The ‘No’ campaign seems once more to have regained the lead in the run-up to France’s referendum on May 29, with French voters apparently ignoring all warnings about the damage that would be caused by rejection of Europe’s constitutional treaty.
One explanation for this may be the fact that leading politicians of the left - [...]

Things may be about to liven up a bit for Economics Commissioner Joaquim Almunia: it seems probable that the Italian deficit will be nearer 4% than 3% this year, and Portugal may even clock-in something of the order of an incredible 6 to 7%.
The worsening outlook in the two countries will rekindle the debate about [...]

The latest news going the rounds today centres on the round-up of ’suspects’ following the clashes and demonstrations in Andijon last week. Of course, numbers vary. The LA Times Moscow correspondent cites interfax to the effect that 70 people have been detained (interfax in its turn cites Uzbek Interior Minister Zakir Almatov).

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The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is coming to an end, with a guilty verdict a near certainty. Actually, a guilty verdict has been a near certainty from the word go: conviction rates in Russia are upwards of 95 percent. With the structure saying one thing and the Kremlin saying the same thing, maybe the biggest [...]

As John Quiggin suggests, perhaps the best starting point is Eurasian politics and news blog Registan. (As they inform us: ?Registan? means ?sandy place? in Uzbek and a number of other Turkic languages). Surfing around Registan can send you off in any number of directions.

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Ok, I’m feeling guilty. Back in November, when the ‘orange revolution’ was thriving in Ukraine, we were all over it here at Afoe. Now, with an estimated several hundred dead in Andizhan, Uzbekistan we’re strangely silent. Why, because it isn’t Europe? Well, we are a Europe centred blog, but I hope that doesn’t mean we [...]

“The insurgents in Iraq are very violent, but you defeat them not just through military effort,” Ms. Rice told reporters traveling with her on Sunday. “You defeat them by having a political alternative that is strong.” Now, she added, Iraqi leaders are “going to have to intensify their efforts to demonstrate that in fact the [...]

As opinion polls produce results wobbling uncomfortably back-and-forth between ‘yes’ and a ‘no’, France is in the grips of a chaotic day of ’solidarity under duress’ whose consequences for 29 May seem hard to foresee.
News that parliaments in Germany, Austria and Slovakia have approved the constitution treaty is tempered by the results of the latest [...]

Last week, on a visit to Germany, Henry Kissinger stated that Europe “now has a number”. Well, I’m not sure which one in particular he was referring to, or if the CIA’s decision to list the EU in its world fact book has anything to do with Kissinger’s realisation - but depending on the outcome [...]

European Commissioner For Communications (no pun) Margot Wallstr?m is in the news, not for what she said, but for what she didn’t say. The EU observer reports she excised part of a speech she had prepared for her visit to Terezin in the Czech Republic where she was scheduled to mark the 60th anniversary [...]