Mixed Happenings
- June 4th, 2011
- Posted by Lee Duffield
Risorgimento revisited in Rome; old Cold War adversaries playing hot war games together; the EU in gathering pressure on Syria.
PARTY IN ROME
Much parading in the streets of Rome on Thursday, military feathers and finery on a par with the swashbuckling 19th Century legions that brought off the Risorgimento (Resurgence) – the unification of Italy 150 years ago to the day.
Giuseppe Garibaldi himself (picture), leader of the “redshirts”, horsemen for Italy, certainly would have revelled in the crowd of celebrities from 80 countries, in town for the spectacle. … Read More »
President Barrack Obama arrived in Dublin on Monday with his wife Michelle, beginning a full working itinerary in Europe with a visit to an ancestral village — Moneygall in County Offaly, where is great-great-great grandfather once lived. 
A seemingly odd group of ten countries, one of them Australia, has launched a fresh move to try to curtail nuclear armament, at a gathering of their Foreign Ministers in Berlin.
Tragic weather conditions, stolen paintings, recriminations over the FIFA World Cup decision, a terror threat to NATO … 
Political winners of the month have included Bronislaw Komorowski (picture), elected President of Poland; and among sports winners: England defeating Australia in one-day cricket, two tennis veterans wrapping-it-up at Wimbledon, and the World Cup Football, once again a European festival. 
The weekend shut-down of flights in and out of Europe has given a nasty taste of a world without planes.