Europe

Anarchist cell claims Rome embassy attacks

Italian authorities say an anarchist cell claimed responsibility for parcel bomb attacks on the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, in which two staff members were injured.

Europe

HRW protests deportation of Roma to Kosova

Roma and related minority groups deported from Western Europe to Kosova face discrimination and severe deprivation amounting to human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch says in a new report.

Europe

Hungary: CEO arrested over deadly chemical spill

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that police have arrested Mal Rt CEO Zoltan Bakonyi on criminal negligence charges for the company’s role in last week’s Akja chemical spill.

Europe

Hungary: sludge spill flows toward Danube River

A flood of red toxic sludge spilled by an aluminum plant in western Hungary has advanced along a secondary tributary to the Danube River and could reach the international waterway by the weekend.

Europe

Italy: green mayor assassinated

Organized crime is widely suspected in the slaying of Angelo Vassallo, the environmentally conscious mayor of the Italian coastal town of Pollica.

Europe

Echoes of Nazism seen in Sarkozy’s Roma policy

France reacted angrily to comments by former Cuban leader Fidel Castro that Paris is carrying out a “racial holocaust” against the Roma community with its policy of forced expulsions.

Europe

Balkan Basketball War: flashpoint Kosova?

Albanians and Serbs clashed in the divided Kosova town of Mitrovica, apparently triggered by Albanians who were celebrating the defeat of Serbia’s national basketball team in a semi-final against Turkey.

Europe

France: thousands protest anti-Roma crackdown

Some 12,000 marched in Paris to protest French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s mass expulsion of Roma migrants. Some 1,000 have been summarily deported since the policy was announced last month.