Europe

Kremlin deplores US blacklist additions

by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – Russia on Tuesday criticised Washington’s blacklisting of a high-ranking official and the suspects in the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko as a move by the outgoing administration to further sour ties. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the US decision to blacklist Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Litvinenko’s alleged assassins, lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, represented “further steps in the artificially created degradation of […]

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Northern Ireland’s McGuinness to resign over political crisis

BELFAST, North Ireland (Reuters) — Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will resign from his post in protest against his power-sharing government partners’ handling of a controversial energy scheme, he said on Monday (January 9). McGuinness’s nationalist Sinn Fein party had called on First Minister Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the province’s largest pro-British party, to step aside while an investigation take place into the botched scheme it says could cost […]

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Europe cold snap kills dozens, prompts travel chaos

by Stanislaw WASZAK Agence France-Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) – A cold snap gripping Europe has killed more than 30 people in recent days, left thousands of travellers stranded in snow-covered Turkey and brought fresh misery for migrants and the homeless. The double-digit sub-zero temperatures hit Poland particularly hard, with the mercury plummeting below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in some regions. Sunday was the country’s worst 24 hours so far for cold-related deaths. […]

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Ukraine’s military denies Russian hack attack

by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France-Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) – Ukraine’s military on Friday denied reports claiming Russia may have hacked targeting software for its heavy artillery in a breach that could have helped Moscow track and destroy Kiev’s big guns. The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — the same one that discovered the Kremlin’s alleged interference in the US election — said in December it had evidence Russian hackers might have bolstered Moscow’s spying on Ukraine’s forces […]

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France launches mass duck cull to stem bird flu spread

PARIS, France (AFP) – Authorities in southwest France began a cull of hundreds of thousands of ducks Thursday as the government scrambles to contain an outbreak of a virulent strain of bird flu sweeping Europe. The farm birds in France’s foie gras heartland are to be slaughtered to stem the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus. Several culls have already taken place since December, dealing a blow to producers of foie gras — a […]

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Germany plans security overhaul after Berlin attack

by Hui Min NEO Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s interior minister on Tuesday outlined plans for a security services overhaul, seeking greater federal powers on domestic intelligence and quicker expulsions of illegal migrants following the Berlin truck attack. Thomas de Maiziere also wants federal police to be given wider oversight across the country’s 16 states, and for a new national crisis management centre to be set up. “We don’t have federal jurisdiction […]

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Syrian war ‘cancer on a global scale’: incoming UN chief

LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — The Syrian conflict “has become a cancer on a global scale”, incoming UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said, while hoping Washington and Moscow overcome their differences to help end the crisis. The war has caused “not only the suffering of the Syrian people” but also sparks “violent reactions which in some cases lead to terrorist acts”, the former Portuguese premier told Portugal’s SIC television channel in an interview broadcast Wednesday. […]

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Main black box of crashed Russian plane found in Black Sea

by Vasily MAXIMOV with Gabrielle TETRAULT-FARBER in Moscow Agence France-Presse SOCHI, Russia (AFP) – Russian rescuers working round the clock have found the main black box from the Syria-bound military plane that crashed into the Black Sea with 92 people on board, authorities said Tuesday. The defence ministry said the box, which could provide vital clues as to why the Tu-154 jet crashed, was discovered early Tuesday only 1,600 metres from the shore and 17 […]

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Italy confirms Berlin truck attack suspect shot dead in Milan

ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out the deadly Berlin truck attack at the  market was shot dead by police in Milan on Friday, Italy’s interior minister Marco Minniti said. The minister told a press conference in Rome that Anis Amri had been fatally shot after firing at two police officers who had stopped his car for a routine identity check around 3:00 am (0200 GMT). Identity checks had established “without […]

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Berlin truck attack suspect shot dead in Milan: Italian media

ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out the deadly Berlin truck attack was shot dead by police in Milan Friday, Italian media reported, citing security sources. Italy’s interior minister Marco Minniti has announced a press conference for 10.45 am (0945 GMT). According to the reports, the suspect, Anis Amri, was stopped in his car around 3am for what was a routine identity check. He pulled out a pistol and shootout ensued in […]

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Two arrested in Germany over mall attack plot: police

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German authorities have arrested two brothers on suspicion of planning an attack on one of the country’s biggest shopping centers, in the western city of Oberhausen, police said Friday. The two men, aged 28 and 31, are originally from Kosovo, police said, four days after a jihadist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin killing 12 people. Investigators were trying to establish what stage of preparation the plot was […]

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Merkel hopes for ‘quick arrest’ of Berlin market attacker

by Deborah COLE Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced hope Thursday that the prime suspect in Berlin’s deadly truck attack would be caught quickly, after it emerged that the Tunisian rejected asylum seeker was a known jihadist. In an act of defiance, Berliners flocked to the same market that witnessed the murder of 12 people on Monday, as it reopened for the first time in three days. Just as […]

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