Strasbourg, France- The European Court of Human Rights Thursday ordered Russia to pay 10,000 euros (15,800) dollars in compensation to an army recruit who collapsed while performing 370 knee-bends.

The Strasbourg-based court found the 26-year-old suffered long- term damage to his health as a result of harsh physical training that amounted to cruel and inhuman treatment.

In 2001, the recruit was ordered to perform the knee-bends as punishment for failing to clean his dormitory properly. A doctor who was called in to treat him after he collapsed, diagnosed a spinal injury, which left him with a limp.

Paris - France is to buy a

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

Paris - The top-ranking French Army officer, Gen

Paris - France assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union on Tuesday under the cloud of the refusal by Polish President Lech Kaczynski to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.

San Francisco  - Online auction giant eBay said Monday that it plans to appeal a French court ruling to pay 40 million euros for internet sales of counterfeit goods.