Arguments began March 3 in the new trial of former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Moscow courtroom. Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev are facing new charges of embezzling and laundering nearly $20 billion during their tenures at the Russian energy firm OAO Yukos Oil Co. During the proceedings, the Moscow court rejected a request by Khodorkovsky's lawyers to remove two Russian state prosecutors who were involved in his 2005 trial for fraud and tax evasion. The court also rejected a defense request to move Khodorkovsky from the glass and steel enclosure where defendants are normally kept, which many Russian lawyers believe violates international law. Khodorkovsky's lawyers have said that they believe his trial will last for more than six months.

Voters in Spain's northern Basque country March 1 ended 29 years of rule by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), leaving the way open for prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's socialists to lead a new government in the region. But supporters of outlawed Basque parties say that without the banning of their slate, the nationalist forces would be the majority in the regional parliament. They assert that more than 100,000 people voted for the banned candidates as a symbolic protest.

Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was acquitted Feb. 26 of all charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Five other former high-ranking Yugoslav officials were convicted of crimes against humanity that same day. Of the five, former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, Yugoslav Army General Nebojsa Pavkovic and Serbian Police General Sreten Lukic were each sentenced to 22 years in prison, and former Yugoslav Army General Vladimir Lazarevic and Chief of General Staff Dragoljub Ojdanic were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Having already barred two pro-independence parties (3DM and Askatasuna) from taking part in the Basque Country's regional parliamentary elections March 1, Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón last week banned all their activities and ordered the closing of their offices and websites. Eight people remain in prison for trying to organize pro-independence election platforms.

Neo-Nazis and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators clashed with riot police and each other in Dresden Feb. 14 as the Hitler-nostalgist National Democratic Party used the 64th anniversary of the 1945 Allied bombardment of the German city to hold a 6,000-strong "mourning march." Counter-demonstrations, led in part by the city's unions, drew almost 10,000. Two police cars were over turned and several arrests were made in the street-fighting. For the last ten years, groups linked to NDP have marked the day with marches, but this year's was their largest yet. (EuroNews, Bloomberg, Feb. 14)

Jonathan Freedland writes for The Guardian, Feb. 4:

As British Jews come under attack, the liberal left must not remain silent
It should be perfectly possible to condemn Israel's brutal action in Gaza while taking a stand against antisemitism
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on September 11 2001 and July 7 2005, a noble impulse seized the British liberal left. Politicians, commentators and activists united to say to their fellow citizens that, no matter how outraged they felt at the loss of civilian life they had just witnessed, they should under no circumstances take out that anger on the Muslim community. Progressive voices insisted that Muslims were not to be branded as guilty by association, just because the killers of 9/11 and 7/7 had been Muslims and had claimed to act in the name of all Muslims.

A UN official said Feb. 5 that Spain's Law of Political Parties violates fundamental freedoms in the name of counter-terrorism. According to Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the law criminalizes as "support of terrorism" conduct that does not relate to any kind of violent activity.

Riot police fired tear gas to prevent farmers from the island of Crete from caravaning their tractors from the port of Piraeus to Athens Feb. 2. More than 1,000 farmers arrived with their tractors on ferry boats from Crete, intending to block the area in Athens around the agriculture ministry's headquarters, but police prevented them from leaving the port area. Several people were injured in the clashes, and at least four arrests were reported.