Europe

Germany to pay more for children’s meds as shortages spike

Berlin, Germany (AFP) Germany will pay up to 50 percent more for common children’s medication such as cough syrup and fever drugs to combat a severe shortage this winter, the health minister said Tuesday. Like other European countries, Germany has for weeks struggled with supply bottlenecks abroad that have hampered the delivery of key medicines, particularly liquid ibuprofen and paracetamol for children. “Children must get the medication they need,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told reporters. […]

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UK nurses stage new walkout over pay

London, United Kingdom (AFP) by Joe JACKSON UK nurses on Tuesday staged a second one-day strike amid an increasingly acrimonious fight with the government for better wages and warnings that patient safety could be jeopardised. Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland walked out for the first time in the union’s 106-year history last Thursday. They want an above-inflation pay increase to make up for […]

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Fire at key Russian gas pipeline kills three: governor

Moscow, Russia (AFP) Three people died Tuesday in a fire at a key gas pipeline in western Russia that sends supplies through Ukraine and on to Europe, the regional governor told state-run television. Images circulating on social media showed a large ball of fire billowing over one and two-storey buildings in a snow-blanketed village, with residents moving closer to inspect the blaze. “According to preliminary data, four people were working (at the site). Unfortunately, three […]

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German court convicts 97-year-old in one of last Holocaust trials

  Itzehoe, Germany (AFP) by Céline LE PRIOUX A court on Tuesday convicted a 97-year-old former Nazi camp secretary of complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people in what could be Germany’s last Holocaust trial. Presiding judge Dominik Gross handed a two-year suspended sentence to Irmgard Furchner for her role in what prosecutors called the “cruel and malicious murder” of prisoners at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland. Furchner sat in a wheelchair in […]

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Russian President Putin says situation in annexed regions ‘extremely difficult’

Moscow, Russia (AFP) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the situation in four territories of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed was “extremely difficult”. “The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin told the Russian security services on their professional holiday. Putin singled out those working in the “new regions of Russia”. “The people living there, the citizens of Russia, rely on you, […]

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Russian president insists no plan to absorb Belarus on visit in Ukraine shadow

  Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) by Dmytro GORSHKOV President Vladimir Putin denied plans to absorb Belarus as he paid a rare visit Monday to the country whose strongman assisted his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. Putin flew into Minsk with his defence and foreign ministers in tow, hours after Russian forces launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv, which provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions. Putin said that Russia and Belarus — […]

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Greenland suspends fishing agreement with Russia

Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP) Greenland has suspended its fishing agreement with Russia for next year, according to the ministry of fisheries. The ministry of the autonomous Danish territory told AFP that it had informed Russian authorities that “due to the decline of stock for several species, there is no possibility of exchanging quotas for 2023”. Since 1992 the agreement has mainly allowed Greenland to fish for Russian cod in the Barents Sea, while Russian fishermen have […]

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Dutch PM apologises for 250 years of slavery

by Jan HENNOP Agence France-Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologized for 250 years of the Netherlands’ involvement in slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity”. The apology comes almost 150 years after the end of slavery in the European country’s overseas colonies, which included Suriname in South America, Indonesia in the east and Caribbean islands such as Curacao and Aruba. In the first of the former […]

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Temperature rising on Soyuz, crew not in danger

  Moscow, Russia (AFP) The temperature on the Soyuz capsule docked at the International Space Station has risen but the crew are not in danger, the Russian space agency said Friday as it assesses a leak. Roscosmos said a number of tests had been conducted following the discovery of a coolant leak on the Soyuz MS-22, and the temperature in the capsule had increased to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). On Wednesday, the leak […]

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Russia fires ‘massive’ missile barrage at Ukraine grid

  Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) by Dmytro GORSHKOV A fresh barrage of fatal Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine early Friday, cutting water and electricity in major urban hubs and piling pressure on the grid in sub-zero temperatures. AFP journalists in Kyiv reported several loud explosions and the mayor said the metro had stopped running to allow residents to take shelter in underground stations. The strikes killed two people and injured several others — including children […]

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Macron to call on Putin over Ukraine strikes, nuclear plant safety

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) French President Emmanuel Macron said he will call on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop bombing civilians in Ukraine and to finalise a safety plan for Europe’s largest nuclear reactor. “The most urgent issue today is to continue to call for a truce on the bombings and drone attacks,” Macron said at a press conference after a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “I intend to discuss this issue with Putin, because […]

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Four people ‘critical’ after crush at London concert venue

London, United Kingdom (AFP) Four people were critically injured and four others were hospitalised following a crush at a concert venue in south London, police said Friday. Police and other emergency services were called to the O2 Academy in Brixton at 21:35 pm (2135 GMT) on Thursday following reports “that a large number of people were attempting to force entry to the venue”. They arrived to find a number of people with injuries believed to […]

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