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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1351 )

• Charlemagne: On a Wing and a Prayer

  

  // A REMARKABLE pilgrimage site stands outside the town of Siauliai: a mound covered in a dense forest of crosses placed by devout Lithuanians who, for two... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Muslims in Marseille: Behind the Façade

  

  // The new Marseillaise AT THE entrance to the old harbour, the walls of the medieval Fort Saint-Jean are freshly scrubbed. Across a high-level walkway, the... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Spain and Catalonia: Wars of Spanish Secession

  

  // A CONFERENCE in Barcelona on April 24th drew both Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and Catalonia’s premier, Artur Mas. Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• German Taxes: Steep and Cold Progression

  

  // THANKS mainly to low unemployment, Germany keeps exceeding tax forecasts, with receipts that other European countries must envy. Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Ukraine’s Turmoil: Chaos out of Order

  

  // IT IS death by a thousand cuts. Every day sees more bad news for Ukraine’s government from the east. This week buildings were seized in Konstantinovka,... Read more

  Posted on 02 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Transdniestria: Beyond the River

  // FOR two decades, since a short war with Moldova ended in 1992, the self-declared republic of Transdniestria has been an unreconstructed vestige of the... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Germany’s Government: Easy Politics, Bad Policies

  

  // ANGELA MERKEL, Germany’s chancellor, is popular because Germans see her as a steady hand. In her first term, between 2005 and 2009, she coped with financial... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, POLITICS

• Organised Crime in Italy: From Toe to Top

  // FROM modest beginnings as the local mafia of Calabria, at the toe of the Italian boot, the ’Ndrangheta has spread far…The Economist: Europe Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Charlemagne: The Dragon in the Room

  

  // HOW clean is the European Union? To its critics, Brussels is a cesspit of waste and fraud. To its supporters, it is often a check on rapacious governments... Read more

  Posted on 26 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Turkey’s Presidency: Is Gul Going Or Coming?

  

  // Tell me what to do, pleads Gul RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN’S march to unchecked power is unstoppable. So the prime minister’s critics concluded on April 18th when... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Italian Politics: Silvio Berlusconi, Social Worker

  // NOT good: but far from the worst outcome. On April 15th a Milan court ruled that Silvio Berlusconi should serve his sentence for tax fraud by helping in an... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Culture Wars in Ukraine: History Lessons

  

  // Whose helmet is it, anyway? “HE WHO controls the past controls the future.” Orwell’s dictum now faces a new test. Shortly before Russia annexed Crimea, the... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Turkey’s Prime Minister: Erdogan v Judges, Again

  // THE biggest foes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan were the generals and the judges, who made common cause to try to oust Turkey’s pious prime minister (he was... Read more

  Posted on 22 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Greek Politics: Remaking the Political Landscape

  

  // GREECE’S chances of recovery after six years of misery are improving. Its first bond offering in four years, seen as a test of confidence, did much better... Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• French Politics: Vallsmania

  

  // Valls ties the boss in knots WHEN President François Hollande chose Manuel Valls as his new prime minister, he took a big gamble. Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Charlemagne: Russia’s Friends in Black

  

  // IF EUROPE’S far-right parties do as well as many expect in May’s European election, no world leader will be happier than Vladimir Putin. Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Ukraine and Russia: Wearily Back to the Battlefield

  

  // PETRO POROSHENKO, the front-runner in Ukraine’s presidential election, due on May 25th, exudes confidence. “There is no uncertainty. Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Spain’s Recovery: Better but Not Best

  // A TOLL road snakes west out of Madrid, offering a fast alternative to the jammed motorway alongside. Hailed a decade ago as a cure for congestion, the... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Italy’s Government: The Last Chance

  

  // Renzi, Roman tribune IN THE rare moments of reflection his frenetic schedule allows him, Italy’s new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, will admit he is... Read more

  Posted on 14 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL

• Press Freedom in the Balkans: Troublesome Times

  

  // Don’t read all about it for much longer THE media across the Balkans and in former Yugoslavia are doing badly, commercially and politically. Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2014 DESTINATIONS, TRAVEL