Summit to assess Carpathian peril
By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

A summit is being held in Romania to assess 20 projects to safeguard the Carpathian region of eastern Europe. ( Read more... )

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Flags of seven new NATO members from former communist Europe rose at alliance headquarters for the first time Friday, marking the biggest expansion in its 55-year history ( Read more... )

Today was epic. A long walk across the center under blue skies, haggling with taxi drivers and a standoff when he zeroed out the meter and demanded extra money. I cleared us out at the bus station and paid him what I thought was more than fair. A 40-minute ride to a fishing village, house build into white sandstone cliffs overlooking the blue ( Read more... )

I flew across the Indian Ocean, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary today. What did you do?

I could easily see such features as the Nile River and Lake Nasser, Addis Ababa and Alexandria, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Kronos, Thessalonica and the Iron Gate project on the Danube River.

I've got a business trip to Budapest tomorrow. There is a first time for everything. I pressed hard for such a trip to Prague, Budapest or Bucharest for the first 10 months at this job, then backed off for these last 7 months. Go figure.

This day will require several efforts to write about it, but there are con artists playing key roles . . . .

June 17 & 18, 1996 ( Read more... )

This was where the trip began to get extremely strange. I was up before dawn and walking around the Stadtpark in Vienna, and over to Stephensplatz and the magnificent St. Stephen's Cathedral. And then I realized it was Monday, and as I stopped by the various museums that I planned to visit, it dawned on me -- museums are closed in Europe on ( Read more... )