COP28 focus on health draws $US777 million to fight tropical disease
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesReuters The United Arab Emirates and several charities at the UN climate summit on Sunday offered $US777 million in financing for eradicating neglected tropical diseases that are expected to worsen as temperatures climb. Climate-related factors “have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century”, COP28 President Sultan […]
Swedish, Belgian leaders pay tribute to Brussels attack victims
Brussels, BelgiumReuters Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo paid tribute in Brussels on Wednesday to the victims of Monday’s attack by a gunman in which two Swedish football fans died and one was injured. Kristersson said on Tuesday that the attack in the Belgian capital by a 45-year rejected […]
Updated: Two Swedes shot dead in Brussels, Belgium raises terror alert to top level
Updated: 11:30am (AEDT)Brussels, BelgiumReuters Two Swedish nationals were shot dead and a third wounded in central Brussels on Monday night, and a man who identified himself as a member of Islamist State claimed responsibility in a video posted online. The suspected assailant fled the scene after the shooting as a football match between Belgium and […]
Six convicted of murder for 2016 Brussels bombings
Brussels, BelgiumReuters A Belgian court convicted six men of murder and two others of terrorism charges on Tuesday after the country’s largest ever trial involving the 2016 Islamist bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people. Defendants sit in a specially designed glass box in the courtroom during the start of the Brussels terrorist attack trial […]
Repurposed churches: In Europe’s empty houses of worship, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing
RAF CASERT, of Associated Press, reports from Belgium where churches have been repurposed into everything from a luxury hotel to a climbing centre…
European police arrest more than 100 mafia suspects in drug crackdown
Rome, Italy/Brussels, BelgiumReuters Police across Europe arrested more than 100 people on Wednesday in a massive crackdown that targeted the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs and weapons trafficking with counterparts in Latin America. “Today’s raids are one of the largest operations carried out so far in the fight against Italian organised crime,” said […]
Finland joins NATO in historic shift, Russia threatens ‘counter-measures’
Helsinki, Finland/Brussels, Belgium Reuters Finland formally joined NATO on Tuesday, its flag unfurling outside the military bloc’s Brussels headquarters, in a historic policy shift brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing a threat from Moscow of “counter-measures”. Finland’s accession, ending seven decades of military non-alignment, roughly doubles the length of the border that the […]
Serbia, Kosovo agree on normalising ties but need more talks – EU’s Borrell
Brussels, BelgiumReuters The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo agreed on Monday to a Western-backed deal to normalise relations but more talks are needed on the implementation of the pact, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Speaking after hosting talks in Brussels between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Borrell […]
In Belgium’s Ypres, a museum draws a line from World War I to Ukraine
Brussels, Belgium Reuters The massed ranks of empty chairs at the Belgian World War I exhibition – one for each country and region that sent soldiers to die here a century ago – have been replaced by just two to mark the new conflict raging on the continent. One empty chair for Ukraine, one for […]
“Hands off Africa!”: Pope blasts foreign plundering of Congo
Kinshasa, Congo AP Pope Francis demanded Tuesday that foreign powers stop plundering Africa’s natural resources for the “poison of their own greed” as he arrived in Congo to a raucous welcome by Congolese grateful he was focusing the world’s attention on their forgotten plight. Tens of thousands of people lined the main road into the […]