Hundreds of striking Finance Ministry and customs employees protested in Athens Feb. 17, as Prime Minister George Papandreou prepared to meet opposition leaders to discuss Greece's financial crisis. Greek unions oppose the new Socialist government's new austerity measures, as European finance ministers warned Athens othat it would have to impose even tougher budget cuts. Amid the strikes, a bomb exploded Feb. 16 at the Athens offices of JP Morgan, causing damage but no injuries. Police also defused a bomb outside the offices of the Citizen Protection Ministry. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the bombs, but police say they suspect anarchists. (AP, DPA, Feb. 17)

Russia's foreign ministry voiced its "concern" Feb. 5 at Romania's plans to host part of a new US "missile shield" system for Europe. "This is a serious matter," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Moscow will seek explanations from Washington and Europe. The statement came the day after Romania's President Traian Basescu announced his country has agreed to host medium-range ballistic missile interceptors as part of the US system, expected to be operational by 2015. The US State Department confirmed his announcement, saying the planned missile shield is intended to protect against the "emergent threat" from Iran.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas resigned Jan. 21 in the midst of a dispute with President Dalia Grybauskaite over secret US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons in the country. Grybauskaite has publicly said that she believes there were prisoners held in Lithuania, but Usackas has denied this. The dispute follows a parliamentary report that found that the CIA had been provided two facilities in Lithuania to interrogate al-Qaeda suspects. Usackas has maintained that no prisoners were actually held at the locations. On Jan. 20, Grybauskaite had urged Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius to dismiss Usackas because he had lost the president's confidence and trust.

Spain's National Court Jan. 13 convicted five people for their involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings on charges of supporting terrorist groups that planned attacks. The men were indicted in November, along with two other suspects, and were accused of providing money, housing, food, and forged documentation to the suspected perpetrators of the Madrid bombings. The suspects, Moroccan, Algerian, and Turkish nationals, were sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to nine years. Among those sentenced was the group's alleged leader, Omar Nakhcha, who received the harshest term.

Spanish Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska ruled Jan. 12 that Basque separatist group ETA had tried three times to assassinate former Spanish prime minister José Maria Aznar in 2001. Grande-Marlaska detailed the three assassination attempts as part of a description of the alleged crimes of ETA leader Pedro Maria Olano Zabala, who was arrested in the Basque region last week. The group had allegedly tried three times to use a rocket launcher to fire a missile at Aznar's plane in retribution for Aznar's refusal to accept negotiations with the group, but the launcher failed three times and was finally sent to ETA operatives in France for repair. Rocket launchers belonging to ETA have reportedly been seized in France.

The leader of France's conservative party introduced legislation Jan. 12 that would ban wearing of the burqa in public and make it punishable by 750 euros. Jean-Francois Cope, leader of the Union for Popular Movement (UMP) in the National Assembly, is heading the legislative effort, spurred on by French President Nicholas Sarkozy's announcement in June that those who wore the burqa were not welcome in France. The bill also has the support of some French socialists, as well as that of Prime Minister Francois Fillon. An official commission into the issue is expected to report by the end of January.

More than a thousand African immigrant workers were put aboard buses and trains in the southern Italian region of Calabria over the weekend and shipped out to detention centers, following an outbreak of violence over the weekend in the town of Rosarno. Three days of rioting that began Jan. 7 when a group of immigrants was attacked while returning from the farms where they worked. The clashes resulted in widespread property damage as well as injuries to more than 50 immigrants and police officers. On Jan. 10, authorities began bulldozing makeshift immigrant encampments outside Rosarno. The evacuated immigrants were dispersed to centers around Italy and face deportation if they are found to lack residence permits.

The alleged instigator of the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free") sign from the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, a man living in Sweden, is said to have intended to use the proceeds from the sale of the sign to finance an assassination plot at the Swedish Parliament and at the prime minister's headquarters in Stockholm. The claim was reported in the Swedish media Jan. 2, citing sources in that country's intelligence services.