Pressure is mounting on Sri Lanka’s president to allow parliament to decide between two men claiming to be the country’s lawful prime minister, amid warnings that the constitutional dispute could lead to a “bloodbath”. President Maithripala Sirisena announced on live TV on Friday that Ranil Wickremesinghe, with whom he had governed in a fragile coalition since 2015, had been dismissed. In… Read more »
Compared to the searing heat of Westminster politics, Berlin, like Brussels, is choosing to appear rather more laid-back and breezy when talking about the current impasse in Brexit talks. Brexit negotiators haven’t gone off in a huff (so the narrative goes) but rather into separate huddles to figure out if anyone has room for manoeuvre on the crucial Irish border… Read more »
If Angela Merkel was perturbed by the terrible performance of her coalition partners at the Bavarian ballot box, she was showing no sign of it as she addressed the association of foreign traders in Berlin. In her first public appearance since both the CSU and the SPD suffered humiliating losses, Mrs Merkel was on steely form and only briefly mentioned… Read more »
Marc Sutton, 34, was killed in the French Alps while by a hunter’s stray bullet while riding his mountain bike near the Swiss border. His death prompted a temporary hunting ban in Montriond. Sutton’s friend and former BBC journalist, Katie Downs, lives close to where Sutton was riding his bike and states that, “our community has come together to try… Read more »
“Nowhere is safe” in the area of the French Alps where a Welsh chef was killed by a hunter’s stray bullet, a friend of the victim has said. Marc Sutton, 34, was killed while riding his mountain bike in woods near Montriond, close to the Swiss border. Katie Downs, a former BBC journalist, lives in Morzine, close to where her… Read more »
Audi has been fined €800m (£700m) to settle an investigation by German prosecutors into breaches of diesel emissions rules. The premium car brand, owned by Volkswagen, said it “accepts the fine and … admits its responsibility”. In June, VW agreed a €1bn settlement in Germany over the emissions scandal, which came to light in 2015. Audi, whose ex-boss Rupert Stadler… Read more »
Iceland is urging tourists to stop buying environmentally damaging plastic bottles of mineral water as they are “wildly over-priced” and pointless in a country with some of the cleanest tap water in the world. The Icelandic environment agency wants tourists to ditch single-use plastic and buy reusable water containers, amid concerns that the country’s surge in popularity is putting undue strain on… Read more »
Local media reported an alleged stabbing of a freelance German journalist in Naumberg, Germany. Klaus-Peter Kruemmling was leaving the Rewe supermarket in Saxony-Anhalt on a Friday night when he was confronted by a group of teenagers. One teenager spat in the direction of the car, and flashed the middle finger which led the 59-year-old to run after the group, confronting… Read more »
Vladimir Putin has called the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal a “scumbag” and a “traitor”, as he angrily denied allegations that the Kremlin ordered his poisoning with a nerve agent. Speaking at an energy forum in Moscow, the Russian president accused the west of portraying Skripal, who was poisoned with novichok in Salisbury, as an innocent victim. “I see… Read more »
The mayor of Riace, a southern Italian town known for its migrant-friendly policies, was put under house arrest on Tuesday for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration. Domenico Lucano was arrested after an investigation led by the public prosecutor of the southern town of Locri found that he was allegedly involved in organising sham marriages to allow migrants girls to stay in… Read more »