Thousands of neo-Nazis and their opponents gathered in Dresden on Saturday on the 65th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of the city.

 

Police spokesman Thomas Geithner said up to 7,000 far-right supporters from around Europe are expected at what organizers have called a "mourning march." By noon, about 1,000 had already turned up.

 

Twice as many left-wing opponents have organized rallies of their own in an attempt to block the rightist march.

 

"This year we are going to stop the Nazis," said Katja Kipping, deputy leader of the Left Party, at an anti-fascist protest in the city center.

 

Around 4,000 police, armed with water cannons and backed by five helicopters circling overheard, are in place to prevent clashes between the two groups.

 

Failed attempt to ban the march

 

The right-wing march is organized by a group known as the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland (Young National Association of East Germany), or JLO, which is supported by Germany's right-wing party, the NPD.

 

German neo-Nazis claim the carpet bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II was a war crime and have been holding rallies since the 1990s to protest what they call the "bombing Holocaust."

Germany's environment minister said that no efforts should be wasted to replace nuclear technology as fast as possible, but German states with atomic power facilities are pushing for a 20-year delay.  

The conservative regional environment ministers from the states of Bavaria, Baden Wuerttemberg and Hesse said in a joint press conference on Friday, February 12, that Germany will need nuclear power for considerably longer before renewable energies are ready to viably replace the technology.

"We don't think that [Environment Minister] Norbert Roettgen's sums add up," said regional Environment Minister Tanya Goenner.

In an interview with the daily paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this week, Roettgen advocated extending the already limited running times of German nuclear power plants by a further eight years.

This would mean German atomic energy plants should shut down 40 years after they started operating, a deadline ranging between 2015 and 2029 for various plants across the country. Roettgen, however, also said that safety issues could lead to changes in the dates of disassembly.

The eurozone's economic recovery faltered late last year as a strong performance by France failed to offset stagnation in Germany and contraction in Italy and Spain.

Gross domestic product in the 16-country region crept just 0.1 per cent higher in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three months, reported Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office. That meant the eurozone was left behind by the US, which expanded 1.4 per cent in the same period.

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Turkey's trilateral diplomacy brings tangible results. Serbia approves BiH's ambassador to Belgrade after a three-year diplomatic row.

Serbia has fully normalised diplomatic relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), announcing the decision Tuesday (February 9th) after the fifth round of trilateral talks initiated by Turkey last October.

"I can confirm ... that Serbia did give official agreement to the ambassador to come to Belgrade and represent Bosnia and Herzegovina," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said at a joint conference with his Bosnian and Turkish counterparts in Ankara on Tuesday.

"We've overcome the problems," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. "Bosnia will soon assign an ambassador to Belgrade."

Added Davutoglu: "We want to solve all disputes in the Balkans through diplomatic means and reach for regional prosperity and stability."

The Dutch government has lifted its reservations to the EU starting negotiations with Croatia on a crucial area of membership talks, after authorities in Zagreb set up a taskforce to find documents needed for the UN's prosecution of Croatian generals indicted for war crimes.

The UK, Denmark, Finland and Belgium dropped similar reservations earlier this month, leaving the Netherlands the last EU member state to block chapter 23 of the accession negotiations, on the judiciary and fundamental rights,

Chapter 23 had been blocked because a United Nations war-crimes court in The Hague was unhappy with the co-operation forthcoming from Zagreb.

In Sunday's presidential election, Ukraine changed colours from orange, to the blue colour of its victor - or as a disappointed supporter of Premier Yulia Timoshenko put it - `Instead of a sweet orange, we got a bitter lemon'.

For many, this was a bitter choice between two evils.

On the one hand Viktor Yanukovich, who in collusion with Moscow attempted to wrest the presidency through electoral cheating in 2004. On the other, Yulia Timoshenko, the heroine of the Orange Revolution, which curbed Yanukovich at the time.

Since then, she has been disappointing in the expectations raised during the happy days of the revolution. Instead of honouring all the promises, she and outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko have been embroiled in a laborious power battle. And as head of government, she has by no means displayed what is necessary to relieve Ukraine's position as the European country hardest hit by the economic crisis.

Moscow beat the EU
One could ask if the Orange Revolution is now dead. The answer is a resounding `No'.

Silvio Berlusconi has said that while illegal immigrants were not welcome in Italy he would make an exception for "beautiful girls".

The Italian prime minister, who is renowned for making jokes of questionable taste, was speaking to journalists after holding talks with the prime minister of Albania, Sali Berisha.

Mr Berlusconi, 73, said an accord between Italy and Albania had successfully clamped down on the trafficking of illegal immigrants across the Adriatic Sea by people smugglers.

He then joked: "I said to Sali - we'd make exceptions for anyone bringing over beautiful girls." Mr Berlusconi, whose wife is divorcing him for his alleged philandering, also joked with female Albanian journalists: "You know I'm single now."

The Conservative lead has hardened at a level that would only just give David Cameron a majority, according to a ComRes poll for tomorrow's Independent on Sunday.

Conservative      40% (+2)
Labour                 29% (-2)
Lib Dem               21% (+2)
Others               &nbs p;   10% (-2)
(Changes since ComRes for The Independent, 2 February.)

The 11-point Tory lead would give Cameron an 18-seat majority according to Martin Baxter, but leave him three seats short according to the House of Commons Library (pdf: page xviii).

Ein Schweizer Parlamentarier hat im Steuerdatenstreit mit der Veröffentlichung der Konten deutscher Amtsträger gedroht. Nationalrat Alfred Heer von der rechtskonservativen SVP sagte der "Bild"-Zeitung: "Falls Deutschland gestohlene Bankdaten kauft, werden wir auf eine Gesetzesänderung hinarbeiten, dass sämtliche Schweizer Konten von deutschen Personen, die öffentliche Ämter bekleiden, offengelegt werden müssen."

In Schweizer Finanzkreisen gebe es Hinweise, dass viele deutsche Politiker und Richter in Liechtenstein und der Schweiz Konten oder Stiftungen unterhielten. "Die ersten Informationen darüber werden uns schon angeboten", sagte Heer dem Blatt. Heer ist SVP-Chef im Kanton Zürich und Präsident des Schweizer Steuerzahlerbunds.

A fast translation below:

A Swiss parliamentarian threatened in the tax data controversy with the publication of the accounts of German office-holders. National council Alfred Heer of the right-conservative SVP said to " Bild" - Newspaper: " If Germany buys stolen bank data, we will work on a law change that all Swiss accounts  by German persons, who occupy public offices must be revealed." In Swiss financial circles hints are given that many German politicians and judges maintained accounts or foundations in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. " The first information about it have already been offered to us; , Heer said to the Newspaper. Heer is a SVP boss in the canton of Zurich and president Swiss of the taxpayer federation.