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Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

The appearance of nuclear weapons materials on the black market is a growing global concern, and it is crucial that the United States reinforce its team of nuclear forensics experts and modernize its forensics tools to prepare for or respond to a possible nuclear terrorist attack. Large quantities of nuclear materials are inadequately secured in several countries, including Russia and Pakistan. Since 1993, there have been more than 1,300 incidents of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, including plutonium and highly enriched uranium, both of which can be used to develop an atomic bomb. And these are only the incidents we...

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

Prague/Bratislava- Over 34,000 foreigners came to live in the Czech Republic in the first six months of this year, compared to 25,000 in the second half of last year, which proves that the number of immigrants living in the country is rising, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) and foreigner police said today. According to the foreigner police, a total of 356,014 foreigners lived in the Czech Republic in the first half of this year, compared to 321,456 at the end of 2006. This means that about 34,600 foreigners have arrived in the Czech Republic to stay there permanently or temporarily...

Slovakia will definitively withdraw all troops from Iraq after almost four and a half years, and send more soldiers to NATO operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, the Slovak parliament confirmed on Tuesday. By the end of this year, the remaining two Slovak troops from the Iraqi Freedom operation command will leave Iraq, according to a report reaching here from Bratislava, Slovakia. Prime Minister Robert Fico promised to withdraw Slovaks from Iraq in his policy statement last summer. On the other hand, the government will reinforce its contingent in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Slovakia will send another 50 troops to Afghanistan next...

WARSAW. DECEMBER 10. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Ukraine will be invited to participate in a number of future meetings of the Visegrad Group - a regional alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - in a bid to boost EU cooperation with its eastern neighbors. "We will invite Ukraine to take part in a number of the Visegrad Group's future sittings," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said at a joint press conference of leaders from the Visegrad Group and Slovenia, broadcast Monday by news channel TVN24. The two-day meeting focused on EU neighborhood policy towards eastern countries, Kosovo...

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Slovakia's prime minister said Tuesday it was "hard to imagine" his country would recognize Kosovo if the breakaway Serbian province declares its independence unilaterally. Kosovo has vowed to do so in the coming months if the U.N. Security Council does not sign off on statehood, repeatedly saying it would not consider any other alternative. "It's hard for us to imagine that we would recognize a Kosovo that unilaterally declares itself independent," Robert Fico said after meetings European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Although it is formally a part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the U.N....

Slovak Police Say Seized Radioactive Material Was Uranium By Stefan Bos Budapest 30 November 2007 Officials in Hungary and neighboring Slovakia say police have detained three suspects who were in possession of material enriched enough to be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb." Stefan Bos reports for VOA from Budapest. A spokesman for the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard, Attila Kiss, tells VOA that, after months of preparations, Hungarian and Slovak police detained three suspects on charges of trying to sell enriched uranium for at least $1 million. Kiss says police discovered half a kilogram of enriched uranium in...

Three people have been arrested for trying to sell more than two pounds of an unspecified radioactive material, which officials then seized, police said Wednesday. Specialists were examining the radioactive material, which the three were trying to sell for $1 million, said police spokesman Martin Korch. Two of the suspects were arrested in eastern Slovakia, the other in Hungary, he said. They were not identified. Slovak and Hungarian police have been working together on the case for several months, Korch said. Hungary's National Bureau of Investigation had no comment Wednesday. The Czech news agency CTK, citing unconfirmed reports, said the...

Slovak Health Ministry Revokes Hospital Abortion Law in Face of Effective "Right-to-Life" Campaign 500 Centre for Bioethical Reform explicit abortion billboards had powerful effect By Peter J. Smith BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, September 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Right to Life" defenders won an impressive victory in Slovakia with the Health Ministry rescinding a law that forced all hospitals to provide abortions. Even the Slovak branch of Planned Parenthood attributed the graphic abortion truth campaign of Pravo Na Zivot for the Ministry's retreat over the abortion requirement. Pravo Na Zivot waged a relentless campaign starting in September to awaken Slovaks to the violence...

BUDAPEST, , 13 (UPI) -- Slovakia’s prime minister, rejecting a Hungarian reconciliation proposal, says Hungary should unilaterally apologize to Slovaks, Hungarian media said Thursday. Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz in Budapest Thursday supported a recently proposed draft declaration on reconciliation between Hungarians and Slovaks, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition last week proposed the declaration to be passed by the parliaments of Hungary and Slovakia expressing regret for the treatment of minorities from each neighboring country during certain periods in the last century. The draft suggested Hungary apologize for its policy towards a Slovak...

500 Graphic Abortion Billboards Go Up in Slovakia Marking 50th Anniversary of Legalization BRATISLAVA, September 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This year marks the 50th anniversary of the legalisation of abortion in Slovakia.  In this time 1.37 million unborn children have been killed under the communist legislation.  The current population of Slovakia is only 5 million. In order to show the Slovak people the reality of abortion and to break the conspiracy of silence which surrounds this issue the first phase of a new national campaign, Pravo Na Zivot, was launched this week with the public display of 500 graphic abortion...

International Planned Parenthood Federation Launches New Abortion Campaign in Europe Uses strongly anti-religious language By Maciej Golubiewski BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, August 31, 2007 (C-Fam.org) - Using strongly anti-religious language, the European branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has recently issued a document entitled "Why We Need to Talk about Abortion" calling for the legalization of abortion in the European Union (EU).  While acknowledging that the member states retain "ultimate responsibility" for abortion legislation, the IPPF-Europe urges the EU Commission and the European Parliamentarians to act "despite this mandate" to "drive the issues forward" and "keep them high on the...

A Date Worth Remembering: August 20, 1968 by Krzys Wasilewski On August 20, 1968, the forces of the Warsaw Pact crossed the borders of Czechoslovakia to provide “fraternal help,” or rather, reinstate a hard-line communist regime. In a matter of two weeks, 200,000 soldiers from Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union quenched the liberal rebellion, burying the hopes of easing the Soviet grip in Central Europe for decades. Although it lacked the geographic importance of Poland or East Germany, Czechoslovakia still remained an important place on the map of the USSR’s influence. Shortly after the end of...

(RTTNews) - Slovakia's gross domestic product or GDP rose 9.2% year-over-year in the second quarter, a flash estimate from the statistical office reported Tuesday. The volume of GDP reached SKK449, 3 billion. At current prices, the GDP grew 11.3%.

Prague (dpa) - Daniel Novy, a spokesman for the Czech embassy in Washington, did not celebrate when US President George W Bush signed into law a bill that introduces new rules for visa-free travel to the United States. "It is the way it is," Novy tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa matter-of-factly. "It is neither a complete victory nor a complete defeat." That is the gist of what the Czech Republic and five other former communist nations - Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia - said in a recent statement. They billed the new US visa rules a step in the right...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions. "These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah...

What is a fair voting system for the European Union? It looks as though, thanks to Poland, European leaders will be forced to debate this difficult question at their summit this week. Since the simplified draft treaty is substantively identical to the old and rejected constitution - minus some cosmetics - the voting system proposed is going to be the same one: passage of legislation requires a coalition of countries representing at least 55 per cent of the member states and 65 per cent of the population. The Poles have threatened a veto unless the second of those two numbers...

May 21, 2007 2:15 PM Bratislava (CTK) - Some ethnic Hungarians are seeking political autonomy in southern Slovakia, Jan Slota, leader of the ultra-nationalist Slovak junior ruling National Party (SNS), told journalists today. In the future, Slovakia can lose its part as Serbia did in the case of Kosovo, in which Albanians prevail, Slota added. "Some people from the ethnic Hungarian minority in Slovakia are starting a campaign for political autonomy," Slota said. He said that various T-shirts and printed material with a map of the area in question were evidence of this. Serbia was in the same situation two...

Polish PM says U.S. missile defense system helpful for Europe Polish Prime Minister Jaroslav Kaczynski said Friday that a U.S. missile defense plan in Poland and the Czech Republic would benefit Europe, according to press reports reaching Prague. Kaczynski told reporters after holding talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Slovakian capital Bratislava that he is convinced the missile defense shield "will have great use for the whole of Europe." The missile system, including a radar base in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, "would be no threat to our eastern neighbors, particularly Russia," he added....

Poles and Slovaks do not agree over US missile shield radar base Posted : Fri, 11 May 2007 14:40:01GMT Bratislava - Slovakia and Poland had not reached any agreement on the hosting of a missile shield radar base in Poland, Polish Premier Jaroslav Kaczynski and his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico told reporters in Bratislava Friday. Although the relationship between the two countries was generally very good the countries had differences of opinion on some aspects of foreign policy, the leaders said during an official visit of the Polish prime minister to Slovakia. The area of greatest disagreement was the planned...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) -- Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, officially opened Tuesday a euro1 billion (US$1.36 billion) plant in Slovakia and said it planned to invest another euro100 million (US$136 million) in the country, an official said. The plant, located near the northwestern city of Zilina, is the company's first in Europe. Though it was unveiled Tuesday, production began in December, said Dusan Dvorak, the plant's spokesman. The maximum capacity of 300,000 cars a year is expected to be reached by 2010 and the factory will create 3,000 jobs, Dvorak said. This year, it plans to produce 150,000...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, March 30, 2007 – Slovakia is a key ally in the global war on terror, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here yesterday. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani participated in a joint news conference with Slovak Lt. Gen. Peter Gajdos, the deputy chief of the General Staff, which highlighted military cooperation between the NATO allies. Giambastiani thanked the Slovak republic and military for support in Iraq and highlighted the Slovakian role in missions in both Afghanistan and Kosovo. “As a former NATO and supreme allied commander, this type of performance by military forces...

March 27, 2007 8:39 PM Bratislava, March 27 (CTK) - The governing coalition of Slovakia will push through the declaration in the parliament that will reject Kosovo's independence as a resolution to the effect was passed by the parliamentary foreign committee. The resolution says that Kosovo's full independence would not give stability to the Balkans. However, the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party (SDKU-DS) says that the text admits the declaration of Kosovo's independence. The parliament may probably end a lengthy debate on Slovakia's position on the future of the South Serbian province. The debate has led to the...

BRATISLAVA (AFX) - Slovakia's economy grew by 9.5 pct in the fourth quarter of 2006 from the year-earlier period, Slovak Statistics Office said. The growth rate fell slightly from the 9.8 pct recorded in the third quarter. Manufacturing, trade and financial services together with strong domestic and foreign demand were the main factors driving growth in the latest quarter, the office said.

BRATISLAVA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Slovakia expects South Korea's Samsung Electronics to decide by the end of February where to site a roughly $600 million LCD-panel plant, Slovak state investment agency SARIO said on Tuesday. Slovakia is a frontrunner for the new project, Slovak officials have said, as the Korean firm already has its largest flat-screen TV plant in Europe in the southwestern town of Galanta. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were also seen to be in play. "Samsung promised to give us their decision on the plant by the end of March. But we expect them to decide...

Slovaks frustrated by Canada and US visa requirements 12.1.2007 - Emilie White Thousands of Slovaks visit Canada and the USA every year. But before the go they need to apply for a visa - a bureaucratic procedure that leaves many of them frustrated. What's the prospect for Slovaks to travel visa-free to North America? Canada and the United States work closely on border security issues. Just over over a month ago, President Bush announced that he wanted to help the Visegrad Four countries to be included in the US Visa Waiver Program. The US Ambassador to Slovakia, Rodolphe Vallee, explains...

The EU disposes of 154 nuclear reactors altogether. The US has 104, Japan 55 ones. This more or less goes hand in hand with the respective populations (in neither case a number of reactors very far from one for every 3 million inhabitants). Is 154 reactors enough for 496,000,000 Europeans? More and more EU citizens are beginning to think it's NOT. The biggest non-EU European country, Russia apparently want more nuclear power too. Russia are presently more than DOUBLING their number of reactors, going from 29 to 59 ones. This is being accomplished with giant loans from the EU. The...

U.S. to ease travel curbs for central Europeans: Bush Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:46am ET TALLINN (Reuters) - U.S. President George Bush vowed on Tuesday to work to ease travel curbs for citizens of central and eastern European countries in an immigration policy change set to please allies that have helped Washington in Iraq. "I am pleased to announce that I am going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver program," Bush told a news conference during a visit to the Baltic republic of Estonia. "It's a way to make sure that nations...

Pole and Slovak die in roadside ambush in Iraq 11.11.2006 A Polish and Slovak soldier have been killed in an ambush near the city of al Kut in Iraq. Two other members of the military patrol, a Pole and Armenian, sustained injuries and have been taken by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad. Their condition is reported to be stable. Spokesman for the MOD said the patrol had been attacked with a remote controlled home made bomb placed at the side of the road. After detonating it under the passing Hummer, the assailants shelled the vehicle and its crew with...

Slovaki hesitates over troop relocation in Aghanistan 3.11.2006 - Anca Dragu Slovakia has been asked by NATO to move its troops in Afghanistan from Kabul to Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan but the Slovak cabinet is hesitating over concerns about its soldiers' security. Slovakia has a 57-strong army engineering unit active within the framework of NATO's international security assistance force in Afghanistan. They are located at Kabul airport and are tasked with reconstruction, repairing runways and de-mining. NATO has suggested that it needs these troops in Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan. Last Monday NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer came to...

The Czech National Day: celebrating a state that no longer exists 27.10.2006 - David Vaughan The 28th October is an unlikely date for Czechs to be celebrating their national holiday. After all, it commemorates the founding of a state that no longer exists. Czechoslovakia was established in 1918 with the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of World War I, and was relegated to the history books 74 years later, when Czechs and Slovaks - or rather their political leaders - decided to go their separate ways at the end of 1992. While Slovaks quickly forgot their old...

30,000 bureaucrats to lose jobs NEARLY 30,000 state bureaucrats could lose their jobs if the government fulfils its plans to cut state jobs by one-fifth next year. How much the state will save thanks to these cuts remains unclear, however. PM Robert Fico believes that the savings will already be felt in 2008, the Pravda daily wrote. Analysts doubt that blanket layoffs are the best solution. Slovenská sporite¾òa’s chief analyst, Juraj Kotian, said that some ministries use their human resources more efficiently than the others. “If blanket layoffs take place, the most efficient ministries will actually suffer the most. Those...

Central European democracies hang tough By Michael J. Jordan, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Wed Oct 18, 4:00 AM ET BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA AND BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - As peoples who have been subjugated for much of their history, Central Europeans aren't exactly known for embracing the spirit of Monty Python's ditty, "Look on the bright side of life." Yet today it's the foreign observers who are all gloom-and-doom, warning that the political crises rippling through some of the European Union's youngest democracies signal "instability" and "backsliding." But from last month's riots in Hungary to the collapse of Poland's controversial government,...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European socialists have made a "historical" move to temporarily suspend the party of the Slovak prime minister from its meetings and decision-making, due to Slovakia's social democrats lining up with extreme nationalists in the country's ruling coalition. After almost a three-hour debate at the European socialist party's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday (13 October), national delegations from all EU member states but Slovakia and the Czech Republic voted to freeze contacts with the Slovak SMER party. "We have decided on a resolution which is historical," said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the president of the Party of European...

Bratislava- Slovakia will open its labour market to the citizens of Bulgaria and Romania that will probably become new EU members early next year, the Slovak government decided today. The government said in its resolution that it does not expect a marked increase in the interest of the two countries' citizens in jobs in Slovakia. "Slovakia is not an attractive state like other traditional target countries of migrants," the Slovak foreign and labour ministers said. It is expected that the two countries' interest in the Slovak labour market will be also decreased by the language barrier and that citizens of...

Political tremors hit Central Europe By Jan Repa BBC Central Europe analyst In the last few weeks, Hungary has seen the biggest anti-government protests since the fall of communism. In the Czech Republic, the government has just resigned after failing, since parliamentary elections in June, to assemble a working majority. Poland's parliament is expected in a few days' time to vote on an opposition motion calling for early elections, following a break-up of the governing coalition of conservatives and populists. Four months ago, Slovak voters threw out a reforming liberal-centre right coalition, much favoured by Slovakia's Western partners, and replaced...

Hungary: a 'hooligan revolution'? Why EU bureaucrats have been so snobbish and hostile towards the demonstrators in Budapest. Much of the Western media coverage of the rioting in Budapest has denounced the rioters in snobbish and hostile terms. The riots have been referred to as a ‘Goulash revolution’, to indicate that they are not as nice or respectable as those Orange and Velvet revolutions. Newspapers have uncritically quoted Hungarian politicians denouncing the ‘vulgarism’ of the apparently ‘far-right football hooligans’ who make up the rioters’ numbers. One influential left-leaning blog in Britain said the rioters are the ‘hooligan fans of the...

A question of honor Robin Shepherd International Herald Tribune Published: September 20, 2006 BRATISLAVA, Slovakia Rarely has a modern European leader been more brazen in his contempt for basic standards of political decency. After Hungary's socialist prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, admitted that he had secured re-election earlier this year after lying to voters about the true state of the economy "morning, evening and night" for the whole of his premiership, it is difficult to know whether one should be more appalled by his admission or by the astonishing fact that he is now trying to make political capital out of...

Tension has increased between Slovakia and Hungary, following recent attacks on members of Slovakia's sizeable Hungarian minority. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany condemned what he described as "atrocities" and rising xenophobia in Slovakia. Both are EU member states. Hungary's foreign ministry summoned the Slovak ambassador on Monday to protest against the attacks. Slovakia has promised to take action, but says Hungary is overreacting. Nearly 600,000 ethnic Hungarians live in neighbouring Slovakia, making up about 10% of the country's population. 'Intimidation' The row erupted after a young ethnic Hungarian woman was beaten up in the Slovak town of Nitra last Friday,...

These days, the people of the Slovak Republic is celebrating two important events in its modern history –August 29, 1944, the 62nd anniversary of the National Slovak Insurrection, and September 1, 1992 – the 14th anniversary of the Day of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. The National Slovak Insurrection represents one of the most important chapters of Slovak history, even if its unilateral interpretation during the Communist regime stressing the guiding role of the Communists and denying the role of the Army and of the strong civic resistance for a while jagged the meaning of that progressive historic legacy...

HUNGARIAN Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany condemned an increase in "atrocities" against ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia today after a girl was beaten and robbed in a Slovak town. Mr Gyurcsany called a press conference after the ethnic Hungarian girl was attacked in Nitra, western Slovakia, yesterday after being overheard speaking Hungarian on her mobile phone. The attackers forced her to take off her shirt and wrote "Hungarians go back to the other side of the Danube" on it. Mr Gyurcsany called on Slovak premier Robert Fico to condemn what he said was rising xenophobic and anti-Hungarian rhetoric in neighbouring Slovakia, and...

Warsaw Pact invasion commemorated TOP Slovak officials including MPs and President Ivan Gasparovic commemorated the 38th anniversary of the invasion of the former Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces on August 21, 1968. Gasparovic laid wreaths at SNP Square and Šafárikovo Square in Bratislava. Two people were killed by the invading troops at these locations - Peter Legner on SNP Square and Danka Košanová on Šafárikovo Square. "This event was a black day in the history of the Slovak nation and of the former Czechoslovakia," Gašparovic said. MPs from the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) were also among the politicians paying...

Slovakia says to buy pipeline stake from YUKOS 2006-08-09 19:19 By Peter Laca BRATISLAVA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The Slovak government reached a deal with bankrupt Russian oil firm YUKOS on Wednesday to buy back a 49 percent stake in Slovak oil pipeline operator Transpetrol. Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said after negotiations with officials of YUKOS Finance, which formally owns the Transpetrol shares, that the deal was still subject to approval by a U.S. judge overseeing part of YUKOS bankruptcy proceedings. "We need a ruling by a U.S. bankruptcy judge for finalising the matter, and for signing the necessary documentation,"...

"Eight countries - Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania Luxembourg and Malta - are blocking the idea that the EU should pay for projects using embryonic stem cells for genetic research. They insist the common EU budget should not be used for activities banned in some member states, despite the argument that such research could be crucial in finding cures for chronic diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's." "Germany has stepped up its resistance. Its research minister Annette Schavan sent a letter on Thursday (20 July) to the presidency condemning the idea of EU cash being used for stem cell...

Robert Fico took office as Slovakia's first leftwing prime minister yesterday, against a backdrop of concern that he will destroy the country's hard-won diplomatic and economic reputation. Diplomats and fellow European socialists are distraught that Mr Fico ignored foreign opinion and chose to ally himself with two parties that led Slovakia into international isolation in the mid- 1990s: the Nationalists and the HZDS of Vladimir Meciar, the country's authoritarian founder. ADVERTISEMENT Business and the financial markets are also worried that this populist coalition will enable Mr Fico to push through his pledges to roll back the free-market reforms of outgoing...

Left-wing opposition wins Slovak election, looks to take office by Chris Johnstone BRATISLAVA (AFP) - Slovakia's left-wing opposition was poised to form a new government after winning most votes in the weekend general election, spelling the end of liberal economic reforms that have split the country. The Smer party, which has vowed to scrap economic reforms, won Saturday's vote with 29.14 percent of the ballots, giving leader Robert Fico the opportunity to form a government, electoral officials said. "For us, the result is fantastic," said 41-year-old Fico. "I hope that we will succeed in forming a coalition government which will...

Hundreds evacuated from flood-hit Poland and Slovakia WARSAW (AFP) - Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas of Poland and Slovakia as torrential rain caused flooding, local authorities said. Some 500 people were forced to leave their homes in the southeastern Polish town of Jaslo, mayor Andrzek Czarnecki said on Polish television station TVP. Several farms and thousands of hectares of agricultural land were flooded when rivers burst their banks. A flood alert was announced in around 20 townships in the Nowy Sacz and Tarnow regions of southeastern Poland, but by Sunday the situation had eased, the local crisis centre...

ASSOCIATED PRESS ROME -- Italy's new research minister has touched off a political storm in this Roman Catholic country by saying he was open to embryonic stem cell research. The fuss began when University and Research Minister Fabio Mussi - a left-wing lawmaker from a former Communist Party - said during a visit to Brussels this week that he had removed Italy's signature from a "declaration of ethics" objecting to using European Union funds for embryonic stem cell research. The declaration had allowed its seven signatories to block any EU plans for funding such research in countries that allow it....

EUROPE DAY Did you know there was a "Europe Day"? A day to celebrate the EU? Me neither. But May 9th is it. Here's some thoughts of mine on the poor doomed European Union: Question: What do you get when you take two world wars, add the two most malign ideologies of the century, throw in genocide, the collapse of religious institutions, radical secularism, a political elite sealed off from opinions it finds distasteful, spiraling social costs, deathbed demographics and growing numbers of an unassimilated immigrant population? Answer: You get Europe in the new millennium - mired in aggressive pacifism,...