Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Incumbent Kolinda Grabar Kitarović comes second to Zoran Milanović after losing votes to rightwing singer Miroslav Škoro
Croatia’s conservative president will face a liberal former prime minister in a runoff election in early January after no candidate won an outright majority in a first round of voting on Sunday, near-complete results showed.
The vote was held just days before Croatia takes over the European Union presidency for the first time. The governing conservatives are hoping to to keep their grip on power ahead of assuming the EU chairmanship.
Trump acted about 90 minutes after the ‘do us a favor’ phone call behind the scenes to freeze aid from the Pentagon
As Republicans and Democrats continue to squabble on the terms of Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, newly-released government emails showthat it took only about 90 minutes after Donald Trump’s infamous July telephone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for White House officials to order the Pentagon to freeze military funding for Ukraine.
Lawyers warn loss of reunion rights for unaccompanied refugee children will put them in danger
The loss of family reunion rights for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will leave them with “no options” except taking dangerous routes and using smugglers, charities in France and Greece are warning.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, faced criticism after he told parliament he had dropped a promise to replace the EU law that allows child refugees stranded in Europe to reunite with family members in the UK after Brexit.
Storms Elsa and Fabien have flooded rivers, brought down power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted rail and air travel across the region, leaving more than 118,000 households without electricity.
Bucharest’s notorious Palace of the Parliament bears witness to the folly of dictator shot dead on Christmas Day 1989
Bucharest’s most notorious building sits atop a small hill in the centre of the city, appearing squat despite its 84-metre height, due to its vast length and breadth. The Palace of the Parliament, as it is now called, is a monument to dictatorial folly whose benefactor was executed before he could see it completed.
Christmas Day will mark 30 years since Romania’s communist-era dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, was tried and shot dead along with his wife, as the last revolution of 1989 swept through what was perhaps the communist bloc’s most repressive state.
President gives up automatic pension given to French leaders as union standoff continues
Emmanuel Macron is to give up his own generous presidential pension in an attempt to calm anger over politicians’ privileges, as French transport strikes caused chaos for Christmas travellers.
With rail strikes continuing into their third week and travellers scrambling to get to home for the holidays, Macron, who turned 42 this weekend, made the symbolic move to become the first president in more than 50 years to give up the automatic pension of more than €6,000 a month that all French leaders receive after leaving office, regardless of age or wealth.
Mario Sandoval charged with dictatorship-era crimes in Argentina – so how could he have worked undetected at a top French university?
Mario Sandoval had been living in France for 14 years when he became a lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne in Paris.
The Argentinian security specialist was in his mid-40s, spoke good French and had recently obtained French citizenship. His credentials were impeccable – he’d spent the previous five years teaching international relations at another Paris institute, the Université Marne-la-Vallée – and he soon became a valued asset at the Sorbonne.
While heavy snow makes life unbearable for migrants, a dangerous nightly ‘game’ has led to alleged assault and injury
Photography by Alessio Mamo
In a room in the intensive therapy unit of a hospital in the port city of Rijeka, Croatia, Farouk fights for his life.
The 18-year-old Afghan has life-threatening injuries to his thorax and abdomen. On 16 November, in the woods around Tuhobić, a Croatian police officer shot Farouk – who, with dozens of other migrants, was attempting to cross the border with Slovenia.
Region braces for more strong winds and heavy rain as storm hits Spain, Portugal and France
The death toll from a storm that battered Spain, Portugal and France rose to eight on Saturday as the region braced for more violent winds and heavy rain.
A 32-year-old South Korean woman died Saturday, a day after being struck on the head by falling debris from a building in central Madrid, Spain’s regional interior minister said.
When Megan Nolan received her invitation, she wasn’t convinced of the importance of a shared name. Could 20 Nolans change her mind?
In June this year I received an email inviting me to Carlow, Ireland, to receive an award from the Nolan clan. The award was in recognition of my writing career, a little gesture of thanks for promoting the Nolan name in the world. I was dimly aware of Irish clans, largely from gift shops near tourism hotspots, where you can sometimes buy a horribly expensive sweater or scarf emblazoned with the family crest of your choice. I had no idea that they were a real-life concern.
I wasn’t living anywhere in particular. I had recently left my house in London because I couldn’t easily afford it and had tired of sharing with other people. So I answered my invitation from the clan immediately, accepting a little out of curiosity and a lot because in my transient state I would take any excuse to make my way back to Ireland, where I could loaf in my parents’ homes and not think much about money for a week.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović aims to be re-elected but faces pressure from populist candidate
Croatia’s president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, will seek re-election on Sunday as the country gears up to assume the rotating presidency of the EU for the first time.
She is expected to have an easy ride, but her campaign has been complicated by the rise of a populist, anti-establishment folk musician, Miroslav Škoro, which has led her to move to the right to compete for votes.
Man, 39, opened fire on intelligence agency offices in Moscow, killing two and injuring others
A man who was shot dead in central Moscow after opening fire on the offices of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s main intelligence agency building, in an attack that killed two has been identified as a gun enthusiast.
Investigators named him as Yevgeny Manyurov, 39, from Podolsk, a small town some 30 miles south of Moscow.
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.
This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.
He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.
I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.
That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.
Impasse continues as Russia calls for reduction in number of crossings for delivering aid
Vital cross-border aid to Syria is under threat after the UN security council was unable to overcome Russian and Chinese objections to the programme.
The aid, which is sent over borders at four UN approved checkpoints and without the formal permission of the Syrian regime, is seen as critical as the humanitarian crisis in Idlib and north-east Syria continues to mount.
‘Space Egg’ in Brussels under fire after investigation into subcontractors’ practices
The EU is facing embarrassment over claims that its new Europa headquarters, also known as the Space Egg building, was built with the help of undocumented migrant workers who at times went without pay.
The European council building in Brussels, which contains an ovoid glass structure, was opened in 2016 at a cost of £300m.
Court told of psychological abuse of staff as bosses focused on cost savings and job cuts
Former executives at France Télécom have been given prison sentences and fines after being found guilty of “institutional harassment” and creating a culture of routine workplace bullying that sparked a number of suicides at the company.
The landmark ruling is likely to send shockwaves through the French business world. It is the first time managers have been held criminally responsible for implementing a general strategy of bullying even if they had not dealt directly with the staff involved.
Unidentified man fired on reception of Federal Security Service and was later shot dead
One person has been shot dead after an unidentified gunman opened fire on the office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s main intelligence agency, in the heart of Moscow.
According to Russian media reports, the man attacked the reception of the Lubyanka building, home to the FSB and its communist-era predecessor the KGB. The victim was described as a traffic police officer. Other FSB guards were injured in the shooting, with two in a critical condition, officials said.
2,500 police deployed in raids centred on Calabria targeting members of ‘Ndrangheta
Italian military police have arrested more than 300 people including politicians and officials on suspicion of membership of the ‘Ndrangheta, in what is being described as the second biggest mafia bust in the country’s history.
About 2,500 officers participated in raids centred on the Calabrian city of Vibo Valentia on Thursday.