COPENHAGEN, May 8, 2023 (AFP) – Six crew members kidnapped by pirates last month from a Danish oil tanker off Congo have been rescued from Nigeria, the ship’s owner said Monday. The Liberian-flagged Monjasa Reformer had 16 sailors on board when it was attacked by pirates on March 25. Despite being owned by a Danish company, none of the crew were Danish. When the 135-metre-long (443-feet) tanker was found by the French navy the following […]
Tag: Denmark
Russian spy ships planning North Sea sabotage: media report
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Wednesday 4/19/2023 A documentary aired by Nordic public broadcasters Wednesday claimed Russia is suspected of having a spy programme in the North Sea planning the sabotage of energy infrastructures in Northern Europe. The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed the media claims as a “mistake” and “without basis”, reiterating its appeal for “a transparent and impartial international inquiry” into the sabotage of the Baltic Sea Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022. […]
Grey area: chilling past of world’s biggest brain collection
by Camille BAS-WOHLERT Agence France Presse Odense, Denmark (AFP) — Countless shelves line the walls of a basement at Denmark’s University of Odense, holding what is thought to be the world’s largest collection of brains. Preserved in formalin in large white buckets labelled with numbers, the collection was the life’s work of prominent Danish psychiatrist Erik Stromgren. Begun in 1945, it was a “kind of experimental research,” Jesper Vaczy Kragh, an expert in the history […]
Wild education: the joy of Scandinavia’s forest preschools
by Viken KANTARCI in Solna and Camille BAS-WOHLERT in Ballerup Agence France-Presse SOLNA, Sweden (AFP) — Come rain, sleet or snow, young children nap outside even in mid-winter all across Scandinavia, where outdoor preschools teach children a love of nature. Sitting in the forest on a tarp laid out over the snow in Solna near Stockholm, Agnes and her friends — all around five — are lining up sticks. “We use pieces of wood to […]
Pres. Biden must say if US behind Nord Stream gas leaks: Moscow
Moscow, Russia | AFP | US President Joe Biden is “obliged” to answer if Washington is behind three reported gas leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia to Europe, Moscow’s foreign ministry said Wednesday. “On February 7, 2022, Joe Biden said that Nord Stream would be finished if Russia invaded Ukraine,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on social media, posting a video of Biden saying “we will bring an end” to Nord Stream […]
Underwater ‘blasts’ recorded prior to Nord Stream leaks: seismic institute
Stockholm, Sweden (AFP) Two underwater blasts were recorded prior to the discovery of three leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines linking Russia and Europe, a Swedish seismological institute said Tuesday as the unexplained leaks raised suspicions of sabotage. The Swedish National Seismic Network recorded two “massive releases of energy” shortly prior to, and near the location of, the gas leaks off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Peter Schmidt, an Uppsala University seismologist, […]
Sabotage suspected after Nord Stream pipeline leaks
Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP) by Camille BAS-WOHLERT The two Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Europe have been hit by unexplained leaks, Scandinavian authorities said Tuesday, raising suspicions of sabotage. The pipelines have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine. While the pipelines, which are operated by a consortium majority-owned by Russian gas […]
Danish lab to supply 1.5 million monkeypox doses in Europe
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Danish company Bavarian Nordic, the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, said Tuesday an “undisclosed European country” had ordered 1.5 million doses. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for “intense” efforts to fight the disease as cases rise, especially in western Europe. Bavarian Nordic said deliveries to the unisclosed country would start this year under the contract but the majority of the doses will be delivered during 2023. […]
Monkeypox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic ready to meet demand
by Camille Bas-Wohlert Agence France-Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — As the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, Danish company Bavarian Nordic has seen its order book fill up as the usually rare disease spreads around the world. “The approval we got in 2019, when we only sold maybe a few hundred doses, all of a sudden became very, very relevant for international health,” the company’s vice president Rolf Sass Sorensen says with a […]
Denmark offers fourth Covid vaccine dose to over-50s
COPENHAGEN, June 22, 2022 (AFP) – Denmark’s government said Wednesday the country will begin offering a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to risk groups next week and all over-50s after the summer, amid the emergence of a new variant. “Authorities believe the new variant is more infectious than the previous one, which is why we are acting now… to protect the most vulnerable and the elderly”, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters. She said […]
Denmark votes on joining EU’s common defense policy
by Viken Kantarci Agence France-Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Traditionally eurosceptic Denmark votes Wednesday in a referendum on whether to overturn its opt-out on the EU’s common defense policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The vote comes on the heels of neighboring Finland’s and Sweden’s historic applications for NATO membership, as the Ukraine war forces countries in Europe to rethink their security policies. More than 65 percent of Denmark’s 4.3 million eligible voters are expected […]
Nordics to close airspace to Russian planes
Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland Sunday said they would close their airspace to Russian planes, joining other European countries in ramping up sanctions over Moscow invading Ukraine. Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, “is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic,” Transport Minister Timo Harakka wrote in an overnight tweet. He did not state when the measure would take effect. Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on Twitter his country […]
