Europe

Germany fetes Syrian ‘heroes’ who nabbed bomb plot suspect

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany on Monday hailed three Syrians who helped police capture a compatriot suspected of planning a jihadist bomb attack, with social media coming alive with jibes against anti-migrant protesters. “Syrian turns in terror suspect. I’m celebrating this. What about you, Pegida and co?” said Julia Frick on Twitter, in reference to the Islamophobic movement that has been ranting against migrants in the eastern city of Dresden. Another Twitter user took a […]

German police arrest Syrian bomb plot suspect

by Hui Min NEO BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German police on Monday arrested a Syrian man suspected of plotting a jihadist bomb attack, after a massive manhunt lasting almost two days. Security had been stepped up at airports and train stations after Jaber Albakr, 22, went on the run Saturday, when police raided his apartment and found several hundred grams of “an explosive substance more dangerous than TNT”. “We’ve succeeded, really overjoyed: the terror suspect […]

Antonio Guterres, refugee champion to UN chief

by Thomas Cabral LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — Former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres, nominated Thursday to be the next UN secretary-general, is a self-described man of action who earned his stripes as the world body’s refugee chief, tirelessly pressing rich nations to do more. An engineer by training and fervent Catholic, Guterres, 67, fought unflaggingly for migrants’ rights over a decade as UN High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. He repeatedly […]

European migration routes

Italy’s coastguard said nine corpses were recovered in operations in which 6,055 people were rescued off Libya Monday, three years to the day after 366 people died in the sinking that first alerted the world to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. https://youtu.be/vkGB9D1_v0Q

At least 22 migrants dead off Libya: coastguard

ABOARD THE ASTRAL, Italy (AFP) — Twenty-eight Europe-bound migrants were found dead on a day of frantic rescues off Libya on Tuesday, including at least 22 in an overloaded wooden boat, an AFP photographer and the Italian coastguard said. The photographer, who was able to go aboard the vessel, said it appeared that many of the dead had suffocated. He said there were about 1,000 people on three levels. He counted 22 bodies and said […]

UN vows to push for political solution in Syria

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN Syria envoy voiced deep disappointment Monday at the collapse of US-Russian talks to revive a Syria ceasefire, but vowed to keep working for a political solution. “The UN will continue to push energetically for a political solution of the Syrian conflict regardless of the very disappointing outcome of intense and long discussions among two crucial international stakeholders,” the office of Staffan de Mistura said in a statement. © 1994-2016 […]

A costly divorce: Bosses urge clarity over Brexit

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom (AFP) – by Edouard GUIHAIRE Katherine HADDON “Divorces always cost you a lot of money,” sighed Charlie Mullins, one of many British bosses pushing ministers for more details on life post-Brexit at the Conservative Party’s annual conference. Dressed in an electric blue suit, Mullins is the charismatic founder of Pimlico Plumbers, whose vans are a common sight in the British capital and whose clients reportedly include Richard Branson. Fronting his company’s stall at […]

UK’s Johnson say hospital bombings make Syria peace talks impossible

Airstrikes against hospitals in Syria are war crimes that make the resumption of peace talks in the country’s civil war impossible, Britain’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday (October 2). Johnson criticised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia for hitting civilian targets as he highlighted the tragic consequences of the Syrian crisis on the spiralling numbers of refugees. “it is the continuous savagery of the Assad regime against the people of Aleppo and the […]

Princess Charlotte says first word in public on Canadian tour

Britain’s Princess Charlotte, 1, spoke for the first time in public on Thursday (September 29) during her family’s Canadian tour, uttering the word “pop” while she and her brother played with balloons. Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, are on week-long trip to Canada. It was the first time the couple have brought their children Charlotte and George, 3, on an official visit to the country. The family was in Victoria, […]

Four men injured in shootout in Sweden

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (AFP) — Four men were injured, one critically, late Sunday in the centre of Sweden’s southern city of Malmo, in what police said appeared to be a targeted attack by gunmen riding scooters. The shooting broke out shortly before 7pm (1700 GMT) in a street in the southern city’s Fosie district. Police in the area evacuated one of the wounded to the city hospital. “The three other injured were able to make their […]

German central bank chief warns City of London on ‘hard Brexit’

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – British banks risk losing their automatic right to trade in EU states as the country leaves the European Union, Germany’s central bank chief said in an interview out Monday. Jens Weidmann suggested that if Britain left the European Economic Area (EEA) — a group of 31 European Union and other European states which allows them to be part of the single market — it could mean financial services companies moving […]

Dutch say EU’s biggest field is running out of gas

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) – The Groningen natural gas field, the largest in the European Union, is running out of reserves, with an estimated 17 years left before stocks will be depleted, The Netherlands announced on Friday. “Dutch natural gas is nearly finished,” said Peter Hein van Mulligen, chief economist at the country’s Central Statistics Bureau (CBS). “Since natural gas was discovered in 1959 in Groningen, we’ve used up some 80 percent of our reserves. If […]