After a lengthy, interesting, and highly competitive presidential election in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich was finally sworn into office in the country’s capital of Kiev yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
By Edith Balazs
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said countries in central and eastern Europe should join together and create a “triangle” of supply points for natural gas to reduce dependence on fuel from Russia.
“I’m proposing that countries in the region set up a gas supply triangle to boost the diversity and security,” Bajnai said at an energy summit in Budapest today, which was attended by heads of government from countries in the region. “We need to increase the number of independent suppliers.” Read the rest of this entry »
KIEV, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday renewed her attacks on President-elect Viktor Yanukovich, whom she accuses of winning election through fraud, and rejected any post-election deal with him.
In a televised statement she accused her rival of already beginning to sell off Ukraine’s gas pipeline network — a sensitive issue since it touches on relations with Russia — and predicted he would not stay in power for long.
The sharp attack by the fiery 49-year-old premier, who on Saturday dropped her legal challenge to Yanukovich’s election, significantly raised political tensions before his inauguration on Thursday.
“Yanukovich, who came to power by lies, is not our president and he will not last long,” she told a televised broadcast. “I want to say that I would not, under any circumstances, create a coalition together with Yanukovich,” she declared. Read the rest of this entry »
Opposition leader Viktor F. Yanukovich has declared victory over current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine’s 2010 presidential election, which has garnered immense international attention over the last few months.
It is not yet official, and Tymoshenko will not concede, but exit polls currently put Yanukovich three to four points ahead. Read the rest of this entry »
Following Poland and the Czech Republic, top military officials in Romania announced that they have approved U.S. plans to base surface-to-air missile interceptors within their country.
Romanian President Traian Basescu hastily issued a statement yesterday saying he was prepared to negotiate the details of the missile defense system which, he added, could be up and running by 2015. Read the rest of this entry »
Polish scientists at the University of Szczecin have uncovered three teeth from the first Neanderthal remains discovered on Polish soil.
The findings were published in the German science journal Naturwissenschaften (Natural Sciences) on January 28 this year, after tests confirmed that the teeth found in 2008 indeed once belonged to a Neanderthal.
The teeth were uncovered in the mountains of the Polish Jura Chain – an area which claims more than 200 caves scattered among limestone rocks, cliffs, and outcroppings. Read the rest of this entry »
Romanian President Traian Basescu advised Moldovans to carry out the requisite reforms needed to join the European Union on Thursday, during a meeting at a state university in Southern Moldova’s Cahul.
“I tell you, Moldova’s place is in the EU. You need to take a decisive road to the EU,” President Basescu said to a large gathering of students. “This means sacrifices, to be accepted by the political class and the population. But these are worth it because the EU means you can aspire to prosperity.”
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Moldova has been lead by a series of communist, pro-Russia administrations who kept the country as a middle path between Moscow and Bucharest. Read the rest of this entry »
European Commission responds to updated budget cut proposals from ailing Eastern European economies Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta:
BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)–The European Commission on Wednesday said Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta are taking “effective action” to cut their budget deficits, but warned Hungary that its public finances face “considerable risks” this year.
Hungary likely hit its deficit target last year, with a shortfall worth 3.9% of gross domestic product, according to the commission, the European Union’s executive arm. But state revenue and spending are at risk this year and planned tax cuts next year could further hurt the country’s bid to bring its budget gap back below 3% of GDP by a 2011 deadline, the commission said. Read the rest of this entry »
A great write up on the recent gas dispute between Russia and Belarus, from TIME:
It is becoming a New Year’s tradition in Europe to wake up on January 1 with a big Russian headache. At the beginning of 2006 and 2009, Russia cut off energy supplies to Ukraine after a disagreement over natural gas prices, which subsequently caused fuel shortages in the European Union in the dead of winter. This January, all eyes are trained on Belarus, which has been having its own quarrel with Moscow over oil prices, threatening European energy supplies once again. But three weeks into the current standoff, there’s been a twist: Kazakhstan, another ex-Soviet republic, stepped in last week to offer Belarus its own oil. Now the Kremlin’s most reliable tool for controlling its neighbors — energy blackmail — is at risk of blowing up in its face. Read the rest of this entry »
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences have shortlisted nine foreign films, out of 65 contenders, for the prestigious Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards which will take place March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California.
Although the nine will be whittled down to just five final nominees by February 2, among the nine shortlisted include Bulgaria’s, “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner,” and Kazakhstan’s, “Kelin.”
If both films make the final cut, it would be the first Oscar nomination for a Bulgarian film and the second for Kazakhstan, after the country’s 2007 film, “Mogul.”
Here is the list of the final nine:
Argentina – “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”
Australia – “Samson & Delilah”
Bulgaria – “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner”
France – “Un Prophète”
Germany – “The White Ribbon”
Israel – “Ajami”
Kazakhstan – “Kelin”
The Netherlands – “Winter in Wartime”
Peru – “The Milk of Sorrow”
