As we already reported on May 6, the influx of African migrants trying to reach Europe has created concern in some European countries and has given a reason to others to try to reform the rules of the Schengen accord with the aim to reimpose border control in the EU. On Wednesday, Denmark announced plans to set up customs booths at land border crossings, harbors and airports. Read the rest of this entry »

With all the turmoil in the Middle East and Africa, Israel has not been much on the news lately. All of a sudden we have heard about new developments that bring it back to our attention. First one is the proposal for a Palestinian state that will include all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The countries leading this proposal, Germany, Britain and France, would call for an Israeli withdrawal for almost all the territories that were captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarkozy might be quite involved in the Libyan war, but at home he had a beating this past Sunday in the second round of the local elections which took place to elect around half of the town councils in France. The conservative party of Sarkozy lost in part due to the unpopularity of the president and his cost-cutting measures, including in national education. Sarkozy is largely perceived as being too cozy with corporate interests. Read the rest of this entry »

Why everyday we hear a different approach about the no-fly zone over Libya from the U.S. government? We went from wanting to establish one to yesterday’s state department lack of support to today’s volte-face. Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing has changed much about the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya. While the Arab League has said that the civilians must be protected, Western countries are no near on getting an agreement about what to do to stop Gaddafi bombarding the rebels and the population of the areas where they are. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes one wonders if the western governments are not crying wolf too often about terrorism and at the end we are going to disregard their warnings just at the time when we should listen. In the US beginning with the color warnings we had -not even sure they are still issuing them- and the many other attack warnings, Americans are getting a little blasé about the whole thing and that could be dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »

In the wake of the economic and financial crisis, it was time for the G20 summit. After the dismal results of the mid-term elections and a little in desperation over the gloomy economic situation, the administration of US President Barack Obama was expecting some positive changes. Read the rest of this entry »