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September 8th, 2008
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European Roundup


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TURKEY Thousands of Turks rallied Feb. 2 in Ankara against a government plan to allow women to wear head scarves in universities, according to a Reuters report. The protesters feared that easing a 1989 ban on religious scarves would put pressure on uncovered women and endanger the country’s secularism.

UK Winter storms have wreaked havoc in the United Kingdom. Several ships ran aground and had to be evacuated. Thousands of people were left without electricity and one truckdriver died when his vehicle was toppled by a gust of wind, the BBC reported Feb. 1.
SERBIA Boris Tadić has narrowly won another term in office as president of Serbia. The pro-European candidate beat nationalist Tomislav Nikolić by only 3 percent of the vote. He has promised to speed up Serbian integration into European structures but refuses to allow an independent Kosovo, the BBC reported Feb 3.
EU The European Union ordered Italy to clean up Naples within a month or face legal action, The New York Times (NYT) reported Feb. 1. Italian authorities had failed to comply with the EU’s waste management laws to resolve the city’s garbage collection crisis. About 250,000 tons of trash have piled up in the streets of Naples since collection almost completely stopped in December.
HUNGARY Rail services were again in disarray Feb. 4 as the Independent Railway Workers Union resumed its strike to demand higher wages (the protest had been suspended for the weekend), according to the Associated Press. Only a small number of trains ran on schedule in Budapest and its suburbs, forcing thousands of commuters to find alternate means of transportation.
RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin visited the North Caucasus region Feb. 4, ahead of next month’s election, in which he expects to install his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev to power, Reuters reported. Russian media accompanied Putin on the trip to the army base in Botlikh. He first visited the base as prime minister in 1999, weeks before ordering soldiers to invade Chechnya, restoring Kremlin rule.
UK Raids across the United Kingdom led to the breakup of two Turkish-led gangs involved in large-scale human smuggling, according to a Feb. 1 NYT report. The raid on 12 London locations and one in the Midlands resulted in 13 arrests. Police say gangs charged Chinese migrants up to $42,000 to be smuggled into the country.
FRANCE President Nicolas Sarkozy married model Carla Bruni in a small civil ceremony Feb. 3 at the Élysée Palace after a three-month romance, The International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported. In recent months the president’s popularity has declined drastically, due in part to the country’s failing economy, but also because of public disapproval of his relationship with Bruni.
TURKEY At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured when an illegal fireworks factory in Istanbul exploded and collapsed Jan. 31, according to the NYT. The explosion was caused by a sparkler or other firework device.
NATO A group of former senior officers is calling for an overhaul of the alliance, as NATO faces the risk of failing to defeat Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. According to a 152-page report, the officers claim to be slowed by time-consuming decision-making rules, bad financing arrangements, and an inability to carry out long-term missions, the NYT reported Feb. 1.


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