EU's soft power could soon run out

Events become so odd and outrageous that the world loses its capacity to surprise: a Russian parliamentarian plants his national flag at the North Pole, the Canadian government says it will build a military training centre in the Arctic, the British are reportedly preparing to claim sovereignty over 386,000 miles of seabed off Antartica, the eastern Congo is in a near-permanent state of war between troops and militia from at least three countries. And death and dislocation continues to reign in Darfur.