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September 8th, 2008
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RUSSIA The planned U.S. missile-defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is forcing Russia to engage in another arms race, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Feb. 8 nationally televised speech, the BBC reported. Although the Russian government did not start this race, it will be “forced to retaliate” against the United States’ and NATO’s failure to compromise with the country on a Central and East European defense strategy, Putin said.

FRANCE President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to tackle the problems besetting the nation’s immigrant suburbs, The New York Times reported. He vowed Feb. 8 to send 4,000 additional police officers and to offer aid packages to neighborhoods struggling with poverty and riots. Assistance would also include busing children out of underperforming schools and job training programs.
SERBIA Kosovo’s plans to declare independence later this month could lead to an escalation of conflicts, Serbian President Boris Tadić said in a Feb. 8 security conference in Munich, according to BBC. The pro-Western leader added that he could not accept the dismemberment of his country and called for renewed talks on the issue to prevent the situation from “spiraling out of control.”
EU Recent outbreaks of violence in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, have forced the EU to delay the deployment of 3,700 peacekeepers to the region, the BBC reported Feb. 11. Charged with the protection of refugees and aid workers, the French-led EU force was originally scheduled to arrive in Chad Feb. 1.
SWITZERLAND A group of armed robbers stole more than $100 million worth of art from a Zurich museum Feb. 10, according to the Associated Press (AP). Police said the stolen works included paintings by van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Degas.
UK In a speech that roused a storm of opposition from the country’s politicians, the archbishop of Canterbury called for Britain to adopt aspects of Islamic Sharia law alongside the existing legal system Feb. 8, according to the IHT. Drawn from the Quran, Sharia law prescribes religious and secular duties, and deals with issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
SPAIN Police arrested at least 13 members of the Batasuna, an illegal Basque separatist party Feb. 11 in a continuing crackdown on groups linked to the armed organization ETA. Such enforcement measures are leading up to the country’s March. 9 general elections, the AP reported. Separately, two other separatist parties were barred from political activity for three years due to alleged links to ETA.
TURKEY In a decision that could set the stage for a showdown with the nation’s secular elite, the Turkish parliament voted Feb. 9 in favor of a constitutional amendment that would lift a ban against women’s head scarves at local universities, the IHT reported. Lawmakers imposed the ban in the late 1990s in response to a growing number of covered women in colleges, which they saw as threat to the secularism of modern Turkey.
AUSTRIA A fire at a retirement home in western Austria left 11 people dead and six injured Feb. 8, according to AP. The blaze, which started when 23 residents and two supervisors were in the building, began on the first floor and was fought by about 250 firefighters.
FRANCE Far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen received a three-month suspended prison sentence and a 10,000-euro ($14,600/255,500 Kč) fine Feb. 8 for minimizing the brutality of the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, AP reported. In 2005, Le Pen labeled the occupation as “not particularly inhumane” in an interview for a far-right national magazine.


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