The Prague Post Online: News: European Roundup

November 23rd, 2008

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SPAIN Around 90,000 Spanish truck drivers launched an indefinite strike June 9, parking their vehicles beside toll booths near the French border, preventing other trucks from passing and causing traffic delays. The protest is over soaring oil prices, up 20 percent since last year, the BBC reported. Participating drivers have warned that supermarkets will run out of supplies within days.

UKRAINE Rescuers brought two surviving miners to the surface June 9 after a gas explosion at the Karl Marx mine northeast of the regional center Donetsk. The body of a third miner was found 750 meters (2,461 feet) below the surface, Reuters reported. Rescuers also attempted to descend a ventilation shaft to a depth of 1,000 meters where 34 other miners were believed to be trapped.

KOSOVO Security guards exchanged fire with at least one armed intruder who broke into the home of Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci June 7, the BBC reported. Thaci, who was not at home at the time, condemned the unknown intruders for instigating an “attack against the rule of law in Kosovo.”

GERMANY An incinerator on the outskirts of Hamburg will become a destination for trash building up in Naples, Italy. For 11 weeks, a 56-car train will arrive in Hamburg daily bearing 700 tons of refuse, The New York Times reported. The incinerator’s director called the arrangement a temporary solution.

GREECE Two people were killed and dozens injured in an earthquake in southern Greece June 9, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported. The earthquake was centered around the north Peloponnesian city of Patras, approximately 215 kilometers (133 miles) west of Athens, and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.25.

RUSSIA The government will up its fight against corruption with an electronic property database that will allow officials to more easily see what people own. President Dmitry Medvedev said he will target corruption to ensure stability and high rates of economic growth, Reuters reported June 7. Analysts say the database will be useful in pinpointing discrepancies between declared income and property.

UK A judge ordered a hearing into whether the government should have to turn over evidence bearing on accusations by a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who says he was tortured during an interrogation in Morocco. The judge rejected the argument by the UK government that releasing documents risked more evidence of future mistreatment of CIA prisoners, the IHT reported.

ITALY Approximately 10,000 gay rights supporters marched through Rome June 7, many chanting slogans against the Vatican and the country’s new conservative government. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has been clear that it has no intention of passing legislation that would legally recognize gay couples, Reuters reported.

SPAIN A bombing attack that has been linked to the armed Basque separatist group ETA decimated the printing press of a newspaper in northern Spain June 8, the IHT reported. The newspaper El Correo in the town of Zamudio is known for its hard-line stance against separatist violence.

IRELAND Critics of the draft treaty to overhaul the European Union believe the treaty would undermine democracy and leave Ireland with a weaker voice in the 27-member group, the IHT reported. Ireland is the only EU member country holding a referendum on the treaty, and will vote on the ratification of the document June 12.

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