WESTERN EUROPEVoters began casting ballots last week in
Italy's regional elections, which are being seen as an important test of popularity for Premier Silvio Berlusconi. The premier has seen his popularity erode amid rising unemployment, a corruption scandal and an investigation into his alleged attempts to influence TV coverage. Despite apprehensions Berlusconi's coalition won crucial races and wrested control of four regions from the opposition.
Former
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made a dramatic pre-election return to domestic British politics last week with an attack on the policies of David Cameron a Tory leader. Blair's return, weeks before a national election, came in a speech urging voters to give his Labour Party a fourth term in office.
Senior Catholic bishops are urging
British worshippers to carefully consider candidates' policies toward marriage and abortion when they vote in the looming national election — a move likely to benefit the opposition Conservatives. Meanwhile
British protesters called on Pope Benedict XVI to resign last week as they staged a demonstration over the Catholic Church's handling of clerical sex abuse cases.
Relatives of
Bosnian Muslims killed in Europe's worst massacre since World War II lost another round Tuesday in their attempt to sue the United Nations for responsibility. The
Hague Appeals Court upheld a 2008 lower court ruling affirming U.N. immunity from prosecution enshrined in international conventions that established the world body, and said the legal protection is an essential foundation of its peacekeeping operations around the world.
France's highest administrative body warned last week that a total ban on full-body Islamic veils in public risks being found unconstitutional but that rules requiring the face to be uncovered could be justified. Meanwhile a parliamentary committee in
Belgium unanimously voted last week to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public, a major step in the legislative process that could make the country the first European nation to impose such a religious prohibition.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Turkey last week amid the two countries disagreement over the mainly Muslim country's faltering bid to join the European. Also on the agenda for the two-day stay were differences linked to the huge
Turkish immigrant population in
Germany, where the world's largest
Turkish diaspora is located.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAlbania’s main opposition Socialist Party (SP) wants to call a referendum on the government's plan to build a nuclear power plant.
The mission of
Canadian troops in
BiH officially ended on March 29th with five officers and one non-commissioned soldier returning home.
An impeachment motion against
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, initiated by the ruling GERB party, was introduced in parliament last week after it collected the signatures of 162 lawmakers well over the required 61. Meanwhile a court sentenced six Bulgarians to prison Monday (March 29th) for financial fraud and embezzlement of about 7.5m euros granted the country under the EU's SAPARD programme.
The defence ministry of
Croatia has announced intentions to send 20 more troops to Afghanistan by September. Meanwhile 79 Macedonian soldiers left last week for Afghanistan, where they will join Macedonia's 170-strong contingent within the NATO-led mission ISAF.
Greek Ambassador to
Macedonia Alexandra Papadopoulou last week condemned nationalist slogans chanted during a military parade in Athens. She was summoned to the Macedonian Foreign Ministry where Deputy Foreign Minister Zoran Petrov demanded a formal apology.
According to media reports Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and representatives of the junior government partner, the Democratic League of
Kosovo, have reache
d an agreement to restructure the government. Meanwhile the opposition has criticized the coalition for trying to distract the public from alleged corruption and mismanagement.
US troops handed over management of the borderline between Kosovo and Macedonia to the
Kosovo Police last week.
Montenegro’s opposition Movement for Changes filed a no-confidence motion against the government last week. The opposition accuses the government of failing to fight corruption and organized crime, as well as inefficiency in addressing the economic situation.
In
Romania buses and trams in
Bucharest came to a halt last week after thousands of drivers staged a strike without advance warning, protesting government austerity measures that would cut their wages and Easter bonuses.
Polish Defense Minister is on a visit to Afghanistan to celebrate Easter with Polish troops stationed in
Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama met leaders of 11 central and eastern European countries in
Prague last week. The meeting, held after the signing of a major nuclear weapons control treaty between the
United States and
Russia, dealt with these countries’ role in
Afghanistan, and reassured the former
Soviet satellites that by resetting its relations with Moscow, the United States would not curtail its interest in the region.
Visiting
Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak and his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, signed an agreement last week aimed at bolstering economic ties between the two countries.
Hungary's opposition European People's Party-affiliated FIDESZ has announced that it will bar foreigners from buying arable land indefinitely if it wins elections this month. Fidesz is widely expected to obtain an absolute majority in parliament.
Belarusian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, Vasily Pavlovsky informed that the country intends to export
Belarusian flax yarn to
China and
Japan. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also approved the draft inter governmental agreement signed with Azerbaijan on promotion and reciprocal protection of investments.
Last week, in an oil-for-arms deal with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko,
Venezuela’s Chavez was able to add advanced ground-to-air radars to his arsenal.
Alexander Surikov, Russia's ambassador to Belarus, has said that there is a sharp difference in opinion between the two nations over the cost of a Belarusian nuclear power plant project. Last year the
Belarusian government requested a $9 billion loan from Russia for the construction of the plant.
Cuba,
Ukraine and the
Chernobyl International Fund signed last week a medical cooperation accord, which will give continuity to the medical treatment of children from that nation suffering from health problems as a consequence of the1986 nuclear accident.
Ukraine’s new leadership said last week that it was inviting Russia to join the European Union in a plan to restore Ukraine’s gas pipeline network which carries crucial supplies of
Russian gas to Europe. The announcement by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov effectively reversed a March 2009 agreement, signed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, for the EU to overhaul its pipeline system.
The
Ukrainian Parliament refused last week to put on the agenda a draft resolution on
Ukraine’s participation in forming a Common Economic Space (CES) together with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and in the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation.
Tiny Baltic State
Estonia which joined NATO in 2004 said last week that it has taken a surface-to-air missile system from European defense giant MBDA and Sweden's SAAB in its largest-ever defense contract.
According to the Cabinet of
Lithuanian, the Baltic state, which used to import 3 billion cubic meters of gas from GAZPROM annually, may have to increase its consumption by 150 percent to 200 percent.
Poland, along with
France and
Germany, is seeking to adopt common strategy regarding the future on European Union farming policy.
According to the Finance Ministry estimate, the
Poland's inflation probably has decreased from 2.9 percent to 2.6 percent year-on-year in March. Meanwhile Poland's public debt rose to 49.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 and stood just 0.1 percentage points below the first debt safety level.
The International Monetary Fund has signed an agreement with the
Czech National Bank to provide it with about $1.4 billion.
According to the finance ministry's Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL),
Slovakia has sold 239.5 million euros ($323.6 million) worth of two-year, zero-coupon state bonds that mature on January 27, 2012.
The International Monetary Fund has approved last week releasing a $700 million tranche for
Belarus and said the country was adapting well to higher
Russian oil prices.
Moody's Investors Service Inc. raised the ratings outlook on
Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania to stable from negative, reflecting improved financial and economic prospects, as well as likely euro adoption in 2011.
The move by the ruling Centrist Civic Platform party in the
Polish parliament to increase the women seats to either half or a third of total seats, has aroused enormous controversy. Currently women have about a fifth of the seats in the lower house of the
Polish parliament and less than 10 percent of the places in the Senate, lower than in many western European countries.
The Controversial
Slovak Patriot Law requiring Slovak school children to sing the national anthem at the start of each school week and requiring new clerks in state administration to take a pledge of allegiance was passed again by the parliament with minor amendments and became effective on April 1st 2010.
Ukraine’s government has cut the salary of President Viktor Yanukovich by 50 percent. The salary of the former president was 41,000 hryvnas or 5,100 dollars. Yanukovich has also ordered to reduce his staff by 20 percent, or more. The staff of his predecessor numbered 530.
RUSSIAChechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the deadly Moscow metro last week (which killed 39 people and injured 85 others) following two new suicide bombings that killed at least 12 people in Dagestan.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are to discuss military and economic cooperation, including a $2.2 billion loan to buy Russian arms, during his first visit to the South American country. Also
Russia has offered to help Venezuela set up its own space industry, including a satellite launch site,
Meanwhile Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama last week approved the final terms of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty's successor, which would require the United States and
Russia to both lower their respective strategic arsenals to 1,550 deployed warheads.
Last week
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev harshly criticized State Duma deputies for failing to attend parliamentary sessions.
Moscow's markets shook off the bomb attacks on the city's metro to move higher last week, after focusing on the relief that the saga surrounding
Greece's bailout appears finally to have wound down. Meanwhile according to reports Germany's Henkel plans to build two more plants in
Russia for the production of mortar by 2012.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister Russia’s LUKOIL Company will invest 480 million dollars into the exploration and production of oil and gas in
Uzbekistan over 2010. Meanwhile the signing of a contract between
Russia and
Belarus to build the ex-Soviet republic's first nuclear power plant has been delayed due to disagreements over the project's cost.
US/CANADAUS Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed to an historic arms-control treaty on March 26th, calling for a substantial reduction of the two countries' deployed nuclear arsenals.
The
United States last week finalized its first greenhouse gas emissions rules on automobiles and significantly boosted fuel efficiency standards for the first time since the 1970s, moves Canada jointly imposed on its industry.
According to reports the RBC
Canadian Consumer Outlook Index dipped to 108 points in March from 109 in February, signaling that overall sentiment has barely budged. The index has been edging up and down since its launch in December, reflecting opinions that the country's economic recovery will be a bumpy one.
LATIN AMERICA
The
Bolivian and Argentine governments have updated a natural gas contract dating back to 2006, establishing guarantees for both sides and also for construction of a $98 million gas pipeline.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of
Brazil, has announced plans to visit Iran in May, to prevent that the crisis provoked by the nation’s nuclear program.
According to a recent poll 76% of Brazilians see the government of President Lula da Silva as good or great. The popularity of
Brazil's president is at its highest level since he took office in 2003. Meanwhile the president launched a $878 billion program to upgrade Brazil's infrastructure last week, setting out a major campaign banner for his chosen candidate in October elections.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon alleged last week that powerful groups in the United States appear to be blocking efforts to stem the flow of assault weapons fueling
Mexico's drug war.
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Mexico’s Secretary of Energy Georgina Kessels have signed a cooperation arrangement in Cancun,
Mexico to facilitate bilateral collaboration in the field of renewable energy. Meanwhile
Mexico’s peso rose for the third time this week as the unemployment rate in February fell more than the forecasted level.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said last week in Quito that his government has decided to "wait for the upcoming elections and see the attitude of the next Colombian President" to make a decision on resumptio
n of bilateral relations. Meanwhile
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro described as "politicized" the position of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which reported the "lack of independence" of the Judiciary in Venezuela. Also
Venezuela's highest court last week barred an outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez from talking to news media about criminal charges alleging he struck a police official. Following the incident the leader of
Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church accused the government of using judges and prosecutors to punish political adversaries.
With cycling and athletics medalists coming from the South American games,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez decreed the whole week of Easter as holidays in order to save energy. Chavez has also announced the discovery of a “super well” that shows an offshore field holds almost twice as much natural gas as originally estimated.
AUSTRALASIA
Australia has expressed alarm at growing support for a plan to allow limite
d commercial whaling, saying it could not accept the proposal before the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
New Zealand, which also opposes whaling, is supporting moves to allow restricted commercial hunts over the next 10 years if it means a big cut to the number of whales currently killed by Iceland, Norway and Japan.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week announced Australia's first population minister, citing concerns about sustainability as the number of people is tipped to balloon within decades. §
d the opening days of the campaign. The dispute between the Conservatives and Labour over payroll tax and public spending has eclipsed worries about a large budget deficit.
Obama signed a landmark arms-control treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week, a chorus of skeptics in 
