims that he is seeking to separate his homeland of Tibet from China, in a speech that received a standing ovation from the European Parliament in Brussels.

In a 20-minute address interspersed by pearls of wisdom, personal anecdotes, humour and applause, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people also said it was wrong to view worldwide support for his cause as being directed against the Chinese government.

Brussels, Dec. 4 : The challenges in war-torn Afghanistan are great and it is time for the allies involved in the global war against terror) “to do better”, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) said on Wednesday.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: “The challenges are great... the allies have to do better and we need extra troops (in Afghanistan) for stability, particularly during the elections scheduled for next year.”

Brussels - Standard Liege striker Milan Jovanivic is linked with a winter break move to a top club such as Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, according to Belgian news reports on Wednesday.

The Het Laatste Nieuws daily said that the German champions Munich were ready to splash out 10 million euros (12.6 million dollars) for the 27-year-old Serbian marksman, who has a contract at Staadard until 2010.

But Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann said on Wednesday that he "knows nothing" about such a plan.

Brussels - The European Union is to crack down on imports of foods which contain soya products and consignments of baking powder from China in a bid to stop food contaminated with the toxin melamine reaching Europe, officials in Brussels said Wednesday.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, "will take measures to ban the import from China of food for infants and young children containing soya and soya products, after high levels of melamine were recently found in Chinese soy bean meal," a statement said.