After snap elections marred by violence, Macedonian conservative leader Nikola Gruevski claimed overwhelming victory.

Based on a count of some 80 percent of the vote, Prime Minister Gruevski said his VMRO-DPMNE "For a Better Macednoia" coalition will have more than 60 mandates in the 120-seat parliament.

"This is an historic victory," said Gruevski in Skopje late Sunday, June 1. He promised improved ties to the EU and NATO.

Gruevski said he regretted the election violence that had led to death of one person and many injuries. Voting had to be stopped in 20 sites, mostly in minority-Albanian areas.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Graffiti artists played on violence theme

Gruevski said the vote should be repeated there.

EU accused of 'step back' in transparency - EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's transparency watchdog will today strongly criticise the European Commission's commitment to openness, saying its recent proposals on document access represent a "step backwards."

At a hearing in parliament on Monday afternoon (2 June) to discuss the proposed overhaul of public access to document rules, EU ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros will say: "The commission's proposals would mean access to fewer, not more, documents" and that the new code "ignores the lessons of the past."

The ombudsman, who oversees EU citizens' relations with the European institutions, has not been able to "identify any of the commission's proposals that would result in more documents being accessible than at present."

The criticism comes a month after the commission unveiled proposals to update a 2001 law on document transparency that has been subject to strong criticism by MEPs and NGOs for being too restrictive.

The majority of Turkish people today favour joining the EU despite worsening Franco-Turkish relations and a partial freeze on EU-Turkey accession talks.

Sixty two percent said they would vote "yes" to EU membership if there was a referendum, while 27 percent would vote "no," a May survey by Ankara's MetroPOLL research centre said.

 The "yes" vote was bolstered by political turmoil within Turkey, with the country's highest court currently threatening to ban the ruling, pro-EU, AKP party for breaking rules on secularism in state institutions.

Turkish support for the EU peaked at over two-thirds in late 2004. It declined after the opening of EU-Turkey accession talks in 2005, hitting lows of 30 percent in 2006, before creeping up to the 50 percent mark in late 2007.

"If it is constantly discussed in a general way whether Turkey belongs to Europe or not, then this will fuel Turkish people's feeling of not being wanted," Turkey's foreign minister, Ali Babacan, told German newspaper FAZ in an interview Sunday (1 June).

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government pressed for advanced French weapons Sunday, while France's top diplomat said French companies were private and free to make their own decisions about whether to do business in wartorn Iraq.

In a meeting with visiting Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "expressed Iraq's desire to supply its armed forces with advanced French weapons," according to a statement from his Baghdad office.

Kouchner, on a two-day trip to Iraq, said afterward that he supported increased cooperation between the two countries but could not force French companies to invest in Iraq.

"Unfortunately, French companies are private ones," Kouchner told reporters in Baghdad.

BRUSSELS: The European Union could hardly be hurt by a dose of ambition, leadership and a little brashness.

So along comes France next month, holders until 2009 of the EU's agenda-setting presidency, armed with the seeming requisites for putting Nicolas Sarkozy's mark on Europe and asserting French pre-eminence in steering its affairs.

How could the EU resist? Bland to the bone, some of its doubters say, Europe will find a way. Others see France already tangling its feet in the wires linking its own desire for the prestige of leadership with its difficulties in projecting French motives as open and selfless.

Traditionally, the rotating presidency of the EU has given its big countries a chance to assert their importance, or indispensability, as the motor of its destiny. They can try to do it through practical programs meant to create consensus and public appeal. A spritz of grandeur is not unwelcome.

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partners on Sunday accused her of a lack of leadership as internal tensions mount steadily ahead of national elections in 2009.

"The chancellor is not really present on the domestic front," the Social Democrats' parliamentary leader, Peter Struck, told Deutschlandfund radio.

"She does not lead, she does not step in," added Struck.

Struck and Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, also a Social Democrat, accused Merkel of portraying herself as a leader in the fight against climate change but allowing her Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) to hinder progress in that regard.

"She often makes strong statements at press conferences but does little to stop her own party blocking progress," said Struck.

AN Italian businessman who was helping police break organised crime gangs that operate waste disposal rackets in Naples was gunned down in an apparent mafia hit, police said.

The latest killing in the southern Italian city, which in recent months has become as famous for its piles of trash as for its reputation for crime, came on a day that thousands of people attended a rally against plans to open new rubbish dumps.

Police said Michele Orsi, a businessman with mafia links who had turned informant, was shot three times near his home by assailants who were lying in wait.

Orsi, who worked in the waste disposal business, had spent time in jail last year during an investigation into mafia involvement in the trade. He turned informant and gave evidence against a suspect at a court hearing two weeks ago.

"The case is even more serious than previous ones. This was a businessman from the Caserta area (of Naples) who, although he had colluded with organised crime, was helping investigations,'' said anti-mafia investigator Franco Roberti.

As world leaders gathered in Rome to discuss skyrocketing food costs, strikes among Europe's fishermen have tried to bring attention to high fuel prices which they say could destroy the industry.

Europe's fishermen say they have been left high and dry by increasing fuel costs. Since the beginning of 2008, marine fuel has jumped 30 percent.

French fishermen began launching work stoppages and blockades three weeks ago. Since then, fishermen in Italy, Spain and Portugal have also gone on strike. There have been calls for governments to abolish the tax on diesel to bring down the prices and for more subsidies.

In northern Spain, fishermen were in a dilemma. They can't continue to make a profit with high oil prices, but they also can't afford to stay home at the beginning of tuna season.

Tuna brings in 80 percent of the revenue, said Patxi Martinez, a local boat owner.

The right-wing SVP wanted to flex its muscles in a weekend referendum on immigration in Switzerland. Instead, the party's dramatic failure shows just how badly SVP figurehead Christoph Blocker miscalculated. The party could now be facing a slide to insignificance.

AP

Switzerland's alleged citizenship grab: A poster for a failed SVP proposal that would have allowed communities to vote on whether to allow foreign residents to become naturalized citizens.

Sunday was meant to be a triumph for the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) and its new role as an opposition party. The party wanted to show that it could pull voters away from its political opponents. The party wanted to demonstrate that Switzerland could not be governed against it. Furthermore, the SVP wanted to show that the country's political elite had made a mistake last December by joining forces to vote Christoph Blocher, the party's figurehead, out of his justice minister position. That's what Sunday was meant to be.

Instead, though, it was a dark day for Switzerland's strongest political party -- and a day that raised new questions about Blocher's decision to steer the party into the opposition.

Internet users in Norway and the UK are the most valuable to advertisers in Europe, worth more than three times as much as those in France and Italy, according to a report released on Monday.

A survey by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and PricewaterhouseCoopers found that an average of €133 (£104, $207) was spent on advertising for each web user in Norway, the highest in Europe, followed by €121 in the UK and €110 in Denmark. That compares to a European average of €81 per person online and a US average of €92.

Rob Noss, chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at MindShare Interaction, a digital advertising group owned by WPP, said that the report demonstrated that advertising budgets would move online as internet markets matured.

The UK attracts the bulk of European online advertising spend with 34.2 per cent of the total, followed by Germany with 22.3 per cent and France with 8.9 per cent. "The UK is punching considerably above its weight," said Mr Noss, given that broadband penetration of 57 per cent lagged some way behind the Netherlands and Norway, where 70-80 per cent of the population have high-speed connections, according to Mindshare's own figures.

A year after pitting herself against the world's leaders over climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed down and gone silent on key environmental policies. It seems that the one opponent she can't bear confronting is the German voter.

The German chancellor in Greenland: Once a hero to environmentalists worldwide, Angela Merkel is faltering badly on climate change policy.

This is the so-called "climate chancellor?" This woman who, at the International Transport Forum in Leipzig, spoke enthusiastically about the nearby air freight hub, economic growth and the transport of goods? Who suddenly seems awkward and at a loss for words when it comes time to talk about climate protection? Who has stopped offering answers on the subject and only asks questions, like: Does it make sense to subsidize electricity from renewable sources? Is it fair to expect the owners of older cars with high CO2 emissions to pay higher taxes?

Icelandic and Norwegian companies have begun exporting whalemeat to Japan.

About 60 tonnes of meat from fin whales caught in the 2006 Icelandic hunt was reportedly sent with a much smaller amount of minke meat from Norway.

Industry sources told the BBC that the meat had already arrived in Japan, although a Japanese official said no request to import it had been received.

Conservation groups say the trade will damage attempts to bridge the gap between pro- and anti-whaling nations.