there’s probably nothing more stimulating than brushing up one’s legal knowledge about the EU by reading a fistful of accession treaties including all appendices to the annexes IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII and XIV in their entirety (pdf) - via Handakte.de (German).

There are a couple of English-language blogs that people might find interesting, given some of the events of the weekend.
First, Mary Neal’s Living With Caucasians - ‘A journal from Tbilisi, Georgia’ - has reports from the streets on what happened during Georgia’s ‘Velvet Revolution’ over the weekend (link via Jon and Ryan)
Cinderella Bloggerfeller also has [...]

Today’s Guardian has a brief interview with Denis MacShane MP, the UK’s Minister for Europe. There are no stunning revelations in there, but it’s an insight into the path the British Government is walking on when it comes to European matters. He also has an interesting description of the Anglo-French relationship:
MacShane says: “I would liken [...]

Posting under the header: ‘More Signs That We Are In the Twentieth Century After All’ my young Argentinian co-blogger notes crypically “I don’t know what a XIXth (or XXth) century englishman would say, if we told him that English unions would one day protest against losing skilled jobs to India”……… adding…………”and, in the heels [...]

Well, unless someone else can come up with an explanation for this article, that’s about the only explanation I can think of. I’m not sure, though, whether it’s the argument that Europeans should breed more to stop a situation where ‘Europe will either be very old or very Muslim’ or his suggestion that ‘France and [...]

You can tell Saturday has come round again. I’m here with another of those ‘mindless’ posts. Still, anyone not suffering from too much of a post-halloween hangover, and looking for a cool bit of culturally-correct entertainment should try this (especially mousing over top-right exhibit two). If however you are in the mood for [...]

Later today, Iain Duncan Smith, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, will face a vote of confidence in his leadership that he’s widely expected not to survive. (For those of you looking for blogged coverage during the day, I recommend British Politics, Anthony Wells, Iain Murray and our own Matthew Turner. We’re yet to have [...]

I’ve added a new blog to the blogroll that has quickly become one of my favorites.
Col Lounsbury is a financier currently in Jordan, involved in Iraqi reconstruction. He’s a scathing critic of the administration’s efforts.
He’s quite bright, extremely knowledgable about Middle Easter culture and society. He’s also a delight to read, with a [...]

The Washington Post reports on:
Spreading Saudi Fundamentalism in U.S.
Network of Wahhabi Mosques, Schools, Web Sites Probed by FBI
“On Aug. 20, 2001, Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a man who would soon be named a minister of the Saudi government and put in charge of its two holy mosques, arrived in the United States to meet [...]

Gregg Easterbrook of the New Republic writes:
MOSCOW LOST THE COLD WAR, BUT DREAMS OF WINNING THE GLOBAL WARMING WAR: Why won’t Russia ratify the Kyoto Treaty? It would seem very much in Moscow’s interest to do so.
The United States has dropped out of Kyoto negotiations, but most other Western nations remain in. Russia now holds [...]