According to the conservative German newspaper Die Welt(German, free registration required), the EU is about to send a team to Jerusalem to seriously investigate alligations of EU funding for the Palestinian Authorities being embezzled to the benefit of Palestinian terrorist organisations (also - EUObserver)

This is big - and will be even bigger for the French right. Alain Jupp?, brilliant but aloof former Prime Minister in the first instance found guilty of illegal party financing - reports from the BBC, the NYTimes, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (German), CNNenespanol (Spanish), and of course, LeMonde (French).

Not quite kissing and making up, but Irish PM Bertie Ahern and DUP leader Iain Paisley had a ‘constructive and businesslike’ meeting in London on Thursday - the first meeting between the two for five years.

Nikolai Johannes Merrill, born this day at 12:17am, to loving parents Iris and Douglas

A beautiful new smile in this still-new century…

The Spiegel reports that Gerd Schr?der and George Bush are to kiss and make up (article in German). The White House has invited Schr?der to lunch, where he will discuss with Bush ‘the continuation of transatlantic relations’, as well as developments in Iraq, the Near East and Afghanistan.

I don’t know if one day when historians come to examine what exactly happened (or should I say what went wrong) with the EU they will be able to identify that defining moment, the decisive hour, when everything went sailing down the river. If they are so able I wouldn’t mind a quick bet that [...]

In Kassel the court has spoken, and its words are a stern warning to us all: do not kill and eat people (unless you are prepared to give up eight and a half years of freedom for the privilege).

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It is too early to grasp the real aftermath of 9-11 in Hollywood, but some trends are more obvious than others. Couple of last year’s major Hollywood productions indicate that the major change is afoot in American film industry, closely resembling shifts in American foreign policy resulting from 9-11.
The changes are very visible for those [...]

According to the French daily LeMonde, France and Germany intend to establish a prominent European think tank, based in Brussels, to advance European ideas on the World stage (English report from EuObserver).

While EU politicians over at Davos have been mulling over the possibilities of Turkey’s membership of the EU, Kofi Annan apparently has things much clearer. In a speech to the European parliament he bluntly told MPs that Europe needs migrants to ensure a prosperous future and that Europeans should stop using immigration as a [...]