World News

(This section will be daily updated with short information, breaking news and interesting links. Keep informed!)

Wednesday - December 26, 2007


Take the Survey: The best in WAVE Magazine in 2007!

New Year is coming, we are summing up the old one! So many articles, so many topics in 12 monthly issues... What did you like the most in WAVE magazine in 2007?

Give your votes to the favorite article and favorite author!

Tell us your opinion!

Friday - December 21, 2007


9:11 AM EST: Former Cold War borders fall away in new Europe

ZITTAU, Germany (Reuters) - Frontiers in east Europe once guarded by machineguns and barbed wire in the Cold War fell away on Friday as nine mostly former communist states joined the EU's border-free zone amid fireworks, cheers and music. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself from ex-communist East Germany, hailed as historic a move seen by many as a final lifting of the old Iron Curtain. From midnight, the nine joined 15 existing members to create an area one third the size of the United States, allowing passport-free travel for 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from Estonia to Portugal. The extension of the European Union's so-called Schengen zone brought in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The move is expected to boost business and tourism, though some worry about a rise in crime or illegal immigration. Border posts were ceremonially lifted or cut, border guards left their booths and people walked freely across frontiers that once divided the former Soviet bloc from the West.

Sunday - December 16, 2007


2:47 AM EST: Bali breakthrough launches talks

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Nearly 200 nations agreed at U.N.-led talks in Bali on Saturday to launch negotiations on a new pact to fight global warming after a last-minute reversal by the United States allowed a breakthrough. Washington said the agreement marked a new chapter in climate diplomacy after six years of disputes with major allies since President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, the main existing plan for combating warming. But despite its dramatic turnaround in the meeting, which approved a "roadmap" for two years of negotiations to adopt a new treaty to succeed Kyoto beyond 2012, the White House said it still had "serious concerns" about the way forward.

Thursday - December 13, 2007


17:19 GMT: EU leaders sign landmark treaty

LISBON (BBC News) - EU leaders have signed a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that is expected to greatly alter the way the 27-nation body operates. The treaty creates an EU president and a more powerful foreign policy chief. The document, signed at a ceremony at the city's historic Jeronimos Monastery, also scraps veto powers in many policy areas. It is a replacement for the EU constitution, which was abandoned following French and Dutch opposition. EU leaders insist that the two texts are in no way equivalent.

Wednesday - December 12, 2007


03:25 AM EST: Eleven U.N. staff among dead in Algeria bombs

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Eleven U.N. employees are believed to have been among those killed when car bombs hit U.N. and other buildings in Algiers on Tuesday and more U.N. staff were still unaccounted for, a U.N. spokeswoman said. At least 26 people were killed when suspected al Qaeda militants detonated twin car bombs in Algeria's capital, in one of the bloodiest attacks since civil strife in the 1990s.

Tuesday - December 11, 2007


09:06 AM CET: Russia: Kosovo decisions outside UN illegal

MOSCOW (B92, Tanjug) - On the day the Troika mandate ended, the Russian envoy voiced Moscow's support for continued Kosovo negotiations. Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, who, along with his EU and U.S. colleagues mediated the talks between Belgrade and Priština on behalf of the Contact Group, said Monday that Russia would on December 19 insist in the UN Security Council on more status negotiations for the province. If unilateral solutions are made, Russia will demand their annulment and the return of the process into a legal framework, he added. According to Botsan-Kharchenko, the Troika report, to be discussed by the Security Council on that day, contains numerous facts and conclusions that speak in favor of further talks.

Monday - December 10, 2007


12:02 PM EST: Argentina's Fernandez set to take over from husband

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - First lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was set to swap jobs with her husband on Monday and take office as Argentina's first elected female president in a rare transfer of power between spouses. Fernandez, a senator and lawyer, won an October 28 election promising to continue the policies of popular President Nestor Kirchner, who has presided over a dramatic economic recovery in South America's second-biggest economy. But Fernandez faces challenges as she opens a new chapter for Argentina's most powerful political couple since Juan and Eva Peron.


12:26 CET: Security Council UN receives Troika's Report

UNITED NATIONS (Tanjug) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon officially presented to the Security Council members late on Sunday a report of the international Contact Group Troika on the three-month negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Sunday - December 9, 2007


Ambitious EU-Africa summit ends in trade deadlock

LISBON (Reuters) - Africa and Europe's first summit in seven years ended on Sunday without agreement on the key issue of trade, dealing a blow to efforts to forge a new economic partnership between the two continents. More than 70 European and African leaders were also at odds on how to deal with Zimbabwe, which was singled out along with Sudan by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not respecting human rights. The two-day summit ended with an ambitious action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010.


Russia's Lavrov says Kosovo deadline not binding

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday deadlines for a deal over the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo were not binding and could hinder attempts to find a settlement. Negotiations between Serbs and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who want independence, failed to produce an agreement by a December 10 deadline. Kosovo is now expected to declare independence unilaterally, with Western backing. EU, U.S. and Russian mediators told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a report on Friday that their mission had failed as neither side was willing to give way on the fundamental question of sovereignty over Kosovo. Russia continues to back Serbia's rejection of independence for Kosovo.