Europe - International Herald Tribune
News from Europe from The International Herald Tribune, the world's daily newspaper online.

• Russian democracy is work in progress
  After the recent landslide by Putin's party, Russian democracy has seemed to be an imitation of the real thing. But many urge patience: A history of one-sided power cannot soon be erased, they argue.
• Serbs use words of Western leaders to support Kosovo stand
  For the past two weeks billboards carrying the images of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle have appeared throughout the country above the mantra "Kosovo Is Serbia!"
• Turmoil feared as Kyrgyzstan holds election
  Kyrgyz voters cast ballots for a new Parliament on Sunday in an election that many fear could heighten instability in this poor nation in Central Asia.
• Paid in dollars, expats struggle to make a living
  Americans living abroad are finding it hard to economize in a world where the dollar isn't worth a €4 hill of beans.
• Hungary braces for strike on Monday to protest health sector privatization
  Several key unions confirmed Sunday they would begin an indefinite strike Monday in protest at the Socialist-led government's intention to privatize health insurance services and lower pensions from next year.
• Catholic priest stabbed in Turkey
  A Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach and hospitalized Sunday in the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey.
• Britain returns control of Basra to Iraqi forces
  Britain handed responsibility for security in Basra to Iraqi forces Sunday, ending nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq.
• Nations agree on steps to revive climate treaty
  In a dramatic turnaround, the U.S. agreed to a compromise that sets a two-year timetable for reviving an ailing, aging climate treaty.
• Portugal seeks new image as 'West Coast of Europe'
  For the Portuguese, being brushed off, overlooked or misunderstood by larger European countries is an all-too-common occurrence. Now they are trying to do something about it.
• Sarkozy and Brown offer starkly different futures for EU
  The French president called on the European Union to define a "new dream," while the British prime minister stressed the importance of economic reform, globalization and security.
• Russia says British Council offices were shut amid diplomatic tensions
  Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Britain had been deliberately worsening relations, prompting Moscow to shut the Council's offices in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg.
• Prime Minister Brown skips EU ceremony, and U.K. rivals pounce
  Blaming a scheduling clash, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain missed an elaborate signing ceremony Thursday for a far-reaching treaty on Europe's future, a move seen by critics as symbolic of his country's ambivalence toward the European Union.
• Child abuse cases in Germany prompt debate
  Recent tales of neglect, abuse and even murder have prompted a national conversation about how Germany cares for its children.
• For EU, rights falling victim to convenience
  It is difficult for the EU to find a common stance on human rights as it weighs the price of such a policy against trade and security considerations.
• Gates says U.S. will tone down appeals for more help in Afghanistan
  The U.S. administration has decided to tone down its appeals to NATO allies for more troops and other aid in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
• A rocky jaunt for Qaddafi in Paris
  The Libyan leader's five-day visit has been tarnished by fierce criticism that he has refused to address the issue of human rights abuses in his country and that President Nicolas Sarkozy has been too nice about it.
• Biggest Swiss political party quits cabinet
  The move by the rightist Swiss People's Party ended nearly half a century of government by consensus and opened what analysts saw as a period of uncertainty in Swiss politics.
• Chief of Hague tribunal, stepping down, calls for it to continue
  Carla Del Ponte appealed Thursday for the UN tribunal on the former Yugoslavia to be kept open until its chief fugitives are arrested and put on trial.
• In Italy, a winter of discontent
  These days, Italy finds itself in a collective funk - economic, political and social.
• Celestine Bohlen: Letter from Moldova
  Transnistria is a pawn in a tense game of East-West diplomacy.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, innovative German composer, 79
  Karlheinz Stockhausen, an original and influential German composer who began his career as an inventor of new musical systems and ended it making operas to express his spiritual vision of the cosmos, died Dec. 5 at his home in Kürten-Kettenberg, Germany. He was 79.
• Science and policy collide in EU over genetically modified crops
  EU officials have to decide what mix of science, politics and trade to apply when they consider whether to approve a genetically modified corn.
• In France, discrimination on upswing as violence smolders
  A second generation immigrants who have turned their back on France say, little will change unless widespread discrimination in the job market is stamped out.
• Lascaux cave paintings threatened by fungus
  For the second time in a decade, fungus is threatening France's most celebrated prehistoric paintings, the mysterious animal images that line the Lascaux cave.
• Prodi, despite all predictions, still is the prime minister
  Romano Prodi has weathered many storms in the office of prime minister in Italy, but now he is facing new challenges as his opponents realign themselves.
  
• Poll indicates how Europeans see U.S. election, and how some Americans see it
  Europeans seem more comfortable than Americans with the prospect of a woman or a black man becoming president of the United States, according to an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive in six countries.
• Desperation comes in all professions
  An educated Iraqi, a veterinary surgeon, arrived on the coast of Italy after 30 hours drifting at sea. He is just one of many professionals who move by desperate means from one unwelcome way station to another.
• What happened to Gordon Brown?
  Since Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office last summer, his government has had little time to do much governing, but has lurched from disaster to disaster.
• Rural Britain wants to take itself off the GPS map
  Trucks and tractor-trailers are constantly trying to navigate the small rural roads of little English villages, directed there by navigation devices looking for the shortest route.
• Sarkozy faces an uphill battle as a reformer
  An agent of change, President Sarkozy faces a major challenge with affirmative action.
• Serbs find comfort in dark wit
  The aphorism has a long and rich tradition among Serbs, who have used satire and dark humor to come