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Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
by soj
Mon Oct 24th, 2005 at 04:16:17 AM EST
Welcome to the "Euro PDB", a briefing paper on today's events affecting Europe and European interests.
Today's big stories... the British Foreign Secretary meets some colorful inhabitants of Alabama... Poland has a new president... and European powers battle over the budget...
In English
The World Health Organization says the planet needs to spend "several hundred million dollars" to prepare for the bird flu. I've written a full-length article on the bird flu before, which you can find here. This particular disease is gaining attention after cases in my home of Romania and now a parrot death in Britain. The relatively "good" news here is that extremely fatal diseases usually spread a lot more quickly than the H5N1. The "bad" news is that more slowly-spreading diseases tend to survive longer in human populations.
I wrote a full-length article about the Hariri Report and now I see that Lebanese officials have arrested a prominent Sunni cleric, Mahmoud Abdel-Al, for being mentioned as connected to the Hariri assassination in February. However Syria hasn't let the report scare them any:
In Damascus, George Jabbour, a Syrian member of parliament who is close to the government, told the Financial Times that Russia and China had given assurances that they would block punitive measures at the Security Council.
Speaking of Lebanon, over the weekend a gun battle broke out in the country's largest refugee camp for Palestinians, Ain el-Hilweh. The battle was apparently between two different Lebanese groups although details are not clear, other than that four people were injured.
The mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski, has won the presidential elections in Poland. The real question is whether or not his twin brother will become the Prime Minister. Although Kaczynski is fairly progressive for Polish politics, he is perhaps more famously known internationally for having twice banned gay pride parades in Warsaw.
It looks like the Invincible Taliban are up to their old tricks, killing 9 police officers in Helmand Province and a journalist in Khost Province, Afghanistan over the weekend. Meanwhile an earthquake hit Patika Province, killing five people. The government is expected to blame "anti-government" forces for the quake.
Silly old Egypt is calling for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel of course says "thanks but no thanks". Meanwhile North Korea is saying the U.S. has "double standards" based on the same issue (official gov't statement). Don't they know that the rules don't apply to Israel?
Meanwhile in poor old forgotten Darfur, Sudan, the fighting continues with the situation getting so out of control the UN is saying it may be forced to halt all operations.
In Britain, the family of Charles de Menezes arrived from Brazil and have refused to take the government's money and shut up about how their son was gunned down in the Stockwell tube station by unnamed police officers on July 22.
Good news for Armenia as Iran has agreed to finish construction of a major new power plant. This is also good for regional relations as the two countries often do not get along. Armenia is almost entirely dependent on its power needs from a single nuclear power plant, so this is good news indeed.
More trouble in fun-lovin' Azerbaijan as a fourth high-ranking government official, Chief of Presidential Affairs Akif Muradverdiyev, has been arrested. I wrote a longer article on the situation here.
The European emperor of Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, has announced his puppet forces have arrested three men on unspecified terrorist charges, supposedly preparing to conduct a suicide bombing operation against unspecified targets.
Reassuring absolutely no one, SecState Condoleezza Rice dee double dog swore than attacking Iran was "not on the agenda" and that every diplomatic angle was being pursued. Hmmm.. sounds familiar somehow.
The battle between "New Europe" and "Old Europe" heats up as the newest members of the European Union are pressuring EU president Tony Blair to pass a budget:
Key figures from "new" Europe made it clear yesterday that they want the summit to focus on the EU budget - a topic that the prime minister wants to delay until December.
Artis Pabriks, the Latvian foreign minister, warned that the former communist states which joined the EU last year will be unable to implement key regeneration projects unless a budget is agreed soon.
"We are a new state, we need a new budget," he told Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "We are not happy about the situation - all the problems come from old member states, not new ones."
In some kind of ill-conceived publicity stunt, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw spent the weekend with SecState Condoleezza Rice in Alabama, meeting people from all walks of uneducated life.
Speaking of diplomatic gaffes, the United States has finally apologized for poor treatment of a French minister by overzealous airport officials in Atlanta last week.
More tension in Rep. of Georgia as a Russian military observer was briefly arrested in S. Ossetia. The good news is he will likely be released soon.
This is unconfirmed but it looks like the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, Felix Kulov, will resign following a demonstration calling for his dismissal.
I rarely report on Iraq but this is too significant to pass up:
Forty-five percent of Iraqis support attacks on US and British troops in the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday, citing a secret poll commissioned by the British Defense Ministry.
The survey was conducted by an Iraqi university research team in August.
The poll shows that fewer than 1 percent think foreign military involvement is helping to improve security in their country, 67 percent feel less secure because of the occupation; 43 percent believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened; and 72 percent do not have confidence in the multinational forces.
Voters in Vienna, Austria voted in regional elections yesterday in what may be a boost for the xenophobic Freedom Party.
It looks like my home country of Romania is super close to getting a permanent American military base (or two) on its soil.
And last but not least, today is the 60th anniversary of the formation of the United Nations, a fact only noted in the non-western press.
 Peace/Paz/Pace/Paix
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