Serbian and Russian officials have signed an energy deal they say will turn Serbia into a major hub for gas supplies to Europe and boost Russia's economic influence in the region. The deal was signed in Moscow, where Serbia's President Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and other officials met President Vladimir Putin and their Russian counterparts. The agreement provides for the construction of a stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline in Serbia, including a major regional gas storage unit at Banatski Dvor. Under the deal Gazpromneft, the oil subsidiary of Russian gas monopoly, Gazprom, acquires a 51% stake in Serbia’s top oil and gas company, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS). The deal comes a week after Bulgaria joined the South Stream project, which is to have an annual capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas. The pipeline is to carry Russian gas via Bulgaria and Serbia to Hungary, Austria and Italy.

French police Jan. 24 arrested accused ETA militant Eneko Galarraga near Bayonne. Police said Galarraga was not armed and did not resist. The Spanish news agency EFE said Galarraga, 27, has been wanted in Spain since 2002 when escaped to France after the breaking up of ETA's "Zelatu" commando. The Basque pro-amnesty organization Askatasuna denounced the "repression [of] Basque political refugees" and accused France of "backing the Spanish strategy against the Basque independence movement." (EiTB24, Jan. 24)

Police in Barcelona arrested 14 men and raided several apartments, two mosques and a bakery over the weekend. Authorities said the group included 12 Pakistanis, an Indian and a Bangladeshi, and that bomb-making materials were confiscated. Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said Saturday that the detainees "belonged to a well-organized group that had gone a step beyond radicalization." He said Spanish authorities cooperated with foreign intelligence agencies in the raids, while local newspaper accounts said Madrid had been tipped off about militants leaving Pakistan to initiate a terror plot in Barcelona.

With the world's attention elsewhere, unsettling signs of a re-ignition of the Balkan conflict are mounting. Former KLA commander Hashim Thaci was elected prime minister of Kosova on Jan. 9 and vowed: "I assure you that within a few weeks we will declare independence." (Reuters, Jan. 9) One week earlier, a bomb exploded at the offices of a Serb bank, the Komercijalna Banka, in the ethnically mixed southern Kosova town of Dragas, causing considerable damage but no injuries. Kosova's Serbs, backed by Serbia and Russia, pledge to resist any moves towards independence. NATO's 16,000-strong Kosova peacekeeping force is braced for unrest after Serb-Albanian negotiations ended in deadlock late last year. The US and most EU states are expected to recognize an independent Kosova, after Russia blocked its secession at the UN Security Council last year. (Reuters, Jan. 2) In an unlikely twist, New England's Green Mountain State has become at least a minor geopolitical football in the controversy. Russia Today newspaper Jan. 18 tried to stick it to Uncle Sam with a piece cheering on the burgeoning Vermont secessionist movement. Despite its clueless rendering of "secession" as "succession," it makes the point that the Vermont separatists view US support for Kosova's independence as a propaganda tool:

Basques march in Bilbao

Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz has summoned Marian Beitialarrangoitia, mayor of the Basque town of Hernani, to give testimony Jan. 24 over her supposed support of "terrorism." At issue are comments Beitialarrangoitia made at a political rally for the parliamentary list of the Basque National Action party (ANV). During the rally, Beitialarrangoitia requested a round of applause for Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, two accused members of the Basque armed group ETA arrested days earlier. (EiTB24, Jan. 14)

At least 51 migrants drowned trying to cross from Turkey to Greece—and the European Union—when their boat sank in rough weather Dec. 9. The boat was carrying about 70 Palestinians, Iraqis and Somalians when it sank off Seferihisar, in the Aegean province of Izmir. Rescuers saved six; the death toll is expected to rise. Izmir's Gov. Orhan Sefik Güldibi noted the irony that the disaster happened on the eve of International Human Rights Day.

Basque activists arrested in the so-called "18/98" case began appearing before a judge in Bilbao Dec. 4, following a sweep that prompted angry protests over the weekend. Spain's High Court issued 46 arrest warrants for members of the Basque civil groups Ekin, Orain, Xaki and Fundación Joxemi Zumalabe, after a finding by magistrate Baltasar Garzón that they are fronts for the armed organization ETA. (EiTB24, Spain, Dec. 4) Thousands marched against the arrests in Bilbao Dec. 1, in a rally led by leaders of outlawed organizations, including the Batasuna party. (EiTB24, Dec. 2)

Six days before President Nicolas Sarkozy is to visit Algiers, the Algerian veterans' minister Mohamed Cherif Abbas was quoted in the daily Al-Khabar Nov. 26 attributing Sarkozy's rise to a "Jewish lobby" that holds sway over French politics, and implying the president—whose maternal grandfather was Jewish—exploited family connections. (AFP, Nov. 28) The comments came as the new violence in Paris' suburbs reached a height—and spread to Toulouse, where a library was set on fire and a dozen cars were torched. The riots, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in a police car collision with a motorbike Nov. 25, this time saw North African youth firing on police with shotguns. "This is a real guerrilla war," senior police union official Patrice Ribeiro told RTL radio. (AFP, NYT, Nov. 28)