Nagelfar

It seems a bit aggressive to attribute the disappearance to European diseases. Is there any evidence to support this?

It's the Council of Europe in this case. I'm not sure if they have enough power to overrule national governments, probably not. Thanks again. It seems Italy has signed, but not ratified the Valetta agreement. No luck with this then... Council of Europe - Valetta

That would be the Valletta Treaty, which calls for archaeological research whenever soil-disturbing activities are planned to make sure nothing is lost undocumented. Typically though, the treaty has been implemented unevenly among the signatory states. Thanks. Since I am totally ignorant on international law in this area; Is there any institution that supervises/control the implementation of the agreement?

Hmm. According to my Italian friends (who are already disillusionised) this will not create any problems for Berlusconi. According to them B has done similar things in the past without getting into trouble. However, this issue raised a question for me. Arguably the Phoenician graves are important (if they are) not only for the Italians. Is there protection for archaeological sites on a European level? International treaties? How do we make sure important sites are not destroyed by those who have them within their borders?

Bush was a disaster in many areas. It is actually surprising the Americans didn't stop him. He is not alone in his follies; the economic policies have been pursued for a long time. I do think he managed to avoid one thing that could have made him immortal. He never made his horse vice president... I have higher hopes for Obama, but I still think he will envy McCain in a year or so.

haha, that kind of talk might wake us up again. Favorite tribe; Suiones of course. (Wikipedia on Suiones)

'Beck' would be similair. The modern Swedish is 'b

I can't think of anything that resembles 'burns". There might be since my knowledge of old norse is very limited. In modern Swedish there are many word that could translate into stream, but the most obvious one is "str

I had a collegue many years ago who was from Sunderland. I made a joke that he was from the broken city. "S

LOL. Clearly drinking the blood of Christ is not sufficient...

Maybe the EU as a united entity prevents Russia from bullying the Baltic states and Finland as it was inclined to do in earlier times. Perhaps their NATO membership has a chilling effect on the Russian ambition. Finland did have a "friendship and assistance pact" with the Russians. However, the Finns I know never enjoyed the "friendship". The Baltic states entered both NATO and EU when there was a window of opportunity. There can be considerable Russian influence in Finland, the Baltics and Sweden (for that matter). However, Russia will have to use other methods than military to achieve this.

The Russian played very well against a poor Swedish team. The result is a bit flattering, for us. We are out of the Euro 2008... as we should be. In a few years the Russian team will be even better, but they are in for a lesson from Holland, I think. Now; forza gli azzurri!

The english go over the top with their team that usually it's not worth the excesive hype. The last time that they played something nice Maradona's hand-of-god interfered (oh, how I hated him for that! But his fall from grace made me realise what a brilliant player he was). Gary Lineker was a different breed from the likes of Beckham and Owen. He played the ball not the media. Liverpool and Everton of the early 80's..."Come on reds" still gives me a thrill. My feelings towards the italians (french and dutch also) are at a low point now. Anyway, I still like more Italy over France as I can not forget the World Cup that the french hosted ... Italians trashed the romanians some years ago in a very unpolite manner but I hope our team will show now some tactical brains for the first time in history instead of relying on natural gifts that seem to be absent today. Romania does better with the best South American teams while against europeans, even boring teams like Sweden in 1994 , they don't seem to know what to do with the ball. Let me just start with admitting that Sweden never plays good football. Sometimes it is effective and we have performed well above what should have been possible for us as a small nation. (Ask the English when the last time they won against us!) As to the Sweden - Romania game... thanks for reminding me!

My chosen avatar for the duration of the Championships will show you that I too am one of the tifosi, Silentum. And, yes, bitterness still abounds about 2000 and that damned Golden Goal. However, it's not quite as bad as the bitterness of the 2002 Mondiale and South Korea! I will never, ever, forgive them, or that damned referee! I think that now Canna has been lost to injury, we have something to fight for, and I can see us winning this. Before Fabio's injury my money would have been on Germany, to be honest. Beh - speremo.... FORZA AZZURRI Haha, nice =). You're right about the 2002 mondiale, If you REALLY want to annoy an Italian all you have to say is "arbitro Moreno" XD. Or you could refer to the 2004 Euro - "Due due Nordic victory" :-) [sweden and Denmark did what had to be done to qualify in the last game, at the expense of the italians]

Sweden of course! However, we will not stand a chance in our group (Russia, Spain and Greece). I think the Swedish team has done very well in qualifying again (we haven't missed qualifying for a championship in ten years). We have a population of 9 millions...