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[2] Is there an equivalent to NANOG for Europe and Asia and is there

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an equivalent list which discusses operational issues for these continents? Pointers appreciated.

Yes, for Europe there's the RIPE-discuss list (for which I don't have an immediate reference) and for Asia, there's the apops list:

For RIPE, try http://www.ripe.net/ then do some drilling.........

You are looking for the European Operators Forum, one of the working groups of RIPE. Have a look at http://www.ripe.net/wg/eof/index.html. Here you'll also find the mailinglist archives. Marijke