Category Archives: Europe

Egypt drops inquiry into murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni

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Prosecutors reject Italy’s finding that Egyptian security officials were behind kidnap and torture

Egypt’s public prosecution has officially closed its investigation into the murder of Giulio Regeni, rejecting Italian prosecutors’ findings that accused four Egyptian security officials of kidnapping and torturing the Italian doctoral student in 2016.

Italy officially indicted four Egyptian security officials including two from Egypt’s national security agency in early December. The four men were accused of kidnapping Regeni, whose body was found on an outlying Cairo highway in February 2016 showing signs of torture. One of the suspects, named as Magdi Ibrahim Abdel Al Sharif, is accused of grievous bodily harm.

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Johnson to hail ‘historic resolution’ as Brexit bill comes before Commons

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Prime minister to celebrate bill to MPs ahead of vote, but fast-tracking of legislation faces condemnation

The UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with Brussels delivers a “historic resolution” making the country a “friendly neighbour” to the EU, Boris Johnson will tell MPs on Wednesday as they vote on the agreement.

The deal is expected to sail through the parliamentary approval process in just a day, with the backing of Labour and after the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs indicated on Tuesday that it would support it.

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At least seven dead after strong earthquake strikes central Croatia

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Casualties include girl, 12, as mayor of town of Petrinja says ‘half of the city no longer exists’

At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured after a strong earthquake hit central Croatia, destroying buildings and sending panicked people fleeing into rubble-covered streets in a town south-east of the capital Zagreb.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude hit 28 miles (46km) from Zagreb at 12.19pm, at a depth of 10km. Initial reports said the earthquake caused extensive damage, causing roofs, building facades and entire buildings to collapse.

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Alexei Navalny to be investigated by Russian authorities over alleged fraud

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The prominent Kremlin critic, poisoned in August, is under investigation for allegedly mishandling $5m private donations

Russian authorities have ramped up the pressure on the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny by levelling new fraud accusations against him.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s main investigative agency, said on Tuesday it had opened a new criminal case against Navalny on charges of large-scale fraud related to his alleged mishandling of $5m in private donations to his Anti-Corruption Foundation and other organisations.

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Boy is pulled alive from rubble after 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Croatia – video

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A young boy was rescued after a collapsed building fell on a car during a powerful earthquake in Croatia. Authorities said a girl was killed and at least 20 people were treated in hospital in the town of Petrinja by the quake. 'My town has been completely destroyed. We have dead children,' Darinko Dumbović, the mayor of Petrinja, said in a statement. 'Half of the city no longer exists.' 

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Pierre Cardin helped define modernity in the 1960s and beyond

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Fashion designer will forever be associated with the decade that embraced his space-age aesthetic

The Beatles smiling for an early group portrait in 1963, their pixie handsomeness perfectly framed by four snappy collarless jackets. US first lady, Jackie Kennedy, unimpeachably elegant in a boxy scarlet wool day-suit on a visit to Canada in 1962. Marisa Berenson in a groovy sunset-hued kaftan, gazing through matchstick lashes at the lens of Irving Penn for a 1967 cover of Vogue.

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Global report: India finds six cases of new UK variant; South Africa bans alcohol sales

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Germany says infectious variant has been present since November; Spain sets up Covid vaccine register

India has found six cases of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus in people arriving from Britain, while South Africa reimposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars as it battles a resurgence of the virus, including another new variant.

All six of the infected people in India are in isolation and their fellow travellers are being traced, the health ministry said.

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Render unto Rome – contrite tourists return pilfered relics

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Whether compelled by guilt or superstition, more and more tourists are returning items they lifted from Italian cultural sites

Some of the repentant sinners may be compelled by guilt, others by superstition.

But Italian museum curators and archeological officers have observed a trend of tourists who, having pilfered artefacts from cultural sites, return them, years later, with a heartfelt letter of confession.

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Through gilets jaunes, strikes and Covid, Paris’s 400-year-old book stalls fight to survive

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With passing trade hit hard by the pandemic, the booksellers on the banks of the Seine are struggling

Usually, Sundays are good days for the bouquinistes. Legions of strollers – tourists, out-of-towners, Parisians – throng the banks of the Seine, and the open-air booksellers whose green boxes have lined the quays for 400-odd years do good business.

One recent Sunday, though, Jérôme Callais made €32. And there was a day that week when he made €4: a single paperback, he can’t even recall which. It has not, Callais said, sheltering from driving rain on an all but deserted Quai de Conti, been easy.

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How Joe Biden’s cold war experience will shape his approach to Russia

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President-elect’s formative years of going toe-to-toe with the USSR on arms control hint at how he may deal with Putin

It was 1988, near the end of the cold war, when then-senator Joe Biden made yet another visit to the Soviet Union for talks on arms control. By that time, he felt comfortable enough in Moscow to bring a guest into the room: his teenage son.

“Would you mind my son, Hunter Biden, sitting in and listening? The gentleman is interested in international affairs and diplomacy,” he said, according to Victor Prokofiev, the Soviet foreign ministry interpreter at the meeting.

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Swan song: German firefighters remove ‘mourning’ bird blocking railway line

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At least 20 trains cancelled after swan stopped at site of another’s death near Fuldatal

Police and firefighters in Germany were forced to intervene to move an apparently “mourning” swan that was blocking a high-speed railway line, according to a statement released by the rescuers on Monday.

The swan was pictured blocking the line near Fuldatal, causing at least 20 trains to be cancelled, after a second swan was killed when it flew into the overhead line above the tracks.

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Only about 12 Britons stay in quarantine in Swiss ski resort after hundreds flee

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Hundreds left Verbier after discovery of new Covid variant despite order to self-isolate

Only about a dozen British tourists out of about 420 appear to be left in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier after an undisclosed number fled a mandatory quarantine, many under cover of darkness, risking a 10,000 Swiss franc fine (£8,300) and drawing widespread condemnation on social media.

Asked about the runaway tourists, the Swiss health minister, Alain Berset, said: “We are aware of that. It’s obviously a problem. There was an order to quarantine that has not been respected.”

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EU states unanimously back Brexit trade and security deal

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Backing of EU27 paves way for new arrangements between UK and EU to come into force on 1 January

The post-Brexit trade and security deal has been unanimously backed by EU member states, paving the way for the new arrangements to come into force on 1 January.

At a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels, the 27 member states gave their support for the 1,246-page treaty to be “provisionally applied” at the end of the year. The decision will be formally completed by written procedure at 3pm central European time (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.

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Irish murderer appeals conviction on grounds of EU data law breach

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Graham Dwyer is challenging the use of his phone data as evidence, with implications for European data privacy rules

When Graham Dwyer was convicted of murder in 2015 it was a triumph for Ireland’s police and judicial system.

The architect had committed what prosecutors called “very nearly the perfect murder” but he was caught and sentenced to life in prison thanks to a meticulous investigation. Five years later, however, the conviction risks unravelling over the use of phone data – a twist that could see Dwyer walk free, and also have an impact on data privacy rules across Europe.

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Coronavirus live news: British tourists flee Swiss ski resort quarantine; inoculation in EU begins

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Latest updates: first vaccine doses administered across Europe; Germany rollout delayed after potential irregularities in cooling of Pfizer shot

Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines.

He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it [a] more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.”

The UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme will resume on Monday, after a pause on Christmas Day and the weekend.

The latest figures show that a total of 70,572 people in the UK have died from Covid-19. The number is likely to rise further on Tuesday, as authorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have not released data over the festive period.

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Hundreds of UK tourists flee Covid quarantine in Swiss ski resort

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About half of the 420 visitors ordered to self-isolate left Verbier in ‘cloak and dagger’ operation

Hundreds of British tourists fled the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Verbier in a “cloak-and-dagger operation” this week, breaking quarantine rules retroactively put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK.

Following the detection of the new mutation of Covid-19 in Britain, Swiss authorities announced on 21 December that all people who had arrived from the UK since 14 December would need to self-isolate for 10 days from their date of arrival.

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Sunak suggests EU access for financial services will exceed Brexit deal

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Chancellor aims to firm up agreements that would allow institutions to trade as if still in EU

Rishi Sunak has offered financial services firms the prospect of closer access to EU markets than outlined in the Brexit trade deal, after Boris Johnson conceded that this aspect of the agreement fell short of UK hopes.

With MPs and experts still poring over the 1,246-page details of the agreement ahead of votes in the Commons and Lords on Wednesday, increasing focus has fallen on the relative lack of provision for the service sector, which makes up about 80% of the UK economy.

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‘Let’s get vaccinated’: Europe rolls out Covid-19 vaccine – video report

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European nations launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday, with pensioners and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. With surveys pointing to high levels of hesitancy about the vaccine in countries from France to Poland, leaders of the EU27 are promoting it as the best chance of getting back to something like normal life in 2021

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Facebook to close Irish holding companies at centre of tax dispute

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Intellectual property to be repatriated to the US after IRS said it was owed $9bn in taxes

Facebook is winding up Irish holding companies it has used to channel billions of profits to avoid paying taxes in the US, the UK and hundreds of other countries.

The company’s main Irish subsidiary paid $101m (£75m) in tax while recording profits of more than $15bn in 2018, the last year for which records are available. Facebook companies around the world paid the Irish holding company for use of its intellectual property.

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Putin to receive Russian-made Sputnik V Covid vaccine

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Announcement follows health ministry’s approval of vaccine use by elderly people

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will receive the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus, the Kremlin spokesman told state TV channel Rossiya 1.

“He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” said Dmitry Peskov.

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