Global Voices Online

Desmond McGrath of A Fistful of Euros writes about football and politics: “Part of the fun of football is the way in which it overturns the international order of power politics.”

Cédric Kalonji blogs the arrest of Jean-Pierre Bemba [Fr], Congolese president Joseph Kabila's main rival, in Belgium last weekend. The Central African Republic brought charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bemba, who will be tried by the International Criminal Court.

Lituanica reports that Lithuania “is not interested in vetoing or blocking Brussels-Moscow talks over commencement of strategic EU-Russia partnership treaty.”

Tanchi is guest-blogging at Kosmopolit about the Balkan presence in Brussels.

A Fistful of Euros writes about Serbia's Stability and Association Pact with the EU (SAA), to be signed in Jan. 2008: “It looks like Brussels is trying to strengthen the ‘liberal and Western' strain of Serbia’s politics before December, when problems are likely to arise with Kosovo.”

The beatroot writes about the “non-issue” of Islamisation of Europe.

Time to study Russian, again, writes Jonathan Newton of Tales from the European Underbelly: “I would have had much use for such skills today, as I seem to be surrounded by Russian-speaking colleagues at the EU Council’s Press Centre, where the EU’s foreign ministers and assorted colleagues will wriggle around the question what to do with the EU-Russian summit on Friday when the two are so at odds with eachother that they aren’t even pretending that there will be any outcome of that meeting; and when plenty of EU member states want the meeting called off altogether.”

UDPS Liège posts an interview with Rachel Kabua Atwele, a Belgium-based UDPS sympathizer. She says [Fr]: “Let's not kid ourselves, dictatorship is alive and well. Those who believed in the good faith of Kabila the imposter are already having a hard time: Thérèse Nlandu, Pasteur Kuthino, the coup d'état on the majority through high-level corruption in the pro- Bemba provinces are sure signs of the stifling of the opposition by the AMP camp.”