Category Archives: Europe

Iran fury as Royal Marines seize tanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria

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Iran summons UK ambassador over incident off Gibraltar as tensions escalate over nuclear deal

Royal Marines have helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar, escalating tensions between the UK and Tehran as the agreement aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear programme unravels.

A detachment of nearly 30 British troops working with the Gibraltarian police intercepted the vessel, believed to be carrying 2m barrels of oil, in a dramatic manoeuvre Spain said had been conducted at the request of the US.

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Dutch gangland boss ‘De Neus’ jailed for life over five murders

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Willem Holleeder, famed for Heineken kidnap, failed to undermine sisters’ statements

A Dutch gangland boss who gained notoriety after the kidnapping of a Heineken beer tycoon in the 1980s has been jailed for life on five counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of manslaughter after his sisters handed over damning recordings to prosecutors.

Willem Holleeder, nicknamed De Neus over the size of his nose, was accused by the judge of being “unscrupulous and indifferent” to “life and death” at the end of a 17-month trial in a secure Amsterdam courtroom known as the bunker.

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Ann Widdecombe likens Brexit to emancipation of slaves

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Widdecombe becomes first Brexit party MEP to speak in new European parliament

The former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe has likened the UK’s departure from the EU to the emancipation of slaves, as she became the first Brexit party MEP to speak in the new European parliament.

With her leader, Nigel Farage, on her right, Widdecombe said the recent negotiations among the EU’s heads of state and government over the leadership of the bloc’s institutions confirmed the need for Britain to leave.

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With Brexit just one of EU’s headaches, Merkel avoids rocking the boat

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As another five-year term begins, the bloc is straining for unity across a range of issues

When the German chancellor was asked this week why she would not railroad Italy and the so-called Visegrád group of countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary – into accepting the former Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, a critic of populist governments, as European commission president, Angela Merkel’s answer was telling.

“The Brexit is looming on the horizon,” Merkel said in reference to the need to avoid tensions when appointing the next head of the commission. “Other important issues are on the table. I think we need to treat each other with care.”

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Volcano erupts on Italian island of Stromboli – video

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Parts of the Italian island of Stromboli have been evacuated after a volcano erupted, throwing a plume of ash and rock up to 2km the sky. “It was like being in hell because of the rain of fire coming from the sky,” Italian news agencies quoted a local priest, Giovanni Longo, as saying

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Hiker killed after volcano erupts on Italian island

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Residents evacuated as fire crews tackle blaze on west coast of Stromboli

A volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli has erupted, killing a hiker, throwing ash high into the sky and enveloping the popular tourist destination in smoke.

Rescue services said Wednesday’s eruption on Mount Stromboli had started fires on the western side of the small Mediterranean island north of Sicily. Fire crews were being called in from nearby locations and a Canadair firefighting plane was already in action.

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Spain: prosecutors claim attack not rape as victim ‘did not fight back’

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Six men accused of sexual abuse of 14-year-old girl in abandoned factory in Manresa

Prosecutors in the trial of six young men accused over an attack on a 14-year-old girl in the Spanish town of Manresa have argued they should face the lesser charge of sexual abuse instead of rape because the girl was drunk, under the influence of drugs and did not fight back.

The trial has been dubbed the Manresa Manada after the notorious case of five men who called themselves La Manada, “the wolf pack”, who were accused of raping a teenager in Pamplona but were initially found guilty of the lesser offence of sexual abuse. Last month the supreme court increased their sentences from nine to 15 years, ruling that they had committed rape.

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Ireland to charge suspect for murder of British spy in IRA

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Prosecutors obtain warrant to arrest man over Denis Donaldson shooting in 2006

Irish authorities are preparing to charge a man for the murder of Denis Donaldson, a British spy within the IRA who was shot dead in 2006.

The news emerged on Wednesday when an Irish police officer told an inquest in Letterkenny, County Donegal, that prosecutors had obtained a warrant to arrest and charge the suspect with murder.

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Submersible on which 14 sailors died is state secret, says Kremlin

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Russia refuses to release details about vessel or its mission ‘to protect national security’

The Kremlin has said it will not reveal the vessel type or mission of the 14 sailors who died onboard a top-secret submersible on Monday because the information is a closely guarded state secret.

The remarks came as information has trickled out about the vessel, reported to be an advanced “spy submersible”, and its highly decorated crew, which served in a secretive unit under Russia’s main directorate of deep-sea research and represented some of the navy’s best and brightest.

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Zdeněk Hřib: the Czech mayor who defied China

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By refusing to expel a Taiwanese diplomat, the Prague mayor has joined the ranks of local politicians confronting contentious national policies

Zdeněk Hřib had been Prague’s mayor for little more than a month when he came face-to-face with the Czech capital’s complex entanglement with China.

Hosting a meeting with foreign diplomats in the city, Hřib was asked by the Chinese ambassador to expel their Taiwanese counterpart from the gathering in deference to Beijing’s ‘one China’ policy, under which it claims sovereignty over the officially independent state of Taiwan.

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Fire kills 14 sailors on Russian top-secret navy submersible

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Losharik deep-sea vessel was carrying out military survey in Russian waters, say officials

Russia has revealed a fire onboard a top-secret navy submersible has left 14 sailors dead in a rare public incident involving one of the country’s most shadowy military projects.

The Russian defence ministry did not identify the submersible by name, simply calling it a “deep-sea research vessel”. Several independent Russian media outlets, including RBC and Novaya Gazeta, identified the vessel as the Losharik, citing sources.

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Christine Lagarde faces ECB test of legendary diplomatic skills

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European Central Bank provides an arena split between anti-austerians and expansionists

Christine Lagarde will take up the position of head of the European Central Bank as a self-confessed economic outsider who has preferred to emphasise her ability as a listener and tough negotiator during her seven years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

A lawyer by training, the former French finance minister is credited with turning around the Washington-based IMF after it was thrown into turmoil by the abrupt resignation of her predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn following unproven allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape.

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We must not barter the Amazon rainforest for burgers and steaks | Jonathan Watts

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The EU-Mercosur trade deal is good news for Brazil’s huge beef industry but devastating for the rainforest and environment

European leaders have thrown the Amazon rainforest under a Volkswagen bus in a massive cows-for-cars trade deal with Brazil and three other South American nations.

The EU-Mercosur agreement – the largest in Europe’s history, according to officials – will make it cheaper for Brazilian farmers to export agricultural products, particularly beef, despite growing evidence that cattle ranching is the primary driver of deforestation.

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Climate change made European heatwave at least five times likelier

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Searing heat shows crisis is ‘here and now’, say scientists, and worse than predicted

The record-breaking heatwave that struck France and other European nations in June was made at least five – and possibly 100 – times more likely by the climate crisis, scientists have calculated.

Such heatwaves are also about 4C hotter than a century ago, the researchers said. Furthermore, the heatwaves hitting Europe are more frequent and more severe than climate models have predicted, they said.

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More than €1m raised for rescue ship captain detained in Italy

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Money will go towards paying Carola Rackete’s legal fees if charges are brought

Two online campaigns to help the German captain of a rescue ship under house arrest in Italy have between them raised more than €1m.

Carola Rackete’s arrest on Saturday, after she forced her way into port in Lampedusa carrying migrants and refugees she had rescued off Libya, prompted a fundraising appeal by two prominent German TV stars that by Tuesday morning had raised €917,195 from more than 33,000 donors.

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Fantastic arctic fox: animal walks 3,500km from Norway to Canada

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Epic journey by female fox includes fastest movement rate for species ever recorded

An arctic fox has walked more than 3,500km (2,000 miles) from Norway to Canada in just 76 days, astonishing researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute.

The animal, known as a coastal or blue fox, was fitted with a tracking device in July 2017. It left Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on 26 March 2018. After 21 days and 1,512 km out on the sea ice, it landed in Greenland on 16 April 2018. Its journey continued to Ellesmere Island in Canada, where it arrived on 1 July.

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Angela Smith launches bid to commission report on no-deal Brexit risks

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Labour’s leader in House of Lords at head of cross-party effort to establish joint committee of MPs and peers

Labour’s leader in the House of Lords, Angela Smith, is spearheading a cross-party bid to force the government to set up a powerful new committee to report by September on the risks of a no-deal Brexit.

Both candidates in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister are saying they are prepared to take Britain out of the EU without a deal if they cannot secure concessions from Brussels.

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EU powers resist calls for Iran sanctions after breach of nuclear deal

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Focus is on averting further breaches and UK says it remains committed to 2015 deal

European leaders have resisted calls to start reimposing sanctions on Iran after the country said it had for the first time broken the terms of the nuclear deal it signed with foreign powers in 2015.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Monday it had allowed its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to exceed 300kg. The move is a carefully calibrated and reversible step intended to put pressure on Europe to do more to help mitigate the effect of crippling US sanctions.

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Stray missile from Syria-Israel clash lands in Cyprus – video

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A stray missile has exploded in mid-air over villages in northern Cyprus, thought to have been fired by Syrian forces in response to an Israeli attack. Hours after the projectile struck the area at about 1am local time (11pm BST) debris was still being discovered in Turkish Cypriot villages

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