Hungarian disaster management spokesman Dr Attila Nyikos says a large scale clean-up is under way

Hungary says it will cost tens of millions of dollars and take at least a year to clean up the damage caused by a spill of toxic, red industrial sludge.

Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube

A state of emergency has been declared in three western counties after the chemical waste burst from a reservoir.

Four people are known to have died, and 120 were injured. Six more are missing.

At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep.

Is Europe the next place set for Chinese `colonisation'? Some say it's already happening, in Greece. But acccording to analysts, that's overstating the case - though Europe does need to stay alert.

While the main bone of contention for China and the European Union at their Brussels summit this week will be China's currency, the yuan and its value  - an issue that may not be directly addressed is that of Greece and fears about China moving in there as a 'coloniser'.

China is making huge investments in Greek ports and railways, and even wants to buy up Greek government bonds. Greek trade unions are up in arms. Chinese investors are taking over the port of Piraeus, Athens, while the Greek docks are losing more and more customers. China wants to bring its products into Europe via its own container port, as former RNW correspondent Garrie van Pinxteren warned some time ago.  

The last obstacle to a rightwing coalition is removed as Christian Democrat dissidents back down, Geert Wilders' trial goes ahead despite "unfortunate" remarks by the judge, and the Netherlands braces for a frog invasion.

No more talking - it's testosterone time
"The time for talking is over, the time for action has arrived," populist De Telegraaf announces dramatically. All the papers lead with the news that the two Christian Democrat "dissidents" Ad Koppejan and Kathleen Ferrier have finally agreed to toe the party line, removing the final obstacle to a VVD-CDA coalition resting on the parliamentary support of Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party.

"It is my conviction that we will be giving up a core value of our party if we agree to this government construction." That was what Kathleen Ferrier said at the CDA conference on Saturday - and just to rub it in, nrc.next blows up this quote to fill its entire front page. Three days later the Christian Democrat MP, daughter of the first president of Suriname after the former Dutch colony became independent, has agreed to "not to block the formation" of the cabinet.

Nrc.next also gleefully reminds us of fellow dissident Ad Koppejan's Saturday speech: "In a divided country, we mustn't give Wilders a platform with this construction to preach his message of hatred against Islam." He now explains that "our objections stand", AD reports, and the two dissidents will "judge it on its actions". They say they'll be keeping a critical eye on the government's every move, particularly when it comes to immigration and integration policy. "So they should," comments Geert Wilders, "they're paid to do that."

The upshot is that the opposition is "increasingly cynical about the cabinet's stability," says Trouw. The coalition will already have to look elsewhere for support on policies that aren't to Mr Wilders' taste - anything to do with the European Union for example. But now, with its flimsy one-seat majority, it will have to turn to the right-wing orthodox protestant SGP for support when it comes to Mr Wilders' beloved tough measures on immigration.

Despite all the controversy, the papers are unanimous. By the middle of next week, the Netherlands will have Mark Rutte as its new prime minister, at the head of what Trouw describes a "rightwing, testosterone cabinet".

France has urged citizens travelling to Britain to be "extremely vigilant" amid raised fears of a terror attack there.

The French government said it was now "highly likely" public transport and tourist sites in the UK would be hit.

The warning followed revelations that a UK terror suspect killed in Pakistan was being groomed to lead a new group in raids on the UK, France and Germany.

On Sunday Britain raised its terror alert level from general to high for travellers to Germany and France.

In the controversial Roma affair, the European Union's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, has announced that Brussels has begun legal proceedings against France over European rules on freedom of movement.

Reding said in Brussels: "The European Commission has decided today to begin an infraction procedure against France. As guardian of the Treaties, the European Commission is determined to make European legislation respected."

The separate matter of ethnic targeting allegations in France's expulsion of Roma migrants is not being pursued for the time being.

France's Immigration Minister Eric Besson said in the National Assembly: "This is far from being an affront against France, on the contrary. Firstly, the most important point in the Commission's view is that there has not been discrimination. Its action only concerns the dismantling of the illegal camps, where, like the renditions to the borders, there was no discrimination."

Most of the press has described Europe's labor demonstrations and strikes on Wednesday in terms of the familiar exercise by transport employees irritating travelers with work slowdowns, and large throngs letting off steam by setting fires. But the story goes much deeper than merely a reaction against unemployment and economic recession. At issue are proposals to drastically change the laws and structure of how European society will function for the next generation. If the anti-labor forces succeed, they will break up Europe, destroy the internal market, and render that continent a backwater. This is how serious the financial coup d'etat has become. And it is going to get much worse - quickly. As John Monks, head of the European Trade Union Confederation, put it: "This is the start of the fight, not the end."

The CIA used a secret prison in Poland to detain and torture its most important 9/11 suspect, a former top human rights official alleges in a new BBC documentary.

On 7 March 2003 a CIA Gulfstream Jet landed at a remote airstrip in north-eastern Poland. Human rights officials and campaigners are convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the most senior al-Qaeda suspects, was on board.

American agents took him to a secret facility where, he says, he was tortured before being eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

The Treasury is working on plans to "reprofile" spending cuts next April, spreading the pain of deficit reduction more evenly over the next few years, senior Whitehall officials have told the Financial Times.

Confronted with the difficulties of quickly cutting spending - including financial penalties for breaking contracts and redundancy costs - ministers have been forced to consider delaying some of the big savings until later in this parliament.
...
The Treasury insisted there was absolutely no change in the government's economic strategy of eliminating the current structural deficit within a parliament, which David Cameron reiterated in his speech to the Conservative party conference on Wednesday.

But it would not confirm that the spending review on October 20 would maintain the £23bn spending cuts in 2011-12, rising to £83bn a year cuts by 2014-15. This week it has already become clear that many of the cuts will be difficult to start in 2011-12.

Can parliament still be sovereign if, as the courts have consistently ruled, European Union law is supreme over national law? Legally, the answer is surprisingly simple: it can be, and is. Yet the question nags at Eurosceptic Conservatives, and the coalition agreement committed the government to "examine the case" for legislation that makes it clear that ultimate authority over British law remains in Britain.

But they've not taken long to examine it. The foreign secretary, William Hague, announced yesterday in Birmingham that an EU bill to be put before the Commons later this year will contain a clause intended to "reaffirm once and for all the sovereignty of our ancient parliament". His case for doing so, though, does not bear even brief examination.