According to the French Finance Minister, worker strikes associated with last week’s riots over the increase in retirement age are costing France more than $500 million per day (Associated Press, October 25, 2010). Following the French riots, Italian citizens rioted in the Naples region to protest a proposed garbage dump. During the Italian riot, 20 police officers were assaulted, eight police cars damaged, and five garbage trucks and a police car were burned. Calls for Prime Minister Berlusconi’s resignation also rang out (Yahoo News, October 21, 2010).

In an effort to help the French economy recover, President Sarkozy is moving to increase the national retirement age from age 60 to 62 (still one of Europe’s youngest retirement ages). As a result, protests have erupted throughout the nation.

In a recent speech, “Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared the death of multiculturalism in Germany, saying that it had ‘failed utterly’, in what has been interpreted as a startling shift from her previous views.

“Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday outlined his most tangible initiative yet to try to revive Christianity, creating a Vatican office for re-evangelizing Europe and other traditionally Christian regions where the faith is falling by the wayside.

Tornados are most common in the American mid-west—in an area known as “tornado alley.” Yet, last week, four tornados touched down in the mountains of northern Arizona, bringing the destructive power of 100-mile-per-hour winds.

Normally, Arizona averages four tornados per year. “‘The hammering that northern Arizona is getting right now is exceptional,’ said National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Waters in Phoenix. ‘It’s not uncommon this time of year to have one or two tornado reports or a warning, but this is quite an outbreak’” (Associated Press, October 7, 2010).