The Prague Post Online: News: European Roundup

May 17th, 2008

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LATVIA Nearly 1,000 people were evacuated from a cruise ship caught in a sandbank 18 miles off the Latvian coast May 4, the BBC reported. The 30,000-ton liner set sail from the German port of Kiel en route to Riga May 1. Officials say there was no danger to the passengers, most of whom were German.

GERMANY Three dead babies were found wrapped in storage bags in a basement freezer in Wenden, Germany, and a woman believed to be their mother was arrested, BBC reported May 5. The babies were not stillborn, and the cause of death has not been released. The three appeared to have died shortly after birth.

CHECHNYA Five police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in the capital city Grozny, the BBC reported May 5. They were preparing for the upcoming inauguration of Russia’s President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev. Fighting has died down between Chechen rebels and Russian troops in recent years, but attacks on security forces continue.

AUSTRIA Former kidnapping victim Natascha Kampusch said the family kept in an Amstetten cellar would need time and silence to recover, the BBC reported May 3. Father Josef Fritzl has confessed to keeping his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years, sexually abusing her and apparently fathering seven children with her. Kampusch was kidnapped at age 10 and held in a basement for more than eight years.

FRANCE President Nicolas Sarkozy’s popularity rating has dropped to 32 percent just one year after taking office, The International Herald Tribune reported May 4. Sarkozy’s presidency has been turbulent to date, reflecting the often-unconventional man himself. Nonetheless, people seem fascinated by the president, his well-publicized antics and his third wife, supermodel Carla Bruni.

ITALY A 29-year-old was close to death after being beaten by a group of neo-Nazi soccer hooligans, a crime that put the spotlight on political militancy in the Mediterranean country, The New York Times (NYT) reported May 5. Politicians across the spectrum condemned the beating. Police say the act appears to be an isolated case of violence.

BELARUS Ten United States diplomats were ordered out of the country over a dispute over human rights and sanctions, the NYT reported May 4. Another diplomat left in solidarity with his colleagues. Officials in Washington refused to comply with a request to reduce the number of U.S. Embassy staff in Minsk, propting the expulsion.

POLAND A man held three Jewish teenagers captive in their hotel room by claiming he had a bomb, Reuters reported May 5. The Brazilian teenagers visited Warsaw to attend Holocaust commemoration ceremonies at the Auschwitz death camp, police said. The incident ended when police stormed the room and took the suspect into custody. No explosives were found.

BELGRADE Serbian President Boris Tadić has received death threats for “betraying the Serb people,” as he negotiates an agreement that could recognize Kosovo’s independence, Reuters reported May 5. Kosovo’s move to declare independence in February has received mixed reactions from other countries.

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