Laura Starink
Laura Starink is a Dutch journalist. After 20 years as correspondent in Moscow for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, she was appointed editor-in-chief of Magazine M, its weekly supplement. She is also the author of two (as yet untranslated) books on Russia: Een land van horen zeggen (A Land of Hearsay, 1992) and De Russische kater (The Russian Hangover, 2008).
What’s in store for project Europe this year? A community under the supervision of a strong European Commission or a decentralised intergovernmental system, advocated by the Germans? Dutch historian Geert Mak has painted a bleak picture for the future of the European Union. 
As the EU cracks down on firearms, illegal trafficking in altered alarm guns is booming on the Continent. They’re cheap, easy to alter, impossible to trace – so they’re becoming the criminal’s weapon of choice.