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Europe Round-Up
Baltic States: The Eurovision Song Contest could be in trouble. Russia won this year's competition, with the help of votes from its former satellites. This means the lucky Muscovites have the honour of hosting 2009's show. But thanks to tensions sparked by the invasion of Georgia, Baltic nations Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia may boycott the show in a display of solidarity with the Georgians. Poland is also considering snubbing Moscow.
The absence of the Baltic states and Poland may not seem like such a great loss for European music, but former Soviet Bloc nations have done well in recent years, winning four out of the last eight Eurovisions. The Eastern Europeans form a powerful voting bloc, much to the chagrin of Western commentators - and despite the fact that they're all supposed to loathe one another (and Russia most of all) they seem happy to award top marks to their fellow former Soviets.
Germany: From the ridiculous to the sublime. Who said opera plots were rubbish? The Independent reports on the resolution of a "Wagnerian feud" between the descendants of the great German composer.
Paris: Will Americans in Paris soon be no more? That's one of the worries of the French tourist authorities, writes Charles Bremner in his blog: The strong Euro has sent numbers plummeting by 20 percent in the first six months of 2008, though at just under 1.7 million visitors last year, they made up the second largest group of foreign tourists in the French capital after the Brits.
The Chinese, tipped as potential successors to the Yanks in terms of visitor numbers (and much else), also saw a smaller drop, which some commentators are blaming on France's frosty welcome to the Olympic Torch earlier this year. A boycott of French holidays was organised by some disgruntled Chinese. Despite their numbers and much-touted wealth, only 129,000 Chinese tourists spent the night in Paris in the first six months of the year.
