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US rates, strong economies boost European currencies January 8, 2006 Warsaw - Central European currencies have reached levels close to all-time records against the euro in recent days, boosted by strong economic performance and a rush by international investors to the region. "After the holiday period, investors have descended in droves on the markets of the emerging countries," Katrzyna Zajdel-Kurowska, an economist from CitiBank Handlowy in Warsaw, told AFP. On Thursday morning, the Polish zloty was trading at just under 3.80 to the euro, its strongest rate since 2002. By Friday, the zloty had eased off slightly and stood at...

Central Europe seeks less reliance on Russian gas WARSAW (Reuters) - Five central European EU states agreed on Tuesday to act together on energy issues but stopped short of calls to diversify gas supplies away from dominant supplier Russia. Supplies of Russian gas flowing via Ukraine to the region fell sharply this week following Moscow's decision to halt deliveries to Ukraine due to a row over gas prices with Kiev. Deliveries returned to normal on Tuesday before officials from Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and rotating EU president Austria discussed energy security amidst increasing calls to find other sources of...

Central Europe stung by Russia gas gambit, eyes EU help By Wojciech Moskwa WARSAW (Reuters) - Russia's gas dispute with Ukraine exposes the vulnerability of new EU members in central Europe to their former overlord and will test the region's ability to get support from the European Union. Moscow's decision to halt gas supplies to Ukraine on Sunday after Kiev rejected Moscow's demand for a fourfold price rise fed into sentiment felt across much of the region that Russia uses its near monopoly in energy supplies for political ends. Pipelines taking Russian gas to Europe cross Ukraine, and the cut...

Forget stoic, sexless Soviet-era shoes, furniture, and cars. From Latvia and Estonia to the Czech Republic and Poland, design is taking off in Central Europe. Thanks to trade links with the European Union and motivated by ever-cheaper competition from China, the region is embracing creativity as its ticket to moving up the global economic food chain. According to the Bureau of European Design Assns., Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic alone have 8,700 professional designers, compared with barely a handful only 15 years ago. As finalists in a design competition go, you don't get more varied than the snazzy Apple...

Slide Show >> They came from around the world, young men with handles like SnapDragon and Bladerunner attacking computing problems so complex that even experienced coders could only stare at the screen in bewilderment. Only one mastered the final algorithm problem: Eryk Kopczynski, a.k.a. Eryx, a reticent Warsaw University student who wears his long hair in a ponytail and says his life's ambition is to "discover some interesting notion." Kopczynski's triumph in this year's TopCoder Open, sponsored by Sun Microsystems, was no fluke. He was following in the footsteps of a slew of computing geniuses to emerge from the...

Questions remain over Yalta's legacy By Gavin Esler Presenter, Six Places That Changed The World When did World War II end? The question is deceptively simple. If you are British, American, German, Japanese, French or Italian, then you undoubtedly would answer, without hesitation, in 1945. But if you happen to be Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian, then you would answer as Mart Laar, twice a prime minister of Estonia does: "It ended only when the last Russian soldier left my country." That puts the end of World War II as 1994. In a series of programmes based on places that have...

VE Day - why Poles have little to celebrate by Hélène Michaud, 3 May 2005 While the rest of Europe will be celebrating VE day with pomp and circumstance on 9 May, it will be a rather different story in Poland, where people have mixed feelings when it comes to the commemoration of the end of World War II. For the Poles, Victory in Europe 60 years ago not only meant victory over Nazi occupation, but also the start of half a century under the Soviet umbrella. Poles feel their suffering during this painful chapter in recent history should be...

Charismatic Tymoshenko Says She Will Be Ukraine PM 1 hour, 16 minutes ago World - Reuters By Ron Popeski KIEV (Reuters) - Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who roused vast crowds during protests against election fraud, said on Saturday she believed she would be named prime minister once Viktor Yushchenko is finally inaugurated as president. Yushchenko, winner of last month's re-run of November's rigged presidential election, must weather a last legal challenge from loser Viktor Yanukovich before taking office. The Supreme Court is to examine Yanukovich's case on Monday, but the ex-premier said he has little chance of overturning the result....

Powell kicks off whirlwind tour By Jill McGivering BBC correspondent in Budapest US Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Budapest to start a week-long visit to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His first stop in Hungary and the last in Poland are seen partly as thank you gestures from the US towards the allies still contributing troops in Iraq. Visits to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are due to focus on building regional support for Iraq's interim government. In Egypt, talks are expected to centre on the progress of the Middle East peace process and Sudan's crisis. Mr Powell...

In an age of terrorism, guerilla and total warfare the medieval doctrine of Just War needs to be re-defined. Moreover, issues of legitimacy, efficacy and morality should not be confused. Legitimacy is conferred by institutions. Not all morally justified wars are, therefore, automatically legitimate. Frequently the efficient execution of a battle plan involves immoral or even illegal acts.As international law evolves beyond the ancient percepts of sovereignty, it should incorporate new thinking about pre-emptive strikes, human rights violations as casus belli and the role and standing of international organizations, insurgents and liberation movements.Yet, inevitably, what constitutes "justice" depends heavily on...

History teaches us little except how little we can learn from it. Still, there is nothing new under the sun. Thus, drawing too many parallels between the environmentalist movements of the late 19th century and their counterparts in the second half of the twentieth century - would probably prove misleading. Similarly, every fin de siecle has its Fukuyama, proclaiming the end of history and the victory of liberalism and capitalism.Liberal parliamentarianism (coupled with unbridled individualistic capitalism) seemed to irreversibly dominate the political landscape by 1890 - when it was suddenly and surprisingly toppled by the confluence of revolutionary authoritarian nationalism...

French President Jacques Chirac's criticism of the East European EU applicants' support for the US stance on Iraq has generated a wide debate and angry reaction in the press in those countries. The following are quotes from newspapers from across the region. The Czech Republic The French president is without doubt walking on thin ice when he tries to base European foreign policy on the principle of anti-Americanism. His theory does not even have the support of the majority of EU member states. Hospodarske Noviny All Central European nations are used to the interpretations that some countries have more rights...