Category Archives: Europe

One dead in shooting at Russian intelligence agency in Moscow

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Italian politicians and police among 300 held in mafia bust

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Impeachment: Trump faces up to history as House prepares to vote

Posted on by

As the president rages, Democrats in the House get ready to vote against him

No volume of howling by Donald Trump could prevent the shadow of history from falling over his White House on Wednesday, as the House of Representatives prepared to approve articles of impeachment against a president for only the third time.

Related: More than 700 historians call for Trump to be impeached as key vote looms

Continue reading...

EU parliament calls on Malta PM to resign now over Caruana Galizia

Posted on by

Resolution questions ‘integrity and credibility’ of murder investigation

The European parliament has called on Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, to quit immediately over his handling of the investigation into the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, as it declared there were “serious and persistent threats” to democracy and the rule of law on the island nation.

In a resolution approved by a large majority, the European parliament said it was deeply concerned about “the integrity and credibility” of the investigation into the death of Caruana Galizia, who exposed the shady financial dealings of Maltese elite and was murdered in a car bombing in October 2017.

Continue reading...

Cliff-edge Brexit will hurt UK more than EU, says Von der Leyen

Posted on by

EU president warns of time running out in the expected 11 months available to strike deal

Ursula von der Leyen has warned that a cliff-edge Brexit at the end of 2020 will hurt the UK more than the EU as she laid out her intentions to “make the most” out of the “extremely challenging” 11 months available to strike a trade deal.

The European commission president acknowledged the danger of time running out during the negotiations, a risk many fear has been amplified by Boris Johnson’s symbolic decision to legislate to block an extension of the transition period.

Continue reading...

Violence in Paris amid nationwide pension reform protests

Posted on by

As prelude to day of action, power to thousands of homes deliberately cut by workers

Police fired teargas and charged at demonstrators in central Paris as hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country staged a show of force against the government’s controversial pension reform plans.

The violence erupted at Place de la Nation, one of Paris’s biggest squares, as riot police attempted to disperse protesters. Police said they had charged after coming under a hail of paving stones and missiles. There were 27 arrests by late afternoon.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s Brexit extension block ‘will limit UK options’

Posted on by

Brussels prepares to restrict scope of talks in light of British PM’s ‘strange’ move

Boris Johnson’s plan to make it illegal for the government to extend the Brexit transition period beyond 11 months has been described as “strange” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, as Brussels prepared to limit the scope of the coming negotiations.

Simon Coveney said it amounted to the “UK deciding to tie itself in terms of options” while the director general for trade in the European commission, Sabine Weyand, said the ambition of any deal would need to be pared back.

Continue reading...

The censor is watching: China’s mega photo fair – in pictures

Posted on by

Life on green trains, wild animals caught unawares and 55 ‘sweetheart’ portraits that angered the authorities … here the highlights of China’s biggest photography show

To visit the Lianzhou Foto festival, one flies along the banks of the Pearl river delta and into the heart of Guangzhou. Witnessing this mega city from the plane is to suddenly realise the immensity of modern China. Roughly 50 million people live in this urban sprawl surrounding Hong Kong.

Lianzhou is a four-hour drive from Guangzhou into the forested mountains of Guangdong province. It is perhaps an unlikely destination for a major arts event. But in 2005, Duan Yuting, a 47-year-old former photo editor for a Guangzhou newspaper, chose the city to found the festival, now firmly established as China’s leading contemporary photography event.

Continue reading...

Dubai police arrest Netherlands’ most wanted man

Posted on by

Ridouan Taghi was sought on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking

Police in Dubai have arrested the suspected head of a cocaine trafficking gang described as the most wanted man in the Netherlands.

Ridouan Taghi, 41, who was wanted on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking, was held at a house in the Gulf emirate on Monday.

Continue reading...

Estonian minister mocks Finland’s ‘sales girl’ PM Sanna Marin

Posted on by

Estonian president apologises after Mart Helme questions Marin’s capability

Estonia’s president has apologised after his country’s interior minister mocked Finland’s new prime minister – the world’s youngest serving government leader – as a “sales girl” and questioned her fitness for the post.

Mart Helme, 70, the leader of the populist far-right party Ekre, ridiculed Finland’s Sanna Marin, 34, and her government – in which four out of five coalition leaders are women under 35 – on his party’s radio talkshow on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Islands in the illiberal storm: central European cities vow to stand together

Posted on by

Mayors of Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest agree to protect common values

The mayors of four central European capitals signed a so-called “Pact of Free Cities” in Budapest on Monday, vowing to stand together against populist national governments in the region.

Budapest’s mayor Gergely Karácsony was joined by his counterparts from Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava to sign the document, which promised to promote the “common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity”.

Continue reading...

Suspected torturer for Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ extradited by France

Posted on by

Ex-police officer alleged to be ‘butcher’ of dictatorship held over student’s disappearance

An Argentinian ex-police officer suspected of links with the murder of hundreds of people during the country’s “dirty war” has been extradited by France to Buenos Aires to face trial over the disappearance of a student.

Mario Sandoval, 66, was arrested on Wednesday at his home near Paris after French authorities gave the final go-ahead for his extradition, ending an eight-year legal battle.

Continue reading...

Greece says it’s ‘reached limit’ as arrivals of refugees show no sign of slowing

Posted on by

EU must share responsibility for influx, says Greece, as it forms controversial plans to build ‘prison’ camps for migrants

Sometimes en masse, sometimes alone they keep on arriving: in rickety boats carrying men, women and children looking for a freedom they hope Europe will offer.

Despite winter’s limited daylight and whiplash-heavy storms and rains, the number of asylum seekers landing on Greek shores shows no sign of abating. Not since Europe’s historic agreement with Turkey to curb migrant flows at the height of Syria’s civil war in March 2016 have arrivals been so high.

Continue reading...

More than 600 French doctors threaten to quit amid funding row

Posted on by

Medics say budget cuts have pushed health system to brink of collapse and put lives at risk

More than 600 French hospital doctors have threatened to resign if the government does not increase health funding, as striking medics prepare to take to the streets this week across the country.

The doctors warn that budget cuts, bed closures and staff shortages are bringing France’s health system to the brink of collapse and putting patients’ lives at risk.

Continue reading...

Italy: more than 50,000 evacuated in Brindisi after WW2 bomb found

Posted on by

British bomb believed to have been dropped on southern Italian city in 1941

More than 50,000 people had to evacuate their homes in Brindisi in the south of Italy on Sunday, as experts removed a second world war British bomb.

The British bomb, uncovered by construction workers on 2 November during refurbishment works at a cinema, is believed to have been dropped on the port city in 1941.

Continue reading...

Anna Karina: an actor of easy charm and grace whose presence radiated from the screen | Peter Bradshaw

Posted on by

From her landmark early films with Jean-Luc Godard to later work such as The Nun, Karina’s beauty and charisma shone out

It was Anna Karina’s fate, or curse, to be perpetually described as an “icon” or a “muse”: a devastatingly beautiful figurehead and inspiration-figure to all those male directors doing the creating or critics doing the rhapsodising – one male director-cineaste in particular. She certainly was every bit as beautiful as everyone ceaselessly said, but it was her easy charm, intelligence and grace which made that beauty visible and made it exist. It was the kind of acting talent that made her whole style and address to the camera look easy, or not like acting: the kind of thing that bad or inexperienced actors – or very good male stars – foreground as an effortfully meaningful performance. And she had parallel careers as singer, producer, director and novelist.

Related: Anna Karina, French new wave icon – a life in pictures

Continue reading...

Feminism comes of age in Finland as female coalition takes the reins

Posted on by
For more than a century, the Nordic country has blazed a trail for women in politics. But even there, the battle for equality isn’t over, writes Emma Graham-Harrison

Just off Helsinki’s main shopping drag, toddlers in glitter paint whirl round their mothers, who are somehow managing to listen intently to a lecture on how to boost their careers with LinkedIn. No one bats an eye at the intermittent shrieks.

It’s business as usual at this Christmas networking meeting in the country that has come closer than perhaps anywhere else to making “having it all” a feminist reality, rather than an impossible goal to torment exhausted, overstretched women.

Continue reading...

‘Sardines’ against Salvini: Italy’s fight against the far right

Posted on by

Grassroots protests have brought tens of thousands of people on to the streets of Rome

Tens of thousands of people have crammed together in Rome on Saturday as part of the growing “sardines” movement against the leader of the far-right League and Italy’s former deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, and his allies.

Protesters converged in Piazza San Giovanni early in the afternoon in a bid “to further shake up the country’s politics and battle xenophobia”, in what was billed as their biggest rally.

Continue reading...

EU looks at extending Brexit transition period beyond 2020

Posted on by

Move is being considered by EU officials in face of Johnson not seeking extension beyond 11 months

EU leaders would take the initiative and request an extension to the transition period, keeping the UK under Brussels regulations beyond 2020, under a plan mooted for getting around Boris Johnson’s stated refusal to seek a delay.

The move is being considered by EU officials as a way out of the problem posed by the short time available to negotiate a new relationship and the prime minister’s insistence that he will not seek an extension beyond 11 months.

Continue reading...