The head of the Basque government and his chief opponent went on trial Jan. 8 over alleged past contacts with Batasuna, banned political wing of the armed separatist group ETA—just weeks before they are to face off in regional elections. Juan José Ibarretxe of the region's ruling Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), and Patxi Lopez, regional leader of Spain's ruling Socialist Party, face possible prison terms and bans on political activity if found guilty. (AFP, Jan. 10)

A Greek government official's car was firebombed Dec. 26 while a petrol bomb was thrown at a bank and another group attacked a police car, authorities said. The car, used by a junior environment minister, Stavros Kaloyannis, was hit in front of his home in the northwestern city of Ioanina. The attack on a branch of the Greek Farm Bank in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens, caused minor damage. In the evening, youths attacked a police car passing in front of an Athens hospital. No injuries were reported.

Activists called for protests across Europe on Dec. 18 in solidarity with the uprising in Greece, unfurling banners at the base of Athens' landmark Acropolis urging international demonstrations and declaring "Resistance" in several languages. In the northwestern Greek city of Ioannina, some youths took over the town hall for several hours, while others seized the main local radio station and started broadcasting their own programs.

Masked youths attacked the riot police headquarters in Athens Dec. 16, throwing petrol bombs and stones, damaging police vehicles parked outside. Elsewhere in the city, schoolchildren blocked streets, and scores of teenagers halted traffic outside the main court complex. (AP, Dec. 16) Protesters also stormed a studio of the state NET TV network, breaking into a newscast and unfurling a black banner reading: "Stop watching television, take to the streets." The newscast had been broadcasting statements by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis on the riots that have rattled Greece since the Dec. 6 police shooting of a teenage boy. NET president Christos Panagopoulos called the incident "a premeditated act that went beyond all measures of social tolerance and protest." (NYT, Dec. 16)

Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of the anti-immigrant Northern League met with protests after proposing a moratorium on the building of mosques in the wake of arrests on Dec. 2 of two Moroccans suspected of plotting terrorist attacks—one of whom was a preacher at an "unofficial" Milan mosque. The left-wing opposition and Italian Muslim leaders criticized the proposed legislation, which would halt the building of mosques without state oversight. A high-ranking Vatican official, Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said he was in favor of allowing new mosques provided the state could ensure they would be used for religious purposes.

Greek protesters Dec. 13 attacked a police station and ministry building as well as shops and banks in Athens with petrol bombs in an eighth day of protests following the killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police. Several hundred protesters set up burning barricades and attacked police with rocks and flares. The Exarchia district, where the police station was fire-bombed, and the area around Athens Polytechnic University remained the centers of street-fighting. Hundreds of stores have been smashed and looted, and more than 200 people have been arrested in the unrest so far.

Protests against the killing of a youth by police in Athens spread across Europe Dec. 11, as street-fighting in Greece entered its sixth day. At least 30 were arrested in Copenhagen, as masked youth hurled bottles and paint bombs at buildings, police cars and officers. Eleven were arrested, and police officers reportedly injured, in clashes in Madrid and Barcelona. In Moscow and Rome, protesters threw petrol bombs at the Greek embassies. In neighbouring Istanbul, protesters splashed red paint over the facade of the Greek consulate. And in Athens and Thessaloniki, protesters and police continued to trade hurled rocks and tear-gas cannisters, with more shops and banks damaged and windows smashed. The major Greek trade unions have taken up the issue, calling for "the democratization of the police and an end to violent and arbitrary acts by state organs." (The Telegraph, London Times, AFP, Dec. 11)

Critical Mass scores a win over Scotland Yard. From The Telegraph, Dec. 2:

Critical mass can carry on cycling
There is no need for the organisers of a mass cycle ride to give the police notice of their planned destination when there are no organisers and the destination is unplanned, the law lords ruled today.