BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A bill for mandatory logging of emails, phone calls and other electronic communications to combat terrorism and fraud will limit data storage to a year at most, the     European Commission said on Wednesday.
Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said a similar proposal put forward by four member states in 2004 wanted data to be stored for three to four years, which she said would impose a costly burden on phone and internet companies.
France, Ireland, the UK and Sweden made their proposal in April last year in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people. The seizure of phone records was credited with helping police make quick arrests.

Read More

By Noah Barkin
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac want other European Union countries to press on with ratifying the bloc's constitution, despite its rejection by French and Dutch voters.
The two leaders met in Berlin on Saturday to discuss their position ahead of an EU summit this month following the rejection of the constitution in separate referendums in France and Netherlands over the past week.

Read More