The Balkan Chronicle

European leaders, meeting until the early hours of Friday, agreed to sign an intergovernmental treaty that would require them to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets. But efforts to get unanimity among the 27 members of the European Union, as desired by Germany, failed as Britain refused to go along.

Importantly, all 17 members of the European Union that use the euro agreed to the new treaty, along with six other countries who wish to join the currency union one day. Two countries, the Czech Republic and Sweden, said they would want to talk to their parties and parliaments at home before deciding, said President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, but it seemed unlikely that Sweden would join. Hungary said it wanted to examine the details, leaving Britain isolated.

Eurozone countries will have to give up on normal democracy and the European Central Bank (ECB) will have to print money if the euro is to survive, Turkey’s ambassador to the EU has said on the eve of the EU summit.

Noting that EU leaders are going in “the right direction” by proposing central control over national budgets in return for help from the ECB, Selim Kuneralp told EUobserver in an interview on Wednesday (7 December) that traditional democratic structures have no future in post-crisis Europe.

As the world nervously watches whether European leaders can save the EU from breakup, another drama brews on the sidelines: the membership struggles of nations trying to break in.

On Friday, the day of a crucial EU summit on solving the continent's debt crisis, representatives of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro will also be in Brussels pushing their bids to enter what increasingly looks like a crumbling house.

The irony is not lost on the Croatians, the closest to achieving their EU dreams.

Croatia is poised to become the European Union's 28th member in July 2013 after the ex-Yugoslav state signed an accession treaty on Friday.   

EU politicians hope Croatia's membership, a reward for deep democratic and economic reforms, will persuade other countries in the Balkans that reforms pay off and accelerate democratic transition in a region torn by ethnic wars in the 1990s.     

Later, European leaders are expected to delay a decision on granting Serbia the status of EU membership candidate, because of concerns over Belgrade's failure to mend relations with its former province Kosovo.    

"The achievement of Croatia proves to all in the region that through hard work, persistence, political courage and determination, EU membership is within reach," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said at a signing ceremony on the sidelines of a summit of EU heads of state.     

Turkey cannot stand by and watch if Syria's crackdown on a  popular uprising puts security in the region at risk, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday.

While Ankara has no desire to interfere in Syria's internal affairs, it has a duty to tell Damascus "Enough!" if it puts Turkey's security at risk by fighting its own people and forcing people to flee the country, he said.    

Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO, said last month it did not want any military intervention in Syria but that it was ready for "any scenario" including setting up a buffer zone inside Syria.    

Representatives of the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia threaten the entire world to acquire their own nuclear weapons. In particular, the powerful Prince Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi secret services, and a former ambassador to the key Country for Riyadh, United States, pointed out that this would be his response to Iran's nuclear program. According to senior Saudis, the world community has failed to stop it and therefore the kingdom is preparing its response to this threat.

The current intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia Prince Mukrin bin Abd al-Aziz particularly warned Iran against interfering in the affairs of the Persian Gulf, which can cause war not wanted by anyone.

It might be the lazy way, to just sit and accept the utter bilge and lies coming from the mainstream western media when they report on events in Syria and Iran. But is it worth it? Would those who accept these lies still think it's worth it, not to look for the truth, if they realize that we are heading straight for a third world war?

There comes a point in time, a point from which there is no return. Someone is going to get fed up and take that step, ignite that spark, that will lead to the beginning of another world war. This world is as close to world war as it was during the Cuban Missle Crisis.

A blockbuster Chinese study of Tibetan tree rings by Lui et al 2011 shows, with detail, that the modern era is a dog-standard normal climate when compared to the last 2,500 years. The temperature, the rate of change — it's all been seen before. Nothing about the current period is "abnormal", indeed the current warming period in Tibet can be produced through calculation of cycles. Lui et al do a Fourier analysis on the underlying cycles and do brave predictions as well.

In Tibet, it was about the same temperature on at least four occasions — back in late Roman times (those chariots!), then again in the dark ages (blame the collapse of industry), then in the middle ages (the Vikings?), then in modern times (blame the rise of industry).