Three Isis supporters who killed two Scandinavian women given death sentence
Three men have been sentenced to death in Morocco for the Isis-inspired murder of two Scandinavian hikers in the Atlas mountains last December.
The two victims, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were beheaded by a group of men who wanted to impress Islamic State. The three men confessed to their murder at a court in Salé, near Rabat.
Continue reading...Helle Petersen asks trial in Morocco for ‘just’ penalty after murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen in Atlas mountains
The mother of a Danish student who was beheaded, along with another Scandinavian woman, while hiking in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains has called for the suspected jihadist killers to face the death penalty as their trial neared its end.
In a letter read out by her lawyer in an anti-terrorist court in Sale, near Morocco’s capital, Rabat, Helle Petersen said: “The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you. My life was destroyed the moment that two policemen came to my door on 17 December to announce my daughter’s death.”
Continue reading...German chancellor reportedly requests change of protocol after third bout of trembling
Angela Merkel sat through the German and Danish national anthems during a ceremony welcoming Denmark’s prime minister to Berlin. The German chancellor reportedly requested the change in protocol a day after she was seen shaking in public for the third time in as many weeks.
Merkel appeared calm as she and the new Danish leader, Mette Frederiksen, took seats on white upholstered chairs on the red carpet during military honours outside the chancellery in Berlin. The chancellor remained still throughout the hymns, moving only to smile and nod at her visitor.
Continue reading...Twenty-eight arrested for riding electric scooters after using alcohol or cannabis
Police in Copenhagen have arrested 28 people for riding electric scooters under the influence of cannabis and alcohol.
During the weekend 24 people were caught riding the scooters drunk and four were stoned, the force announced on Twitter, after police began a crackdown in the Danish capital on misuse of the scooters introduced to the city earlier this year.
Continue reading...Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democratic party forms minority government
Denmark has became the third Nordic country this year to form a leftist government after the Social Democratic party leader, Mette Frederiksen, finalised terms for a one-party minority government. Aged 41, she becomes the country’s youngest ever prime minister.
“It is with great pleasure I can announce that, after three weeks of negotiations, we have a majority to form a new government,” Frederiksen said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Temperatures could hit 40C from Spain to Switzerland, with authorities urging children and older people to stay indoors
Authorities have urged children and older people to stay indoors and issued severe warnings against dehydration and heatstroke as an unprecedented week-long heatwave begins its advance across continental Europe.
Meteorologists said temperatures would reach or even exceed 40C from Spain to Switzerland as hot air was sucked up from the Sahara by the combination of a storm stalling over the Atlantic and high pressure over central Europe.
Continue reading...Danes follow Nordic trend away from populism but leader Mette Frederiksen could struggle to form coalition
Voters appear to have returned the third left-leaning government in a year to the Nordic region as Denmark’s Social Democrats claimed victory in parliamentary elections with 25.9% of the vote.
The centre-left party finished clear of the centre-right Liberals of outgoing prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who improved on their 2015 score to reach 23.4%, and the populist, far-right Danish People’s party (DPP), which plunged to 8.7% – less than half its tally in the last election.
Continue reading...Social Democrats expected to return to power this week after backing once far-right policies
Tacking left on welfare and right on immigration looks likely to pay off for Denmark’s Social Democrats, who are widely expected to return to power this week as voters desert the centre-right government and the far right.
A poll this weekend predicted the centre-left party, led by Mette Frederiksen, will be the country’s largest with about 27% of the national vote after the election on Wednesday, while the “red bloc” of left-leaning parties it leads is on course for more than 55%.
Continue reading...Social Democrats leader has dragged her party sharply to the right, say critics
She marked her return on Facebook, with a video straight out of a Quentin Tarantino film, buttoning her jacket, arranging her hair and slipping on stiletto heels to heavy metal music. “I’m ready again,” she declared to camera. “Let’s get this bus rolling.”
Mette Frederiksen, leader of Denmark’s opposition Social Democrats, was in hospital with food poisoning when the prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, called a general election last week, and was two days late joining the campaign.
Continue reading...Stram Kurs to be on ballot paper for first time after getting required 20,000 signatures
A far-right political party demanding the deportation of all Muslims and the preservation of the country for its “ethnic community” will be on the ballot paper in Denmark for the first time, in a general election due to be called within days.
The Stram Kurs, or Hard Line party, led by Rasmus Paludan – a lawyer who is currently appealing against a conviction for racism – is feared to be on track to gain MPs after recently passing a threshold of voter support needed to stand in the election.
Continue reading...First leftist PM in 20 years may find it hard to build consensus amid splits over welfare system
Finland’s Social Democrats will try to form a coalition government after a narrow win in parliamentary elections that saw left-leaning parties make sweeping gains, despite a stronger than expected showing from the far right.
The centre-left SDP, led by Antti Rinne, a 56-year-old former trade union leader, will have 40 MPs in a fragmented 200-seat Eduskunta (parliament) after winning 17.7% of the vote following a campaign attacking the austerity policies of the outgoing centre-right coalition.
Continue reading...Fast-fashion giant Bestseller set to build skyscraper headquarters in Brande, a 7,000-person rural town
Until a local company announced plans to send a 320-metre skyscraper soaring over the surrounding countryside, most people in Denmark had only the haziest idea where Brande, a town of 7,000 people in rural Jutland, even was.
The Bestseller Tower, designed by star architectural studio Dorte Mandrup, will not only be the tallest building in Denmark, but the tallest in western Europe, besting the Shard in London by a crucial 10.4 metres.
Continue reading...Far-right speaker Pia Kjaersgaard tells Mette Abildgaard to remove her child
A member of Denmark’s parliament has said she was ordered to remove her infant daughter from the chamber, causing surprise in a country often hailed as a pioneer in women’s rights.
“You are not welcome with your baby in the parliament’s chamber,” the speaker, Pia Kjaersgaard, a former leader of the far-right Danish People’s Party, allegedly told Mette Abildgaard.
Continue reading...Denmark’s capital wants nine new islands to form a sustainable leisure and tech hub – but not everyone is convinced
In the winter fog and drizzle, it is hard to imagine Køge Bugt beach park packed with families, joggers and swimmers. But in summer this artificial beach is one of Copenhagen’s favourite spots. Backed by scrubby dunes and lagoons teeming with birds, the only thing spoiling the idyll is the power station that looms to the north.
“This view is something that is really part of my childhood,” says Arne Cermak Nielsen.
Continue reading...Idea of topping municipal plant in Copenhagen with urban ski resort won accolades for Danish architecture firm
It might be the first waste incinerator the neighbours actually want next door. The shop at the foot of the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy project in Copenhagen is packed with families desperate to be among the first to try its unique selling point: the ski slope on the roof.
“I live so close by that I could follow the development,” says Ole Fredslund, who lives in neighbouring Amager, as he helped his sons Felix and Victor strap on their boots as the slope opened its lifts for the first time on Tuesday. “I guess 90% of the focus is on the fact that there’s a skiing hill coming, so in a way it’s very clever. Everybody talks about the ski hill to be, not the waste plant to be.”
Continue reading...As ice melts and shipping lanes open up, geopolitical tensions are growing and old cold war bases are being reopened
The climate crisis is intensifying a new military buildup in the Arctic, diplomats and analysts said this week, as regional powers attempt to secure northern borders that were until recently reinforced by a continental-sized division of ice.
That so-called unpaid sentry is now literally melting away, opening up shipping lanes and geo-security challenges, said delegates at the Arctic Frontiers conference, the polar circle’s biggest talking shop, who debated a series of recent escalations.
Continue reading...Foreign minister says there is ‘strong’ evidence Iran directed killings of two Dutch nationals
Iran has been accused by the Dutch government of directing two political assassinations in the Netherlands, triggering EU sanctions against Tehran’s military intelligence service.
The two murders are alleged to have taken place in broad daylight in 2015 in Almere, a city east of Amsterdam, and in 2017 on a street close to the Dutch foreign ministry in The Hague.
Continue reading...Six people were killed when an express train braked suddenly after being hit by objects from a freight train in storm-force winds
Continue reading...Reports say tarpaulin from a freight train hit a passenger train going the other way
Danish police say several people have been killed in a train accident on a bridge linking the central islands of Zealand and Funen.
Police did not provide further details about those killed or the number of people injured in Wednesday’s incident, which took place at about 8am local time.
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