Given the draconian measures against bird flu in Russia at the moment (ITAR-TASS, Feb. 9), this could be a protest against Chicken McNuggets. From AP, Feb. 19:

An explosion hit a McDonald's restaurant in St Petersburg on Sunday, injuring at least six people, partially destroying a ceiling and breaking windows, an emergency official said.

It barely rates a headline these days, but things are sure looking good in the long aftermath of another US military adventure, eh? From the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Feb. 12:

Hundreds gathered on Sunday, February 11, in the centre of Pristina to mourn the victims of the previous day’s demonstration against the UN peace plan that turned violent and ended in fatalities. Two people died and more than 80 were injured in clashes with the police.

Italian police claim to have averted a major terrorist incident after the arrest of 15 men and women in northern Italy, who they said were members of the Red Brigades. The alleged leader of the plot, Alfredo Davanzo, 50, imprisoned for 10 years in the 1980s for Red Brigades actions, has declared himself a political prisoner. Police said the group was planning attacks on the home of Silvio Berlusconi, the offices of his TV company Mediaset and of News Corporation's Sky Italia, the office of right-wing daily Libero, and of ENI, Italy's principal oil company.

The Chechnya War and the Right Not to Kill

from War Resisters International

On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known journalist who regularly exposed Russian human rights violations in Chechnya, was murdered in her flat in Moscow.

Last year we noted US plans for new military bases on the Black Sea coast of Romania and Bulgaria. Now a Jan. 28 report in Scotland's Sunday Herald indicates these bases could be used to launch air-strikes on Iran:

President Bush is preparing to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of April and the US Air Force's new bases in Bulgaria and Romania would be used as back-up in the onslaught, according to an official report from Sofia.

From the New York Times, Jan. 13, emphasis added:

ATHENS, Jan. 12 — An antitank grenade was fired into the heavily fortified American Embassy here on Friday just before dawn. The building was empty, but the attack nonetheless underscored deep anti-American sentiment here and revived fears of a new round of homegrown terror.

A potential opening for the kind of universalism that could go a long way towards chilling the planet out—and taking the wind out of al-Qaeda's Iberian franchise. But the local Catholic hierarchy isn't going for it. Maybe the Pope will exercise better judgement? From the Italian news agency AKI, Dec. 28:

The Bishop of the southern city of Cordoba, Juan Jose Asenjo, has turned down a request from its Muslim community to be allowed to pray with Christians in its cathedral - a former mosque. Asenjo was quoted as saying the joint use of consecrated places of worship would "generate confusion" and lead to "religious indifference".

This is why the European laws against Holocaust denial are completely counter-productive. They just provide a media spotlight (and therefore a voice) to these sinister charlatans—and worse, allow them to legitimately accuse the establishment of silencing them. Every turn in David Irving's legal fortunes has provided another opportunity for him to play the victim and spew his filth into extended microphones. From The Australian, Dec. 21, emphasis added (superfluously, we hope):