Category Archives: World News

Briton among five prisoners on the run after Portuguese jail breakout

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Public warned not to approach men believed to have escaped high-security facility with help from outside

A British inmate is among five prisoners on the run after breaking out of a high-security prison in Portugal, local authorities have said.

The man, named locally as Mark Roscaleer, and his fellow fugitives were said to have escaped from the Vale de Judeus facility on Saturday with help from people on the outside. He is serving a nine-year prison sentence for kidnap and robbery, according to Portuguese media.

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French husband was ‘self-centred’ manipulator, mass rape trial told

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Dominique Pélicot, 71, accused of raping, and recruiting strangers to rape, sedated wife for a decade

A French man on trial for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife without her knowledge was a “self-centred” manipulator with a split personality, experts have told a court.

Dominique Pélicot, 71, is on trial in the southern city of Avignon for repeatedly raping, and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape, his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a decade.

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Dutch broadcaster launches news bulletin in easy-to-understand language

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Programme uses simpler sentences and explains topics slowly for people who struggle with Dutch language

The Dutch public broadcaster NOS has launched an evening news programme using “easy language” aimed at 2.5 million people in the Netherlands who struggle with the language.

English speakers may joke about “double Dutch”, but foreigners are not the only ones who sometimes fail to comprehend the west Germanic language of long words, convoluted sentences and guttural sounds.

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Golden eagle killed in Norway after attack on toddler in farmyard

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Young bird was believed to have attacked and injured at least four people in a week across wide area

A young golden eagle has been killed after reportedly attacking and wounding at least four people, including a 20-month-old toddler, in a large area of central and southern Norway.

The public broadcaster NRK said that in the most recent attack on Saturday the bird swooped on the girl, who was was playing in her family’s farmyard in the central Trøndelag region, despite being beaten away by her mother and a neighbour.

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Japanese eels can escape predators’ stomach through their gills, finds study

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Eels use tail-first technique to back up digestive tract of fish towards oesophagus before coming out of gills

It sounds like the plot of a horror movie – a predator swallows its prey only for the creature to burst out of its captor’s body. But it seems Japanese eels do just that.

Scientists in Japan have discovered that when swallowed by a dark sleeper fish, the eels can escape.

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Tens of thousands of artefacts looted from Sudan museum, says official

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Thefts at Khartoum’s National Museum, one of most important in Africa, took place in region controlled by Rapid Support Forces group

Tens of thousands of artefacts have been looted from a Sudanese museum regarded as one of the most important in Africa, an official at the institution has said.

The official at the National Museum in Khartoum said satellite images taken last year showed trucks loaded with artefacts leaving the museum and heading for Sudan’s borders, including that with South Sudan.

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Whale alleged to be Russian ‘spy’ died after stick became lodged in its mouth, say police

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Animal rights groups had claimed beluga named Hvaldimir, which was found dead last month, had been shot

A beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness prompted suspicions that the creature was trained by Russia as a spy died after a stick became stuck in its mouth, police have said.

The lifeless body of the whale, named Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – was found floating in the sea on 31 August by a father and son fishing in Risavika Bay, southern Norway.

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Former head of Lebanese central bank in court on embezzlement charges

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Protesters who lost savings in financial crisis demonstrated outside court as Riad Salameh pleaded not guilty

The former head of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh, appeared in court on Monday for the first time since he was arrested last week on charges of embezzling up to $42m (£32m) of public funds.

Monday’s hearing is the latest in the long saga of Salameh, once vaunted as a financial wizard who earned Lebanon its reputation as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” during his 30-year tenure. He has since fallen into disrepute and is suspected of engineering a country-wide Ponzi scheme that caused Lebanon’s 2019 financial meltdown and its five-year-long economic crisis.

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Typhoon Yagi: dozens dead in Vietnam in region’s most powerful storm this year

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Weather agency warns of more floods and landslides after at least 49 people killed with 22 missing

Typhoon Yagi and the landslides and floods it triggered have killed dozens of people in Vietnam, the government said, as authorities on Monday warned of more flooding.

The typhoon was Asia’s most powerful storm this year and made landfall on the country’s north-eastern coast on Saturday. It has disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in several parts of the country, mostly in Quang Ninh and Haiphong, the government said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

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Mario Draghi warns EU at risk without ‘new industrial strategy’ and €800bn a year investment boost – business live

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‘For the first time since the cold war we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation,’ warns former ECB chief as he presents new report on European competitiveness

We also have worrying signs that the US jobs market is cooling.

The latest UK Report on Jobs from KPMG and REC shows that the UK labour market softened in August, with vacancies falling for both permanent and temporary staff.

“Recent Government warnings that the UK’s economy may weaken further before improving add to the overall sense of uncertainty, affecting recruitment plans. Firms holding back from hiring led to a sharp contraction in the number of people placed into permanent roles in August amid continued decline in demand, extending the downturn in the UK’s labour market.

“The news that while salaries rose last month it was at the weakest rate since March could help make the case for more rate cuts when the [Bank of England’s] Monetary Policy Committee meets to decide the future path of interest rates.

This reflects ongoing concerns in the job market, including falling job vacancies and more people claiming unemployment-related benefits, which reached its highest level since December 2021 according to the Office for National Statistics.

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Warm fronts to Y-fronts: Chinese city hit by underwear storm

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Chongqing authorities say cloud seeding to break heatwave did not cause winds that sent laundry flying

It was the talk of the town. After authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.

Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.

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Top EU court to rule in €13bn Apple case that could hit ‘sweetheart’ tax deals

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Long-running legal battle began in 2016 after bloc’s competition chief said iPhone maker had benefited from unfair tax breaks in Ireland

The EU’s top court will rule whether the European Commission was right to demand that €13bn (£11bn) in “illegal” tax breaks for Apple should be repaid, in a judgment likely to have far-reaching effects on “sweetheart” deals for large multinationals.

A ruling due on Tuesday from the European court of justice (ECJ) may bring an end to a bitter legal saga that began in 2016 when the EU competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, concluded the iPhone maker had benefited from billions worth of unfair tax breaks from the Irish government.

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Will Jennings, Oscar-winning lyricist of My Heart Will Go On, dies aged 80

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Songwriter wrote No 1 hits for Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow, as well as iconic ballads such as Up Where We Belong and Tears in Heaven

Will Jennings, the Oscar-winning US lyricist behind hit songs such as My Heart Will Go On, Tears in Heaven and Up Where We Belong, has died aged 80. His agent said Jennings died at home in Tyler, Texas, and did not give a cause of death.

Born Wilbur Jennings in 1944, he was raised in Tyler and initially went into academia, teaching at the University of Wisconsin. But in 1971 he headed to Nashville and became a lyricist in the city’s country music scene, earning his first country No 1 in 1975 with Feelins’ by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.

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Celebrity ‘son of God’ pastor surrenders in Philippines after two-week manhunt

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Apollo Quiboloy, who is also wanted in US on child trafficking charges, hands himself over to police after ultimatum

An influential pastor wanted in the US on child trafficking charges has been arrested in the Philippines, after a 16-day manhunt across a vast compound that included a network of underground tunnels and dozens of buildings.

Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church, who claims to be the “appointed son of God” and was a spiritual adviser of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, is facing various charges, including in the US where he is wanted over alleged trafficking of women and girls as young as 12.

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Israeli strikes in Syria kill at least 25, war monitor says

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State media says more than 40 injured as military research centre for arms production hit, according to sources

Israeli jets have launched a substantial strike on targets in Syria, killing at least 25 people, according to an opposition war monitor that said it was one of the most violent such attacks in years.

The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme, but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 wounded.

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Teacher ‘sick with nerves’ over battle to remain in his Spanish home post-Brexit

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Mark Saxby, 56, says he is in limbo because of Spanish authorities’ ‘petty’ concern about his medical insurance

A British teacher has told how he is “sick” with nerves about returning to his home in Spain amid a three-year battle to get post-Brexit residency after being denied it because he was missing one month’s medical insurance in the first year after the UK left the EU.

Mark Saxby, 56, said he felt “trapped” in a nightmarish limbo, unable to convince anyone that he had the right to live in Spain despite the EU-UK withdrawal agreement guaranteeing residency rights for those in the country before Brexit.

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Weather tracker: Francine looking likely to be next Atlantic hurricane

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An area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico is moving landward, and is expected to bring intense rainfall

Francine could soon be the next to be ticked off the list of Atlantic hurricane storm names this week. On Friday, a broad area of low pressure emerged in the Gulf of Mexico, designated as Invest 91L. An “invest” – a shorthand for “investigative area” – refers to a region of atmospheric disturbance, characterised by low pressure and thunderstorms, and is closely monitored for its potential to evolve into a tropical cyclone.

Invest 91L is anticipated to encounter more favourable environmental conditions as it progresses northward over the coming days, meandering along the eastern coasts of Mexico and Texas. The National Hurricane Center has now labelled this as a potential tropical cyclone, and it is expected to reach hurricane status before reaching the Gulf coast of the US. It advises that hurricane and storm surge watches will probably be issued on Monday for coastal parts of Texas and Louisiana, with the impacts expected to be felt from Tuesday night.

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Senegal’s leaders face harsh reality check after promises of radical reform

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Six months after coming to power, president and PM locked in stand-off with parliament

Within a week of being inaugurated in April as Senegal’s youngest president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye named his political mentor, Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister and announced his 25 cabinet appointments.

Faye had swept to power on a leftist, anti-establishment and pan-African agenda promising radical reform, and said in his victory speech that his administration would focus on national reconciliation, easing the cost of living crisis and fighting corruption.

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‘Going back in time’: the schools across Europe banning mobile phones

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Calvijn College was one of the first schools in the Netherlands to ban mobile phones. Four years on, officials report its culture has been transformed

Six years ago, as officials at the Netherlands’ Calvijn College began considering whether to ban phones from their schools, the idea left some students aghast.

“We were asked whether we thought we were living in the 1800s,” said Jan Bakker, the chair of the college, whose students range in age from 12 to 18 years.

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Paris gives Paralympic Games a send-off for the ages

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Stade de France transformed into huge electronica dance party with world’s elite para athletes doing farewell conga

With an explosion of fireworks, laser beams, breakdance and a thumping set by the giants of French electronica, France bid goodbye to the Paralympic Games on Sunday night with the biggest party it had ever thrown.

The feelgood summer of athletic achievement in Paris had turned crowds hoarse from so much cheering and for ever changed the nation’s attitude to sport and disability, and now Parisians were desperately sad to say goodbye to it all.

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