Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantánamo Plans

Mar 16, 2009 - Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantánamo Plans By WILLIAM GLABERSON and STEVEN ERLANGER Published: March 15, 2009 New York Times European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as “the worst of the worst,” according to diplomats and other officials. The concerns, and a deep suspicion of whether the American intelligence community will share full information on the prisoners, are likely to complicate the resettlement effort, which is critical to President Obama’s fulfilling his pledge to close Guantánamo within a year of his taking office. The offers, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries, have been widely seen as efforts to win favor with the new administration by helping to close the camp, which was a contentious issue during the Bush years. - 6 Comments

Europe's economic slump deeper than expected

Feb 14, 2009 - Europe's economic slump deeper than expected By Eric Pfanner (The International Herald Tribune) Published: February 13, 2009 PARIS: Europe sank even deeper into recession than the United States in the closing months of last year, according to figures published Friday, as finance ministers of leading industrialized nations gathered in one of the worst-affected countries, Italy, for discussions on the crisis. In the fourth quarter, the economy of the countries sharing the euro declined by 1.5 percent, according to the European Union's statistics office. That is even worse than the 1 percent decline in the U.S. - 1 Comment

Russian gas disruption spreads across Europe

Jan 06, 2009 - By Christian Lowe Jan. 6, 2009 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia sharply cut gas flows to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday in a dramatic worsening of a pricing dispute with Kiev that threatened to disrupt supplies as far west as Italy and Germany. The escalation in the price dispute and severe cold weather drove the British gas market, Europe's biggest and most liquid, to its highest level since October. - 52 Comments

Another Spectre Is Haunting Europe

Feb 26, 2009 - Another Spectre Is Haunting Europe The street may replace the voting booth as the way to force change. by Andrew Stuttaford As the worldwide slump deepens so must worries that the economic crisis will spill out onto the streets. In December, France's president Nicolas Sarkozy warned that les évènements of May 1968 could repeat themselves, and not only in the land of the torched auto. - 17 Comments