Category Archives: EUROPE
Israel’s first lunar lander launched into space from Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel’s first lunar lander on a mission that if successful will make the Jewish state only the fourth nation to achieve a controlled touchdown on the moon’s surface.
The unmanned robotic lander dubbed Beresheet – Hebrew for the biblical phrase “in the beginning” – soared into space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT Friday) atop the 23-story-tall rocket.
Shamima Begum case: I have one citizenship, says IS bride
Shamima Begum – the teenager who fled London to join Islamic State – has said she only has “one citizenship” and it was wrong for the UK to revoke it without speaking to her first.
It is only possible to strip someone of their UK nationality if they are eligible for citizenship elsewhere.
Israel to launch first privately funded moon mission
Attempt to become fourth country to send spacecraft to the surface blasts off this week
A team of Israeli scientists is to launch what will be the first privately funded mission to land on the moon this week, sending a spacecraft to collect data from the lunar surface.
Netanyahu’s strongest challengers form alliance in Israeli election
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challengers in an election in April joined forces on Thursday, adding more potency to the centrist candidates’ bid to end the right-wing leader’s decade in power.
In anticipation of the announcement of a new alliance between former military chief Benny Gantz’ Resilience party and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid faction, Netanyahu engineered a merger of far-right parties on Wednesday that could help him build a governing coalition after the ballot.
Islamic State group: Civilians evacuated from last Syria enclave
Civilians have been evacuated from the last village in Syria still held by the Islamic State (IS) group.
At least 15 lorries carrying men, women and children were seen leaving Baghuz, near the Iraqi border, where 200 families were reportedly trapped.
Muthana: Trump says IS woman barred from US return
US President Donald Trump says a woman who left the US to become a propagandist for the Islamic State (IS) group will not be allowed to return.
On Twitter, he said he had instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the country”.
United Nations moves to help combat sexual abuse in its ranks
The United Nations on Tuesday took steps to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse within its ranks, naming an array of experts to a panel aimed at ending incidents of harassment that have plagued the global agency for years.
The panel will advise the U.N. secretary-general on ways to address gender-based harassment and abuse by U.N. staff and U.N.-related forces, according to a statement issued by the Office of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Shamima Begum: IS teenager to lose UK citizenship
Shamima Begum, who joined the Islamic State group in Syria aged 15, is to lose her UK citizenship.
Whitehall sources said it was possible to strip the 19-year-old of British nationality as she was eligible for citizenship of another country.
Seven MPs leave Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership
Seven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism.
They are: Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey.
IS teenage bride Shamima Begum gives birth to boy
Shamima Begum, one of three teenage girls to flee east London for a new life with the Islamic State group, says she has given birth to a baby boy.
Ms Begum left four years ago aged 15. Found in a Syrian refugee camp last week, she now hopes to return home.
Timeline: The rise and fall of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
Islamic State faces the total defeat
of its self-proclaimed caliphate. This timeline chronicles its lightning rise,
cruel reign and stubborn fall.
UN weapons moved to Kampala
United Nations weapons and other cargo stuck at the Uganda border with DR
Congo has been moved to Kampala in an effort to end a deadlock that has lasted
nearly two months now.
The move follows a visit by a team of officials at Vurra on the Uganda-DR Congo
border. The cargo brought to Kampala has been placed at a warehouse pending
negotiations to pay the drivers.
The arrival of the UN officials saw the consignment that includes weapons and other accessories, containers of medical equipment, wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and Land Rovers bearing UN labels first moved from the no-man’s land to the Uganda side before five of the now nine trucks were escorted to Kampala by the military.
A new truck, we understand, arrived at the Vurra border loaded with cargo from the MONSUCO base in Dungu, DRC making them nine from the original eight.
Exclusive: McCarrick defrocking shows ‘bishops not above the law’
The defrocking of former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a “very important signal” to the Catholic Church hierarchy that no one is above the law, the Vatican’s top sexual crimes investigator said on Saturday.
McCarrick was expelled from the priesthood after being found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.
MTN case pits Uganda against four nations
The dramatic falling out between Uganda’s largest telecom giant MTN and the
authorities, which culminated in Thursday’s arrest and deportation of the
company’s chief executive, Belgian national Wim Vanhelleputte, may have left
President Museveni at a crossroads.
The president has to juggle between believing intelligence from his security
agents or the pleadings of a multinational backed by the diplomatic power of
three countries.
The Law of Return Is Suicidal
Severe overcrowding, coupled with a horrifically high birthrate, is already set to turn Israel into a living hell that will only get worse with an influx of Jewish immigrants
After the Holocaust, Israel’s Law of Return could be seen as a vital, legitimate tool for saving Jewish lives. In 2019, that law has become suicidal. It has become clear that Israel is charting two parallel courses of self-destruction.
South African’s ex-ambassador to Iran arrested in MTN investigation
Pretoria’s former ambassador to Iran has been arrested in South Africa on charges he took a bribe to help telecoms company MTN win a $31.6 billion license to operate in Iran.
Yusuf Saloojee, now retired, was arrested on Thursday, police said on Friday, in the latest legal blow for MTN, which has faced a host of such problems in recent years. It denies the latest allegations.
