Britain was heading towards a December election on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bet on breaking the Brexit deadlock with an early vote gained support from opposition parties. As the European Union finalizes the third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place on March 29, …
Read More »Essex police probe ‘wider conspiracy’ amid people-trafficking claims.
Police are investigating whether the deaths of 39 people found in a lorry in Essex were part of a “wider conspiracy” to traffic people, following reports the victims had set out from Vietnam in a larger group. British detectives met with the Vietnamese ambassador to the UK on Saturday, amid …
Read More »Boris Johnson frustrated over choosing Brexit vs. election.
UK PM Boris Johnson has grown frustrated over whether to hold a snap election or try instead to push his Brexit-enabling withdrawal agreement bill through the House of Commons again. Although MPs approved Boris Johnson’s bill during a second reading this week, they rejected his accelerated timetable, saying they needed …
Read More »39 dead bodies discovered inside a lorry in Essex, UK, murder suspect arrested
A murder investigation has been launched after 39 people were found dead in a truck at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Emergency services were called to the site at around 1.40 am BST to discover the 39 victims in a truck container. …
Read More »Norwegian police arrest gunman after ambulance rampage.
Norwegian police said they arrested an armed man who stole an ambulance Tuesday and ran over pedestrians in Oslo, including at least one baby, as the motive was not immediately known. Police said they were searching for a second suspect — a woman described as having fair skin and wearing …
Read More »Johnson threatens nuclear option on Brexit
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has threatened to abandon his Brexit bill, known as the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) if the House of Commons opposes his proposed three-day ratification timetable. A Downing Street source reportedly briefed the BBC that if MPs tried to block the three-day timetable then the PM will …
Read More »Kremlin says Putin wants more information from Erdogan about Turkey’s Syria plans
The Kremlin said it hoped Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan would be able to provide President Vladimir Putin with more information about Ankara’s plans for northern Syria at a meeting in southern Russia later on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two men had plenty to talk about when it …
Read More »UK MPs back Brexit deal delay.
Boris Johnson has said he will press on “undaunted” with his Brexit strategy despite losing a vital vote in the House of Commons. He has vowed to introduce legislation needed to implement his agreement in Parliament next week. But he will be compelled later to ask the EU for an …
Read More »Dam Collapse Kills at Least 15 Gold Miners in Siberia
At least 15 miners were killed on Saturday (October 19) when a dam collapsed at a gold mine about 160 km (100 miles) south of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russian news agencies reported. Heavy rains had caused erosion of the dam and water had broken through, sweeping away several …
Read More »Barcelona paralyzed on the fifth day of protests.
The fifth day of protests and a general strike have brought Barcelona to a halt amid ongoing fury over jailed Catalan separatist leaders. Tens of thousands of demonstrators entered the city on Friday, stopping trains and blocking roads. Barcelona and Real Madrid football teams postponed a match they were due …
Read More »Britain clinches Brexit deal; Johnson must secure parliament’s backing
Britain secured a Brexit deal with the European Union on Thursday, more than three years after Britons voted to leave the bloc, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson must still win a knife-edge vote in parliament to get the agreement approved. The deal comes after years of divisive and frequently acrimonious …
Read More »Brexit talks hang in the balance
With only a couple of days to go before a Brexit deal on Britain’s scheduled date of departure (October 31) from the European Union (EU) becomes impossible, there is much confusion about the outcome. In the latest development, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar, has said there are “many …
Read More »Anger in Catalonia as Spain jails independence leaders
Angry protests erupt across Catalonia against a decision by Spain’s top court to sentence several Catalonia leaders to up to 13 years behind bars for sedition over their role in an independence referendum back in 2017. Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday sentenced nine separatist leaders from Catalonia to between nine …
Read More »Thousands in Europe march against Turkey’s Syria offensive.
Thousands of people, some shouting “Erdogan terrorist”, took to the streets of Paris and other European cities on Saturday in protest at the Turkish assault on Kurds in Syria. Protesters marching under the Kurdish green, red and yellow flag waved placards reading “Trump = serial killer” or “the true leader …
Read More »‘Intense’ Brexit talks between UK and EU
Negotiators from the UK and EU are having what has been described as “intense technical discussions” in an attempt to agree on a new Brexit deal. About a dozen British officials, including the UK’s EU adviser David Frost, are taking part in the talks at the EU Commission in Brussels. …
Read More »Videos: Police Tear Gas Yellow Vest protesters in Toulouse during 48th week of mass demonstrations.
Police in the French city of Toulouse have deployed tear gas and water cannon as Yellow Vest protesters took to the streets for the 48th weekend of mass demonstrations across France. The city in the south of France has routinely been the scene of large anti-government rallies for the political …
Read More »Riots at Greek migrant camp after a killer blaze.
Violence gripped the notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos as rioters trashed fire trucks and clashed with police after a fire broke out. A woman and a child were killed. The first fire started at around 4:45 pm on Sunday, some 400 meters from the …
Read More »Former French president Jacques Chirac dies, aged 86.
Former president Jacques Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, has died at the age of 86. His son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux told the Associated Press that Chirac died “peacefully, among his loved ones.” The exact cause of death is unknown, but he had reportedly been hospitalized several times in …
Read More »France’s #MeToo creator found guilty of defamation.
The woman who started France’s campaign to encourage other women to expose their sexual harassers has been found guilty of defamation by a Paris court. Sandra Muller, who created the “#balancetonporc” (“rat on your pig”) hashtag in 2017, has been ordered to pay damages to ex-TV boss Éric Brion. The …
Read More »Johnson faces hostile parliament as Brexit chaos deepens.
A defiant Boris Johnson faces parliament on Wednesday after a Supreme Court ruling that he had unlawfully shut it down, with opponents seeking new ways to block him from taking Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal. After three years of Brexit crisis and Johnson’s …
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