European Union leaders agreed the framework of a new long-term budget on Friday after 15 hours of through-the-night negotiation, laying the ground for 960 billion euros of spending on agriculture, aid and scientific research in the years ahead. The agreement, which EU officials said would only be finalised later on Friday, strikes a tight balance between the demands of northern European countries such as Britain and the Netherlands that wanted a belt-tightening budget, and countries in the south and east such as France and Poland that wanted spending on farming subsidies and much-needed infrastructure. "We feel ... (full story)