Senators in Italy have decided on Wednesday to strip the immunity from political leader Matteo Salvini. Salvini has faced charges since last year that have accused him of illegally detaining migrant refugees at sea. He kept more than 100 migrants on a boat for 6 days last July until another European Union state would agree to take them in. If… Read more »
Matteo Salvini could now face trial over accusations of illegally detaining migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Senators in Italy voted on Wednesday to lift immunity for far-right leader Matteo Salvini, opening the way for a potentially career-ending trial over accusations that he illegally detained migrants at sea last year. The result of the vote was due to be formally announced about 18:00… Read more »
Nearly three-quarters of the island’s officers were claiming bogus overtime and siphoning fuel, it has been alleged. Nearly three-quarters of Malta‘s traffic police force, including its chief, have been arrested for suspected overtime fraud, after an anonymous tip-off from a whistle-blower. Officials said 37 of the country’s 50 traffic cops had been detained on suspicion they had filed for hundreds of… Read more »
The battle over money for the EU budget is on. As the second biggest economy of the bloc after Germany, the United Kingdom was a prominent net contributor to the Multiannual financial framework (MFF), the long-term budget that funds the policies, programmes, and administration of the European Union. The current MFF is set to expire at the end of this… Read more »
Ireland’s traditionally centre-right conservative political system has been rocked by a wave of support for Sinn Féin in the February 8 general election. The previously small left-wing republican party with historic links to the paramilitary Provisional Irish Republican Army, now has legitimate ambitions to form part of the next Irish government in coalition with other parties. Political hostility, historical antipathy and considerable… Read more »
Greece has made an innovative proposal for taking care of their immigration problem coming from Turkey. Due to its geographical position, Greece has taken in most of the immigrants fleeing the wars in the Middle East. This has hit Greece’s already unsteady economy especially hard. Greece simply does not have the infrastructure or funding to take in all of these… Read more »
Defence ministry says floating barrier will stop migrants crossing from Turkey The Greek government has been criticised after announcing it will build a floating barrier to deter thousands of people from making often perilous sea journeys from Turkey to Aegean islands on Europe’s periphery. The centre-right administration unveiled the measure on Thursday, following its pledge to take a tougher stance on undocumented… Read more »
The Trump administration on Wednesday placed sanctions on leading Russian-backed officials in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was part of Ukraine before Russia claimed it in 2014 and set off the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War. The sanctions targeting seven officials and a railway company connecting Russia with Crimea were handed down by the Treasury Department two… Read more »
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Thursday that the country’s voters will have a final say on his proposed constitutional amendments, changes widely seen as crafted to let Putin stay in power well beyond the legally mandated end of his presidency in 2024. “It is necessary that people come to the polling stations and say whether they want… Read more »
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — European countries stepped up efforts Thursday to contain the virus sweeping through central China, sending a chartered airliner there to evacuate hundreds of European citizens, scrapping more commercial flights to Chinese destinations and keeping some 7,000 people on a cruise ship while one possibly infected passenger got tested. Signaling intensifying international concern, the World Health Organization… Read more »