Paris - The European Union and its current president France began work on Thursday on what has been hailed as the most important EU legal proposal in the last five years - a package aimed at fight
Brussels - The European Union's top officials reacted with delight at the Colombian military operation which Wednesday ended in the release of 15 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
"I have just learned with relief and joy of the release of the hostages taken by (Colombian guerrilla movement) FARC ... I congratulate all those who worked for their release," European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement in the early hours of Thursday.
"I am extremely relieved and very happy that Ingrid Betancourt's six-year nightmare as well as the captivity of three US citizens and 11 Colombian officials have finally come to an end," EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Washington - The United States and the European Union were near to completing a controversial agreement that would allow the exchange of a wide-array of private, personal data among law enforcement