Nick Clegg, British new deputy prime minister is geared at reforming the country’s law that would better accord freedom to the citizens than limit it, vowing to deliver the most significant changes to Briti
sh democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832.
The German government is out calling for a tough regulation of international market. Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes to create a European benchmark that will help monitor and regulate budget indiscipline. Meanwhile most Greeks are still unsettled with the austerity plan of their government and are ready to puncture the economy much further with industrial strikes
Unconfirmed reports have been aired that Vakili Rad, an Iranian accused and charged for killing Shahpour Bakhtiar, who served as prime minister under Iran's shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was released and swapped for Clotile Reiss, 24, a French citizen arrested in Iran during the post-election unrest. Authorities on both sides have rejected the reports of prisoner swap.
The British government is planning to make the largest digitalized newspaper archive that will preserve past events for research. The plan is to digitize up to 40 million pages of newspapers, including fragile dailies dating back three and a half centuries.
Google, the US internet giant is pitted in debate with European capitals over privacy rights. Europeans are alleging Google of storing fragment of their personal activities online which is a breach of privacy right. German authority is spearheading the prosecution with the support of UK asking for the data to be destroyed.
Portugal a predominantly Catholic country becomes the sixth European country allowing same-sex marriage. The Portuguese conservative government reluctantly approved the legislation last week.
Having experienced an unprecedented air travel derailment caused by natural phenomenon, the EU aviation safety body has drafted rule that will give more flexibility to national air traffic controllers and will involve the creation of a European crisis coordination center to ensure a smoother response to emergencies like the ash scare which grounded flights in April.
Greece-Turkey relation saw a new look with the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Athens. It was a historic development as both countries have been at loggerhead on the Cyrus conflict. With the visit both countries signed numerous bilateral agreements and hope to further normalize ties.
Political impasses between ruling and opposition parties in Albania persist. The latter wants the ruling party to reopen the ballot boxes of the June election 2009 under a third party (EC) investigation.
Political consensus transpired at the Croatian parliament as parliamentary committee on the constitution agreed on almost all proposed amendments, the sole exception being the controversial issue of the expatriate voting from Bosnia.
As part of the EULEX criminal investigation ongoing in Kosovo to purge the country from corruption, two government officials were investigated last week. The investigation has raised the profile of the institution in the EU.
The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) Macedonia, leader Ali Ahmeti has rejected reports about quitting the coalition government. His party hopes to work for Macedonia-EU integration and finding solution to the name dispute between Skopje and Athens.
Romanian parliament has adopted a law on lustration that limits the involvement of former communist officials in politics. The bill was supported by 203 of the 343 members of the Chamber of Deputies.
Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Rocen visited Ljubljana last week and said that ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has a Montenegrin passport, must not use the country as a base for sending political messages to his homeland.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in its annual report states that economies in the Balkan region will register growth of 3.7% this year, instead of the 3.3% forecast in January. At the same time, the Bank warned recovery remains fragile, "with increasing differences in the pace of growth across countries and new risks arising from fiscal pressures and financial volatility in Western Europe.
The IMF has reportedly agreed with Serbian government for a possible hike in the public sector wages and pensions. Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic noted that Serbia has emerged from economic crisis, and returned to an annual GDP growth of 1% in the first quarter of this year.
Romanians in hundreds staged a massive protest against government austerity plan by which salaries and pensions will be slashed. Joining the demonstration were public officers, police officers, teachers, health and public administration staff, who called on the government to resign.
The diaries found in Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic’s wife apartment has been turned over to the UN war crimes tribunal and the court will be using the document for prosecuting Serbs under prosecution at The Hague. Meanwhile, court still has an axe to grind with Serbia over mass grave found near Raska, in southern Serbia.
The European Parliament showed the sense of commitment by approving allocating an additional 300m-euros in compensation to Bulgaria by 2013, for dismantling the four oldest units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.
Somalia has become the 69th country to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
An unclear film clip that was taken on a mobile phone, showing Russian-speaking men shooting survivors has been examined by Polish and Russian experts and declared digitally manipulated, intended to embarrass Moscow.
Polish Finance Minister, Rostowski has said that the Greek crisis should not adversely affect the Polish schedule for the adoption of the Euro by 2015.
Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer's visit to Mongolia this week is the first at head of government level since 1993.
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Viktor Orban rejected last week a Slovak call for a summit over plans to offer dual citizenship to ethnic kin in neighboring countries. Slovak premier Robert Fico had called earlier in the day for an urgent meeting with Orban over an issue he has described as a threat to Slovakia's security.
Hungary, the largest investor in Montenegro, is supporting the country's accession to the European Union. Meanwhile the Hungarian parliament approved changes to the constitution last week that would halve the number of MPs (200 from the current 386), in a bid to cut bureaucracy and streamline decision-making in parliament.
European Union officials have expressed serious concern at reports of an ongoing crackdown against the opposition in Belarus, where President Aleksandr Lukashenko has ruled with an iron fist since 1995. Scores of activists, including opposition writer Vladimir Nekliaev, a proclaimed opponent in the upcoming presidential election, have been arrested as a result of nationwide police raids.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich signed a range of bilateral documents. The two heads of state signed joint statements on European security, on settling the conflict around Moldova's much-troubled Dniester region, and on security measures in the Black Sea littoral area. Medvedev has also invited Ukraine to join a security bloc of former Soviet republics. Meanwhile Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi last week to discuss bilateral ties.
The European Commission concluded last week that Estonia has fulfilled the so-called Maastricht criteria and is ready to adopt the euro next year. However challenges facing the tiny Baltic economy are still unchecked, where a dramatic decline has pushed unemployment to a record high.
At the economic front the zloty extended its decline as Polish officials indicated they are comfortable with its depreciation and the benchmark stock index dropped to a three- month low. Meanwhile the World Bank signed an agreement with Poland concerning economic reforms.
According to new edition 2010 of Research and Markets survey regarding Czech economy, following the global downturn the fiscal position of the nation was hit hard, prompting a rapid shift in policy from stimulus to consolidation.
According to the data released by Bloomberg, Slovakia’s GDP not only returned to growth but also blessed the market with better-than-expected numbers and now export-oriented economy is set to grow for the rest of the year and even beyond. However, economists also suggest that economic performance in the second half of the year might be affected by austerity measures if the government formed after the June 12 general election opts for belt-tightening policies.
A report published by the Hungarian ministry of environment and water reveals that Germany's Deutsche Bank has recommended that the Hungarian government sell recycled certified emission reduction (CER) credits. Hungary's decision to sell CERs that it had received from its installations to meet their compliance obligations under the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) has already caused chaos in the carbon market earlier this year.
Ukraine’s credit ratings were raised at Standard & Poor’s to ‘B/B’, from ‘B-/C’,on improvements in the country’s policy coordination and after a Russian gas subsidy agreement helped boost the government’s debt outlook. Meanwhile the European Parliament approved a 500-million-euro (616-million-dollar) European Union loan to help Ukraine out of its financial crisis.
According to the statistics office Estonia's unemployment rate leapt to an all-time high of 19.8 % in the first quarter from 15.5 % in the previous quarter.
Flash floods triggered by days of heavy rain have killed at least four people, forced mass evacuations and cut off power to thousands in Poland Czech Republic, Slovakia & Hungary (Central Europe). Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that if the losses caused by the flood amount to over two billion Euros than Poland would become eligible for up to 100 million Euros in European Union aid funds. He ruled out any possibility to call a state of emergency because it would delay presidential elections scheduled for June 20.
Organizations representing Hungary's gypsies, or Roma, have expressed concerns about a new wave of violence against the minority in the country after the entry of a far right party in parliament. Hundreds of people in a heavy rain gathered in a rally, which was aimed at easing tensions between the two communities.
For the sixth time the EU celebrated 17 May as International Day against Homophobia (IDAHO), an annual event.
On May 16 this year, Memorial Day was observed in Ukraine, Bykivnia Forest, the place where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Jews, people of other ethnic groups were massacre by the tyrannical Stalinist government.
Latvia's relations with neighboring Russia came under strain after the Latvian government accused Russia of attempting to influence the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), following a decision on a controversial war crimes trial of Kononov versus Latvia. Vasiliy Kononov, an 87-year-old former took part in the killing of nine villagers near the Latvian-Belarusian border in 1944 and Latvia later convicted of war crimes.
RUSSIA
The leaders of Russia and Turkey have said that the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should not be excluded from peace efforts in the Middle East.
For the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia’s president visited Syria. The two premiers announced at a press conference that they had talked about nuclear cooperation, including the potential construction of a nuclear power plant in Syria. Meanwhile Israel has criticizes Russia's plans to supply arms to Syria
Four young men were seized in Moscow for trying to hold an unauthorized rally near the Iranian embassy. The police did not identify the political belonging of the young men but some media outlets reported that members of the outlawed National Bolshevik Party tried to hold the rally.
Russia's biggest business lobby has asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for a moratorium on tax hikes and called for a mass privatization program to plug the budget deficit.
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered tighter security at the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be staged in the same mountain range that is home to Islamist insurgents in the region.
In Russia’s Dagestan region at least 8 people have been reported dead as a bomb blast hit a police-escorted vehicle carrying workers sent to fix a communications tower that had been damaged in a sabotage attack overnight.
Russian border guards seize large batch of illegal Chinese imports comprised of men's, women's and children's clothes. The clothes were transported by three Kamaz trucks.
Meanwhile Russia’s economy expanded for the first time since 2008 in the three months through March as the world’s biggest energy producer rebounds on an oil-funded stimulus program and record-low borrowing costs. According to Bloomberg news, Russia’s Gross Domestic Product rose an annual 2.9% in the first quarter after contracting 3.8 % in the last three months of 2009.
Jailed former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ended a two-day hunger strike last week after the Kremlin confirmed complaints about his detention had been passed on to President Dmitry Medvedev. Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was arrested in 2003 after falling foul of then-president Vladimir Putin and is serving an eight-year sentence for tax dodging.
A 9-month-old girl from Tajikistan has been hospitalized in Moscow with polio as a Tajik outbreak reached the Russian capital.
Some 84 people injured in the methane blasts at the Raspadskaya coalmine remain at the hospitals, 46 people passed outpatient treatment and 3 people were discharged from hospitals. Igor Volkov, the head of the Raspadskaya coal mine resigned earlier last week, a day after he was severely criticized by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin regarding safety violations.
A Moscow court has ruled that Russian air traffic controllers cannot go on strike. The national union of air traffic controllers is in dispute over a new contract and is demanding the resignation of Valery Gorbenko, who heads Russia's state air traffic corporation. The protest started in April and by the end of the month staff at 55 air traffic management centers were involved. Rather than stopping work, the controllers are on a hunger strike, reportedly consuming less food when not on the job.
Russia’s new research module has been successfully latched on ISS, brought to orbit by the U.S. Atlantis space shuttle at the cost of about $200 million.
Rumors regarding the development of a new strategic bomber for the Russian Air Force, the so-called perspective long-range aviation complex have been confirmed by Russia’s Vice Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov during a meeting with Russian reporters in Washington.
US/CANADA
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the United States and other major powers have agreed on a draft resolution for new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The announcement came a day after Iran accepted a Brazilian and Turkish-mediated deal to export some of its enriched-uranium stockpile. Iran's acceptance of the uranium deal mediated by Brazil and Turkey had been widely viewed by analysts as an effort to blunt the U.S.-led drive in the U.N. Security Council for new sanctions.
Meanwhile Senatorial party primaries are on in the U.S but characterized by discontentment for the establishment. The primaries are showing the deep rooted feelings of Americans, how they would want change to be effected in Washington through new elected public officers. It was a test for both democrat and republican parties as their supports were shaken, and also accentuated the weakness of Obama’s endorsement on fellow party members.
Support for political parties in Canada continues to fluctuate; recent poll by Ekos suggests that the minority conservative government is heading all opposition parties. The Liberal opposition party is 10% behind the conservative party.
United States financial regulators are geared at stepping up rules that will further guide financial conduct as preventive measure to guide against the repetition of stock market's epic dive. The measure is termed as circuit breaker which will give investors a break during extreme market dips; they'll be less likely to set off a chain reaction of human and computerized selling. Similarly, the Senate passed a far-reaching financial regulatory bill that broadens government influence on the banking system and financial markets; with the measure any eventual reoccurrence of 2008 financial crisis could be abated.
Congressional investigators into the alleged attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner has come up with 14 points kicking at the intelligence agencies for failing to monitor him closely and linked such failure to the intelligence lapse leading to 9/11.
Western Powers along with China and Russia agreed on new sanctions on Iran. The new sanctions were against Iranian financial institutions, including those that supported the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps responsible for overseeing the military aspects of the nuclear program. They have also assumed commanding roles in the broader Iranian economy. However, the Chinese blocked any measure that would stop the flow of oil from Iranian ports or gasoline into the country. The new sanctions come amid Iran’s negotiation with Brazil and Turkey over nuclear swap. Brazil and Turkey, non-permanent UNSC members rejected the sanctions and called for acknowledging the diplomatic break through as Iran has agreed on nuclear swap.
The United States has notified HCOC, an organization overseeing efforts to curb the spread of such weapons that pre-notification regarding the launch of ballistic missile tests or satellites will always be issued. Although the document is said to have exempted certain weapons, yet it was reported as an attempt by the United States to consolidate the new START treaty reached with Russia.
The Vatican responded to the technological breakthrough in the United States by which synthetic cell from man’s DNA was created. The church though acknowledges the scientific development but warns against the misuse of the invention if standing contradictory to the view that life only comes from God.
Britain's Iraq war inquiry panel headed by former civil servant John Chilcot was in the U.S last week continuing their inquiry though not publicizing those to be interviewed. The essence of the panel however is questioned as it has no power to apportion blame or establish criminal or civil liability.
LATIN AMERICA
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has called on Britain's new Prime Minister David Cameron to halt all oil exploration in the "disputed" waters around the Falkland Islands. Kirchner also used an EU-Latin America summit last week to call for a resumption of talks between Buenos Aires and London over the disputed Islands.
According to authorities Argentina and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have agreed to set up an office in Buenos Aires to coordinate anti-drug and anti-crime efforts in the region.
According to reports the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay) renewed their talks last week in Madrid to reach a free trade agreement that would open up a potential market of 270 million people to the EU.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made an official visit to the Middle East and Europe last week in his latest foray into bilateral and international affairs. The tour spanned Russia, Qatar, Iran, Portugal and Spain, and was aimed to show Brazil's determination to act as a mediator in the Mideast conflicts and strengthen its growing role on the international stage.
Earlier this month, Iran, Turkey and Brazil signed a joint declaration in Tehran to endorse a fuel swap according to which Iran will ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for the 20 % uranium fuel needed for its reactor. Meanwhile the Brazilian government rejected Israeli criticism of the deal following statements by a senior Israeli official accusing Iran of having 'manipulated' Ankara and Brasilia. The central concern in Israel is that the deal will delay the onset of harsh United Nations sanctions over Iran's contentious nuclear program.
According to a statement by Da Silva Brazil will finance €1bn of food exports to Iran over the next five years to make trade between the two countries less dependent on foreign banks.
The Foreign Ministry reported that an agreement between the governments of Russia and Brazil on visa-free short-term trips will come into effect on June 7.
According to the U.N.'s highest court Honduras has dropped a case accusing Brazil of meddling in its internal affairs by allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya to stay at one of its embassies in 2009. Zelaya now lives in the Dominican Republic and is trying to negotiate a reconciliation that recognizes current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.
According to a US State Department official the Pakistani man arrested by Chilean police after traces of explosive material were detected on his belongings during a check at the United States Embassy in Santiago is not believed to be connected to the attempted bombing in Times Square earlier this month. The accused was charged with illegal possession of explosives, but was freed pending a probe.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said last week that he plans sweeping electoral reforms that could help him woo opposition support for capital market reforms and an $8.4 billion financing package after a massive earthquake.
Peruvian President Alan Garcia and his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera agreed in a meeting last week to make efforts to bring about a thaw in bilateral relations. Diplomatic ties between the two nations have been frozen since January 2008, when Peru filed a suit against Chile at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over a marmite border dispute between them.
According to a report released recently by a coalition of civic groups killings of gays and lesbians have risen in Mexico despite a government tolerance campaign and a law legalizing same-sex marriage in the capital.
In Mexico gunmen killed a candidate for mayor from President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party last week. The party's leader said that the victim and other candidates had been receiving threats.
Meanwhile the Mexican federal Attorney General's Office has reported that a former Mexican presidential candidate Fernandez de Cevallos who has remained a power broker in the ruling party is missing amid signs of violence.
A band of armed men shot and killed eight people in a bar in northern Mexico and wounded 18 others in the latest outbreak of violence in the country. Meanwhile a recent report discloses that since December 2006, the Mexican federal government charged more than 400 government officials at all levels with accepting bribes from drug cartels. The chart shows how the cartels differed in what kind of officials they targeted.
AUSTRALASIA
Anti-Muslim politicians in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales failed in their move to see the ban of veil in the state. The parliament rejected the proposal by 26 to 3 votes. Debate for the veil ban was triggered by national Senator Cory Bernardi arguing that veil could be used for robbery.
Aborigines in central Australia have recorded the highest pneumonia in the world after Gambia.§
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sh democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832. 
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