The wheels of Ukranian intrigue, it seems, continue to grind. Yesterday the Ukraine parliament sacked the pro-Orange government of Yuri Yekhanurov, after he was accused of striking a poor deal to end the gas price dispute with Russia. My initial assesment last week that, politically speaking, Russia was the big loser, may have been [...]

Well, it’s nice to know someone is thinking about us.

As everyone keeps saying, the important thing in circumstances like these is not to panic. But the best defence against panic is information, and after that knowledge. So here goes:
1/. The flu virus was actually first detected in the laboratories of the Turkish Agriculture Ministry on December 9 2005, despite the fact that a [...]

Only last week, following the Russian decision to turn of Moldova’s gas supply along with Ukraine, Alex and I were asking ourselves the question: whatever happened to Moldova.
Well here comes the answer, from Randy McDonalds Live Journal, they are either growing wine or leaving it seems:
Moldova, as it happens, shares with Georgia a long tradition [...]

I don’t think we need to panic, but I do think we need to follow this very closely.
Twenty-one people in the Istanbul area are in hospital amid fears they have bird flu, newspapers said on Monday, raising concern the deadly disease has spread to Turkey’s commercial hub of 12 million people.
Hopefully this outbreak will be [...]

Really, when I saw this I had a hard time believing it.
The UK’s case for staying out of Europe’s single currency “is becoming weaker”, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has argued in a bid to reopen Britain’s euro debate……The British economy has prospered outside of the single currency but with increasing harmonisation in other areas [...]

Not content with simply being the ‘Energy Presidency’, Austria it seems is hell bent on also moving forward the Consitution issue, even if this is only in the rather tame form of a Brussels debate among Europe’s leaders on the way forward for the new treaty. Actually rather than a constitution per-se, what we may [...]

This news is surely not as grave as it seems, but the placing under house arrest of the commander of the Spanish Land Forces is hardly to be taken as a trifle. In a move which is reminiscent of the environment surrounding the military coup of 1981., the decision of Defence Minister José Bono to [...]

Some people start the year by resolving to give something up. Sweden’s new year’s resolution, it seems, is to give up oil by 2020.
Breaking dependence on oil brings many opportunities for strengthened competitiveness, technological development and progress. The aim is to break dependence on fossil fuels by 2020. By then no home will need oil [...]

Der Standard is reporting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that “an institution like Guantanamo cannot, and cannot be allowed to, exist for any length of time” and promised to take the matter up with George W. Bush. Those people who expected less criticism from Germany of the War On Terror are clearly about [...]