PORTUGAL

Prime Minister Jose Socrates said Feb. 11 he would use his parliamentary majority to legalize abortion up to 10 weeks after conception. His announcement came after a referendum on the issue that same day failed due to low turnout. Less than half of the country’s eligible voters cast a ballot in the referendum, but, of those who did, some 59 percent voted to lift the ban. Portugal currently has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.

An imam kidnapped in Milan in 2003 by secret security agents has been released in Egypt, his lawyer confirmed Feb. 12. Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, claims he was abducted by CIA agents and secretly flown back to Egypt, where he was interrogated and tortured, his lawyer said. The United States has acknowledged that it practices secret transfers of terrorist suspects, but denies it is complicitous in torture. A Milanese court began a hearing last month on whether to indict 25 alleged CIA agents suspected in the kidnapping.

Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal unveiled her long-awaited campaign platform at a rally outside Paris Feb. 11, outlining 100 proposals that include promises to build more subsidized housing and boost minimum wage and pension payments. The first woman with a chance of becoming president, Royal has been criticized for not unveiling her platform sooner than 10 weeks before the first round of the election. She has lagged behind conservative rival Nicolas Sarkozy in recent polls.

A former member of a terrorist movement responsible for a string of killings in West Germany in the 1970s was granted her request for early prison release Feb. 12. The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, was aimed at bringing down the capitalist system. Brigitte Mohnhaupt, now 57, has served 24 years of her sentence of five life terms for her involvement in the kidnapping and killing of German financial and political officials. She no longer poses a danger to society and will begin her parole March 27, the court ruled.

Six people died after suffocating in a tunnel in the Canary Islands Feb. 11. The six were among a group of 30 scientists and nature enthusiasts exploring the tunnel, dug to prospect for water. The group was about a mile underground in the tunnel complex called Los Silos de Tenerife.

President Vladimir Putin met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Feb. 11 to discuss Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Saudi media have reported that Putin is looking to sell military hardware, including anti-missile systems, to the oil-rich kingdom. The visit was the first by a Russian leader to Saudi Arabia. In Qatar, Putin spoke with Qatari emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani about trade, security and the possible formation of a natural-gas cartel.

Five men arrested in connection with the plot to behead a British soldier appeared  in court Feb. 9. Authorities allege that between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31, one of the men, Parviz Khan of Birmingham, intended to kidnap and kill the soldier. All five are accused of supplying goods for use in terrorist acts. A sixth man was subsequently arrested.

Interior Minister Fatmir Rexhepi resigned Feb. 12 after two ethnic Albanians died during a pro-independence demonstration that turned violent Feb. 10. The two victims were injured when local and UN police fired teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd in the capital of Prishtina. The demonstrators were protesting a UN plan that falls short of granting Kosovo full independence from Serbia.

SECRET

Newly released records from the Interior Ministry finger former Prime Minister Josef Tošovský as a collaborator with the communist-era secret police (StB), Mladá fronta dnes reported Feb. 13. Archives show Tošovský signed on for at least two years to gather economic intelligence information, but never caused harm to anyone, the paper reported. In the past week, two other prominent figures have been found to be former StB collaborators: František Lambert, the program director of Czech TV, and Jaromír Nohavica, a former dissident and well-known folk singer.

President Václav Klaus received an honorary doctorate from Tokyo’s Waseda University Feb. 13 on the first day of a trip to Japan. The degree honored Klaus’ work to bring economic stability to the Czech Republic and promote cultural understanding with Japan, the university said. Klaus is scheduled to receive a second honorary degree and meet with the Japanese emperor and empress before returning home.

Prosecutors in Ostrava, north Moravia, filed new charges against accused billionaire fugitive Radovan Krejčíř, who has been on the lam in the Seychelles Islands since 2005, the daily Právo reported Feb. 13. Krejčíř has twice been convicted in absentia for charges related to fraud and conspiracy. New information from a Swiss bank led to the new charges of the misuse of information in a trade relationship, a state attorney told the daily.

A west Bohemia court convicted a man Feb. 12 of attempting to run over police officers at 2005’s CzechTek. Tomáš Matoušek was given a 16-month suspended sentence and two years of probation and has been banned from driving for 16 months. The same judge acquitted Matoušek in September, but an appeal overturned the verdict. In 2005, police were criticized for violently dispersing crowds at the event.