Ankara - As political distractions go, the court case to close down Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was up there with the biggest.

Ever since the Constitutional Court, in a case called by the party's political opponents, decided in July not to close down the AKP, momentum toward joining the EU seems to have stalled.

In September, the EU issued its progress report on Turkey's membership bid. For supporters of Turkish membership it was depressing reading.

Nicosia - Initial optimism from earlier this year that one of the world's most unmanageable conflicts might finally be solved has waned in Cyprus as peace talks failed to produce a breakthrough in 2008.

The only tangible outcome following the weekly meetings between Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has been the realization that a long road still lies ahead of any breakthrough, despite the enthusiasm that greeted a new round peace talks in September following a four-year stalemate.

Athens - The assassination of his father by Taliban militants forced 13-year-old Jahid to escape his home in Afghanistan.

But his long perilous journey toward asylum in Europe has left him and thousands others trapped for months in a makeshift camp in Greece's western port city of Patras.

Dumbfounded by the government's neglect and the European Union's tough immigration policies, Jahid's future lies in limbo.

Madrid - When a famous judge opened the first-ever judicial inquiry into the crimes of Spain's late dictator Francisco Franco in the autumn of 2008, it was as if he had unleashed an internal struggle within the national psyche.

The debate about the Franco era had been brewing already, becoming one of the hallmarks of 2008.

Judge Baltasar Garzon's attempt to look into 114,000 alleged killings in acts of repression during the 1936-39 civil war and Franco's ensuing 36-year dictatorship bitterly divided the nation, showing how difficult it still was for Spain to deal with the dictator's legacy.

Garzon finally dropped his inquiry, but the debate is far from over, and the case against Franco could end up in international courts.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama called on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to resign Wednesday following his arrest on corruption charges.

"The president-elect agrees ... that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois," Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, said, according to the Washington Post.

Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on multiple corruption charges, including that he sought bribes and political favours from those being considered to take Obama's vacated Senate seat.

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earned howls of laughter from the opposition benches for a slip of the tongue Wednesday in which he appeared to claim to have "saved the world" from economic disaster.

During a series of fiery exchanges at Prime Minister's Question Time, Brown quipped: "We not only saved the world, er, saved the banks and led the world. .." - but his attempts at correcting his verbal faux-pas were drowned out by laughter.