Hilde Van Acker and Jean-Claude Lacote are facing a life sentence over shooting businessman Marcus Mitchell
Two of Europe’s most wanted criminals, branded the “Devil’s couple” for their murder of a British businessman, have been extradited to Belgium after 23 years on the run.
Hilde Van Acker, 56, and Jean-Claude Lacote, 53, are facing a life sentence for the shooting of Marcus Mitchell, a businessman whom the couple conned out of £500,000.
Continue reading...Cargo ship ran aground near Cork after floating in the Atlantic since September 2018
It leans on the rocks at an almost jaunty angle, framed by the horizon whence it came, not a soul in sight.
MV Alta, a ghost ship that traversed the Atlantic for more than a year without crew or passengers, berthed at last. The 77-metre cargo vessel’s odyssey came to an end during Storm Dennis last Sunday when it ran aground near Ballycotton, a fishing village in County Cork, Ireland, overlooking the Celtic Sea.
Continue reading...Brussels aide says UK cannot have similar trade pact because of proximity to member states
Downing Street’s hopes of a Canada-style trade deal with the EU have been dealt a further blow after a senior adviser to Brussels’ chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the bloc’s relationship with the North American country was a “different ball game”.
As the two sides prepare for the start of negotiations next month, Stefaan De Rynck highlighted the UK’s proximity to Brussels compared with Canada as a key factor, as well as warning that the trade talks could get “rather difficult”.
Continue reading...Brexit and the surprising gains for Sinn Féin in Ireland’s general election have combined to reopen the debate about economic and political partition
Continue reading...Norbert Röttgen throws hat in ring to replace Merkel after Kramp-Karrenbauer steps aside
A senior German conservative politician, who was once seen as the brains behind Angela Merkel’s inner circle but was later sacked by the chancellor, has put himself forward as a surprise candidate to take over as leader of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), further complicating the party’s chaotic succession planning.
Norbert Röttgen announced his candidacy for the soon-to-be vacant seat at the top of the CDU in a press conference on Tuesday, saying he had decided to run because he believed the party should strategically position itself as the “party of the centre”.
Continue reading...Jewel of ancient Roman city was severely damaged by destructive earthquake in 1980
One of Pompeii’s most celebrated buildings, the House of Lovers, will reopen to the public on Tuesday, 40 years after it was severely damaged in an earthquake.
The domus, considered to be among the jewels of the ancient city that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, was discovered in 1933 with its second floor and decorations almost completely preserved.
Continue reading...Verhofstadt says it would be a ‘hell of a job’ to achieve success using David Frost’s approach
Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator has been accused of treating the EU and the UK as if they are “living on two different planets” after vowing to break all regulatory ties with Brussels.
Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister who has led the European parliament’s approach to Brexit, said it would be a “hell of a job” to secure a successful outcome from the negotiation using the British approach.
Continue reading...Irish parliament set to meet on Thursday despite no party having a majority
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s taoiseach, has said he is prepared to lead his ruling Fine Gael party into opposition and to let Sinn Féin and other parties try to form a government.
Varadkar emerged from a six-hour meeting with Fine Gael’s parliamentary party on Monday night saying he “relishes” the chance to rebuild it from the opposition benches.
Continue reading...David Frost says democratic consent would snap if UK agreed to EU alignment
The democratic consent of the British public would “snap dramatically and finally” if the UK continued to be tied to EU rules, Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator has said.
In his first public speech since his appointment to the role, David Frost said Downing Street was not engaging in game-playing by rejecting alignment with EU laws after 2020.
Continue reading...Operation to come into force as mission to save migrants and refugees from sea is wound down
The EU has agreed to deploy warships to stop the flow of weapons into Libya, as the bloc wound down a military mission that had once rescued migrants and refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, announced that 27 foreign ministers had agreed to launch a new operation with naval ships, planes and satellites in order to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya.
Continue reading...Public warned away from MV Alta, which ran aground on Cork coast during Storm Dennis
Abandoned by its crew, the cargo vessel made a lonely odyssey across the Atlantic, a ghost ship seemingly destined never to make port.
The 77-metre MV Alta drifted for over a year, skirting the Americas, Africa and Europe, rusting and derelict yet resolutely afloat.
Continue reading...Families feel forgotten in what were meant to be temporary homes and many struggle for work
When Mujo Hrustanovic was transferred in 1997 to the Jezevac refugee camp in Bosnia, he thought he would stay for just a few months. That was what the government had told him. But more than two decades on, he is still there.
The 75-year-old shares a 30 sq metre apartment with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and their two children in one of the 50 white homes in in the camp built by international organisations near the city of Tuzla. Such apartments, intended as a temporary solution, have instead become a permanent home for hundreds of survivors of the genocide in Srebrenica, Europe’s worst atrocity since the second world war.
Continue reading...Local council leaders said they were forced into ‘exceptional’ move to protect jobs
A French ski resort has angered ecologists by using a helicopter to move snow from higher up the mountains after exceptionally mild weather left its slopes bare.
Officials at Luchon-Superbagnères in the Pyrenees authorised the “exceptional” emergency operation overnight on Friday.
Continue reading...Top diplomats disagreed over the global relevance of the west at the Munich security conference
The chosen theme of the Munich security conference – once a party for Nato and now a Davos for the world’s diplomats – was “westlessness”. The organisers wanted to capture the fear that the west is now so divided and challenged by the rise of China its whole existence has become imperilled.
It was not a concept that won universal acclaim. Margrethe Vestager, the EU vice-president, hit back in one session: “I never thought about ’westlessness’ before. Are we here discussing our own depression and asking the rest of the world to join in as a sort of collective mindfulness exercise? I don’t really don’t get this.” European values – the rule of law and the integrity of the individual – had spread across the world, she insisted.
Continue reading...French foreign minister says it will be hard for UK to strike deal by end of year given differences
Britain and the European Union are going to rip each other apart in talks over a future trade deal, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has predicted, while also holding out hope that UK defence co-operation with Europe will continue.
Speaking at the Munich security forum, he added it would be tough for Britain to achieve its aim of a free trade deal by the end of the year given the differences between the two sides.
Continue reading...Since the start of the year, Greece’s reception system for migrants has imploded. A spike of arrivals over the past few months, caused by Turkey’s police operations removing refugees and asylum seekers from its western coastal cities and sending them back to the regions where they were registered, has pushed the existing accommodation to its limits.
Between September 2019 and January 2020, the Greek government transferred 14,750 people from the islands to the mainland, as 36,000 new arrivals crossed the Aegean to Greece from Turkey. While the system is unable to absorb any more people, efforts to establish additional camps in the mainland and new detention centres on the islands have met strong resistance from local communities.
Continue reading...Petr Pavlensky and partner questioned after complaint from Benjamin Griveaux
The girlfriend of a Russian performance artist and activist who released a video of a sexual nature that prompted a Paris mayoral candidate to stand down is being questioned by police over her role in the scandal.
The woman was taken into custody along with the artist, Petr Pavlensky, on Saturday afternoon as they left a Paris hotel. They are being questioned over accusations of invasion of privacy and “broadcasting images of a sexual nature without the permission of the person involved”.
Continue reading...Canada, Ukraine, Britain and others ask for box to be sent to third country for examination
Canada and other countries whose nationals were killed in the Iranian strike on a Ukrainian civilian jet leaving Tehran have stepped up their requests for Iran to hand over the black box to a third party for examination.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has suggested specialist equipment should be sent to Tehran to help the Iranians decrypt the contents of the black box and has given a commitment the box will not be opened except in the presence of all interested parties. But with an impasse looming, western aviation experts have said it is not possible to send the cumbersome equipment to Tehran.
Continue reading...Presidents, prime ministers and chancellors across Europe will pack their bags later this week in preparation for a long weekend in Brussels. They won’t, however, be taking in the baroque majesty of the Grand Place or savouring the local culinary treats. Instead, they will be preparing for that most infamous of events, a “four shirter”, to use the clothes-packing gauge adopted by male diplomats to measure the length and horror of EU leaders’ summits in the Belgian capital. The thorny subject this time around? Money. And the problem? Britain.
The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union has left a huge €75bn (£62bn) hole in the bloc’s budget for the next seven years, 2021 to 2027. “And now we are fighting like ferrets in a sack,” said one EU diplomat with a sigh.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin president’s statement comes after senior party figures were threatened
Violent dissident republicans should disband, the leader of Sinn Féin has said. Anti-peace process renegades threatened the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, and veteran policing spokesman Gerry Kelly after they supported a recent recruitment campaign for new Catholic officers.
The party’s president, Mary-Lou McDonald, said they would not be deterred or intimidated by the gunmen. She added: “These people have no politics, no strategy and nothing to offer. They are at war with their community and are now threatening political representatives who serve the people.”
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