“Empty chair for Fariñas,” headlines Gazeta Wyborcza the day after the award ceremony for the 2010 Sakharov Prize For Freedom of Thought in the European Parliament. The price was awarded to 48-year-old Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who was banned by Cuban authorities from travelling to Strasbourg. Hence, his chair covered with the Cuban flag stood empty during the ceremony. In a message to MEPs, Fariñas stated that Cuba’s rulers treat the island’s citizens as “slaves” and wished he had been able to come in person to Strasbourg as “a representative of the Cuban people in rebellion and those Cuban citizens who have lost their dread of the totalitarian government”. He also vowed to continue his struggle. Last January, Fariñas went on a 135 day hunger strike to obtain the release from jail of 42 Cuban opposition members.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.