THE EUROPEAN TIMES

News headlines and comment from around the continent. From Constantinople to Cambridge, we have all the goss-... news.

Our Black Sea correspondent Uri Naal writes:

Great rifts between The Powers threaten to tear this region apart as the new Year was marked with small outbreaks of fighting around the Balkans. Hungarian troops were involved in a small skirmish against Russian scouts in Galacia prompting strong words of defiance from both governments, each blaming the other for their casualties. Elsewhere, an increased Russian naval presence was reported in the Black Sea by the Rumanian military. Turkey has made public it's threat of retaliation at Russian probes into it's Black Sea waters, to which Czar Nicholas II made similar accusations in reply.

Tensions are certainly rising high among the people, yet there remain sceptics that suggest that all this is being staged in order to avoid the wide-spread panic that might ensue if military alliances were publicly known. Certainly, from my personal experience, I have seen nothing of the casualties each of these great powers claims to have had. The guns appear silent.

Political tension in Europe has caused many of its smaller nations to improve ties with their more powerful neighbours. The Turkish Army rolls through Bulgaria welcomed by friendly smiles and warm welcomes, the Kaiser's troops are paraded through the streets of Amsterdam, while the Navies of the remaining great Powers are sailing for foreign ports into which they shall be welcomed for the relative safety they bring.

The world looks to the historic Powers of Europe for leadership and strength. But for how long can war be avoided?