France has a long good relationship with Russia and Russians. Before Soviet Union, the Russian elite spoke French and even among other Russians. Most of them were educated in France, many emigrated to France when the Bolsheviks took power and a lot died there.
The good relationship between the French and the Russians lasts to this day. So, when the news first broke that France could sell Russia an advanced war ship, I had no doubt …

Belgians will next week face supermarket shortages of Stella, Leffe and Jupiler, the country’s most popular beers, as a workers blockade of breweries in protest over job cuts continues over the weekend, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Trade unions have kept a stranglehold over the main breweries of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, which has its origins and headquarters in Belgium.
Workers have blockaded breweries at Leuven, home of Stella Artois, Jupille, where Jupiler is made …

The guard towers of Auschwitz are splintering, the barracks are waterlogged: the concentration camp where over one million Jews were murdered is decaying so fast that conservationists have called on Britain to help to save it, The Times reports.
The theft last month of its distinctive, sinister sign, “Arbeit macht frei” has underlined the vulnerability of the nazi death camp, stretching over 50 acres of southern Poland. “Nobody could have imagined such a horrific act of …

Spain’s communist Government – unfortunately the current holders of European Union’s rotating presidency, want the EU to go forward with improving relations with communist Cuba, despite a row after Havana’s refusal to grant entry to a Spanish member of the European Parliament.
“Isolation, blockage and embargo (against Cuba) do not lead to anything. They have not given any results in 50 years,” Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, according to monstersandcritics.com.
Moratinos made the comments …

European Court of Human Rights found that the Government’s powers under the Terrorism Act to stop and search people without grounds for suspicion are illegal, the BBC reports.
The Court were giving their ruling in a case involving two people stopped near an arms fair in London in 2003.
The Court said that the pair’s right to respect for a private and family life under human rights…

Parliament in deeply Catholic Portugal passed a law today to legalise same-sex marriage, the BBC reports.
The bill was approved with the support of the governing Socialist Party and other parties further to the left.
The law has been fiercely opposed by conservatives in the Catholic country.
If the law is ratified by President Anibal Cavaco Silva, it could come into effect in April – just a month before a visit to Portugal by Pope Benedict XVI, a …

The combined unemployment rate of the 27 European Union member states was 9.5% in November 2009, the worst is the situation in Spain and Latvia, where the unemployment rate is 19,4% and 22.3%, respectively.
The unemployment rate of eurozone – the 16 countries that use euro as their currency – was slightly higher than EU27’s rate – 9.5%, according to Eurostat.
In October, EU27’s unemployment rate was 9.4%, and eurozone’s respective figure in October was 9.9%, which …

European Union’s satellite navigation system Galileo moved a step closer to reality today as the bloc’s executive awarded the first contracts for its hardware, which means that the first European-operated satellite navigation services should come online in 2014, EarthTimes reports.
The biggest contract awarded was a €566 million (£509 million) order for Galileo’s first 14 satellites, placed with German firm OHB, based in the northern city of Bremen. The first satellite should be delivered …

Women who wear burkhas in public will be liable to a fine of more than £700 under strict new laws being formulated in France, the Daily Mail reports.
The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force their wives or other female members of their family to cover their faces.
Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party in the French parliament, said the new legislation was intended to protect the dignity and security of …

Four runaway coaches of a long-distance train overran the buffers and crashed into the office wing of the Holiday Inn Hotel in Finland’s capital Helsinki today, Helsingin Sanomat reports.
Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident that happened around 8:30am today, as the employees of the accounting firm Ernst & Young located in the office wing narrowly escaped the crash. The scope of the damage to the hotel building is not known yet, but …

This is something that you don’t hear every day, especially considering it’s 21st century and this is happening in the middle of Europe: former Yugoslavian state of Bosnia doesn’t allow Jews and Gypsies to run for parliament or presidency.
However, two good men took this outrageous and idiotic obstacle to the European Court of Human Rights, which naturally ruled that the country is violating the rights of Jews and Gypsies, in a decision that is binding …

Iceland’s Parliament approved plan today to repay £3.4 billion lost by savers in Britain and the Netherlands when the country’s banking system collapsed – £2.3 billion to Britain and £1.3 billion to Netherlands, the Daily Mail reports.
The money will reimburse the British and Dutch governments which stepped in to compensate depositors with Icesave after its parent bank Landsbanki failed last year.
The bank’s collapse left more than 320,000 savers out of pocket.
Iceland must settle the claims …

Lithuania is to shut down the country’s one and only nuclear power station in Visaginas today, the closure of the Soviet-era plant was a condition of Lithuania’s membership of the European Union.
One hour before midnight, staff at the Ignalina plant will flick the switches, shutting down the only nuclear reactor in the Baltic states, the BBC reports.
The move will mean an increase in power prices for Lithuanians and more reliance on Russia for energy supplies.
The …

Four people were murdered today in a shopping mall in Espoo, near Finnish capital Helsinki, police also found the body of a suspect and another murder victim in a private flat, newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports.
It’s suspected that Ibrahim Shkupolli murdered four young people in a Prisma shopping mall in Espoo, all of the victims – three men and one woman – were Prisma’s staff. Police hunting the suspect later found a fifth victim – suspect’s former girlfriend and also a former Prisma employee…

French constitutional court declared today that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s flagship carbon tax that was to be introduced on Friday, breaches the principle of equality in taxation.
The Constitutional Council said that Sarkozy’s scheme had so many exemptions that it “runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and breaches the principle of equality in taxation”, The Times reports.
According to Sarkozy, the carbon tax had “one objective – to force you to change your behaviour toward fossil fuels. …

Poland will formally seek Sweden’s help in investigating the theft of the “Arbeit macht frei” sign from the Auschwitz memorial, confirming that Polish authorities suspect a Swedish link in the crime, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Boguslawa Marcinkowska, a spokeswoman for Krakow prosecutors, said her office would send a formal request for help to the Swedish Justice Ministry in Stockholm.
Polish media have been reporting that the theft was commissioned by a collector living in Sweden, but investigators …