Thousands of protesters gathered in the suburbs of the central Italian town of L'Aquila July 10, as the G8 summit came to a close—the town itself being blocked off by thousands of riot police. "We do not want the G8 leaders to search for the ways to overcome the crisis that they started," said Paolo Ferrero of the Communist Refoundation Party, adding, "We want the demands of the affected people to be considered in the restoration of L'Aquila." Among the protesters were many local residents angered by the stalling of restoration work in L'Aquila, where nearly 300 died, 1,500 were injured and about 50,000 left homeless in April's earthquake. (Ria Novosti, July 10)

Thousands of protesters opposing expansion of the US military base at Vicenza clashed with Italian police over the weekend as world leaders gathered for the G8 summit. Riot forces fired teargas at demonstrators, some of them wearing crash helmets and carrying makeshift shields, who retaliated with hurled bottles and fireworks at a bridge leading to the base.

Former Kosova prime minister Agim Ceku was reportedly released June 25, two days after he was arrested in Bulgaria on an international war crimes warrant—although he is being asked not to leave Bulgaria. Ceku, wanted by Serbia for war crimes charges, was intercepted on the Bulgarian-Macedonian border following an Interpol "red notice." As a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Ceku is accused of command responsibility for the deaths of 669 Serbs and 18 other non-Albanians. A court in Serbia has sentenced him to 20 years in prison in absentia. (AFP, June 25; Balkan Insight, June 24)

Spanish police arrested three suspected ETA suspects in Guipúzcoa June 23. The Interior Ministry said the three formed an "armed commando" which was prepared to go into action immediately, but denied it was responsible for a June 19 car bomb attack near Bilbao that killed a National Police counter-terrorism inspector. The attack, if it was the work of ETA, ends a six-month lull in activity by the group, four of whose leaders have been arrested in the past year by French and Spanish police. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who broke off meetings in Brussels and returned to Madrid following the attack, said, "My will and my determination to finish ETA is unbreakable." (Typically Spanish, June 23; NYT, June 19)

On June 14, police in Most, Czech Republic, arrested 15 participants in a neo-Nazi march protesting last week's police raid against members of the National Resistance far-right group. In the June 9 police operation, code-named "Power," 10 were arrested on felony charges of promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms. They are suspected of organizing a series of Nazi-themed concerts. Petr Kotáb, vice-chair of the far-right Workers' Party, was among the arrested at the Most march. (Romea, Czech Republic, June 15)

More than 100 Romanians were moved to emergency accommodation in Belfast June 17 after a racist gang attacked homes in the university area of the city. Several of the immigrants were wounded, and one of the attackers was said to be brandishing a gun. Most of the displaced say they no longer feel safe in Belfast and intend to return to Romania. The intimidation culminated in an attack on a rally being held in support of the Eastern European migrants June 15, in which thugs threw bricks and bottles and made Nazi salutes, chanting slogans associated with Combat 18, a far-right faction. (London Times, June 18)

Some 1,500 Muslims took to the streets of Athens on May 21 in a protest prompted by reports that a police officer tore up a copy of the Koran while checking the identity papers of four Syrian (or, by some accounts, Iraqi) immigrants. Marchers chanted "Allah is great" and carried banners reading "Hands off immigrants." Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd when violence broke out. Most of the protesters were from Pakistan or Afghanistan. Immigrants from Asia try to enter Greece daily. Last year Greek authorities arrested some 150,000 for entering the country illegally. (AlJazeera, Radio Netherlands, May 22)

Italian police arrested 68 accused members of the Camorra, Naples' ruling crime machine, on May 19, in one of the biggest crackdowns on organized crime in recent years. Judges issued 109 arrest warrants for murder, drug trafficking, money laundering and other charges. The warrants were directed mainly at the Amato-Pagano family, part of the breakaway "Scissionisti" clan fighting a family led by Paolo Di Lauro. The police blame the war between the factions for dozens of deaths in recent years. The head of the Amato-Pagano family, Raffaelle Amato, 44, was arrested in Marbella, Spain, on May 17. (AFP, AKI, May 19)