Condi's Star Turn

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been on a whirlwind tour of Europe since last Thursday, but her speech on Monday in Paris summed up all her intentions for the continent. Declaring that it is "time to open a new chapter in our relationship," Rice called on Europeans to put aside the tensions of the past. Speaking in a lecture hall at France's top school of international relations, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, she addressed not only France but all of Europe, calling on them to work toward common goals. "America has everything to gain from having a stronger Europe as a partner in building a safer and even a better world," she said. "So let each of us bring to the table ideas, experience and resources, and let us discuss and decide, together, how best to employ them for democratic change."

The speech was cast by her aides as the centrepiece of her visit, and followed on the heels of hopeful news from the Middle East, which she also visited on her current tour. The French press has had mixed reactions  to the speech, some praising her cool sophistication, others calling her a demon turned diplomat. The European press generally has been skeptical of Rice's motivations throughout her visit. That said, she seems, somehow, to have made a generally favorable impression, and her speech may go some way to undo the harm caused to trans-Atlantic relations by her now-famous remark back in 2003: "Forget France, ignore Germany, forgive Moscow."

But for all that, the speech was as notable for what it left out as what it said. Nowhere did Rice talk about the International Criminal Court or the Kyoto Protocols, both of which are major sources of tension between the US and Europe. And as effective as Condi might be as a charm weapon, there's no getting past the dislike most Europeans still have for her boss. We'll have to wait and see if Bush can do anything about it when he tries his hand at playing diplomat when he visits Europe later this month. (2:10 p.m. CET)

Uncle Strangelove

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, the United States, France and Britain removed huge numbers of troops from Germany who had originally been placed there to help restore order and rebuild the country after World War II. Later, they stayed on to protect Western Europe from the Soviet Union. As they began a massive cutback of soldiers, the US also began disassembling an arsenal of nuclear weapons intended to provide a deterrence against a saber-rattling Moscow. Less known to most is a particular NATO program that has remained in place: one that not-so secretly places American nuclear weapons in member countries as a deterrent to others who might dare to attack NATO terrain. Short-range nuclear weapons are stored by the US at secure military locations in Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Turkey and the Netherlands. The existence of the weapons comes as no surprise, but a new study by the private arms control group Natural Resources Defense Council, first reported by the New York Times , indicates that the arsenal is about twice as large as previous estimates -- with about 480 nuclear weapons stored at air bases across Europe. The Cold War may be over, but US officials argue the arsenal is still necessary to safeguard Europe from "rogue" states like Iran or Syria if they threaten it with attacks using unconventional weapons. "Militarily, you can't rule out something like a biological threat, so this capability has not been taken off the table," one retired senior American officer told the paper. But the council challenges the logic behind maintaining nuclear warheads in Europe, saying America has thousands of long-range missiles of its own that can strike anywhere in the world within minutes. (12:18 p.m. CET)

Birkenstock Battles

Big strife is boiling in the ranks of one of Germany's most famously laid-back families. The Birkenstocks -- who made padded, hippie footwear into a multi-million dollar business -- are in the throes of civil war. Or rather, something even more despicable -- a nasty divorce case right out of the pages of the 1980s TV soap operas Dynasty or Dallas. Turns out Susanne Birkenstock, who in the late 1990s married Christian Birkenstock, one of the three Birkenstock boys to inherit their father's company, is more than just the sweet-looking, blonde housewife and mother of two the family thought she was. The 33-year-old Susanne is also a hard-nosed business woman who spent seven years in the family's garage (likely rather palatial given the €500 million the family raked in last year and the fact that it is attached to a castle) developing her own line of orthopedic shoes. Now, separated for the past year from Christian, she has started marketing her product, which she calls Beautystep and which she claims has a specially-designed sole to help reduce cellulite. She insists the fat-burning sandals are as good as her name -- or rather her married name -- Birkenstock. The family is irate and insists she cannot use the name Birkenstock to market her scientifically-questionable product - or any product for that matter. She fires back that Birkenstock is her legal name and that of her children and she is not changing it. A German court is set to hear the case on Thursday. So far, Susanne has already sold 35,000 pairs of sandals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She attributes the success to the quality of the product, but also admits that being a "true" Birkenstock for so many years helped. (11:20 a.m. CET)

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