An interesting (though some of the methodology may be flawed) report on the possible outcome of the European Parliament elections (warning: large pdf file) suggests a likely EPP-ED/ELDR majority in the Parliament after June. Via Anthony Wells, who also has a look at the potential of the minor parties in the UK.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine reports today (p. 6) that the international community is willing to give EUR 2 billion in support, if the population of Cyprus will approve a plan for reunification in a referendum next Saturday, April 24. That’s according to represntatives of 34 countries and international financial organizations who met at a donor conference [...]

I haven?t seen much discussion here about some of the weirder effects of the May 1 EU expansion. As one of the representatives of ?New Europe? (a moniker I generally loath) that’s partly my fault, as I?ve had zero time to post recently.
I was unable to come up with any news links about the [...]

I don’t know about you, but this sort of thing worries me:
The framework that has buttressed peace in the Taiwan Strait for decades is disintegrating. Changes in Taiwan, as well as some of Beijing’s counterproductive behavior, are undermining its foundations. Unless an improved framework is adopted soon, war across the strait will become increasingly probable [...]

Quand Jimmy dit what’d I say?
I love you baby!
C’est comme qui dirait
Toute la province qui chante en anglais
Brussels’ newspaper of record, the centre-right Le Soir, is running a series of articles in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of rock. Among other things, they’ve published lists of their choices for the best rock albums ever, [...]

So is nobody in the Italian media actually writing about it?
But for nearly a month, Rome has been silent on what is potentially one of its biggest political stories: Umberto Bossi, the charismatic and outspoken leader of the once separatist Northern League, is gravely ill. Bossi, 62, has been in a medically induced coma since [...]

Randy MacDonald has dropped a line pointing to an excellent and well-researched post on the demographics of Islam in France. You can read it at his livejournal site. In particular, he does something interesting in this debate - actually goes to INSEE (the French census and statistics office) and gets figures. I [...]

A number of blogs - enough that I doubt that I need to link to them - are trying to modify the top result of Google searches for the word Jew by pointing to the relevant entry in Wikipedia rather than the previous top response, an anti-semitic website which we will not be linking to.
I [...]

Reading Scott’s post about google politics and lexicological engineering with respect to “Jew/Jews/Jewish” reminded me to recommend to you a volume of short essays called “The Jewish Voice in Transatlantic Relations” (.pdf) which is the result of two symposia organised by, among other organisations, the volume’s publisher, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at [...]

Le Monde reports that the troubled leader of the French UMP, Alain Jupp?, is openly contesting the official French position of a “European vocation” for Turkey with respect to the country’s possible EU candidacy. His comments are considered to significantly raise the salience of this issue in French politics.