Greek officials have reacted angrily to a leaked German proposal for an EU budget commissioner with veto powers over Greek taxes and spending.

The Arab League has suspended its observer mission in Syria after an increase in violence in recent days. The observers will remain in the country until the league's council makes a decision on the mission's future.

Officials in Peru say a fire in a drug rehabilitation centre in a densely populated area of the nation's capital, Lima, has killed at least 26 people and injured 12 others.

President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will pull its forces out of Afghanistan a year earlier than planned, a week after the killing of four French servicemen by a renegade Afghan soldier.