UK jobless rate highest since 2016 as second Covid-19 lockdown hits

Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly five years in the three months to November, when coronavirus cases began to rise for a second time and most of the country returned to a partial lockdown.
26 January 2021, 09:17 AM

Anger and grief as UK’s Covid-19 death toll nears 100,000

As the United Kingdom’s Covid-19 death toll approaches 100,000, grief-stricken relatives of the dead expressed anger at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the worst public health crisis in a century.
25 January 2021, 18:22 PM

Italy arrests alleged white supremacist for terrorism

A 22-year-old Italian linked to white supremacist groups was arrested yesterday on terrorism charges, Italian police said.
22 January 2021, 18:00 PM

In a first for Europe, Google seals content payment deal with French news publishers

Google and a French publishers' lobby said on Thursday they had agreed to a copyright framework for the US tech giant to pay news publishers for content online, in a first for Europe.
22 January 2021, 04:58 AM

Death toll in Madrid building blast rises to four

The toll from a powerful explosion caused by a gas leak that gutted a building in a residential part of Madrid rose to four yesterday after a priest died from his injuries.
21 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Pre-historic Europeans used bronze objects as currency: study

Central Europeans of the Bronze Age used bronze rings, ribs and axe blades that were roughly standardised in their shape and weight as an early form of “euros,” according to a new study.
21 January 2021, 18:00 PM

At least two dead after blast wrecks building in central Madrid

At least two people died and eight were injured on Wednesday when a building in central Madrid belonging to the Catholic Church was blown apart by an explosion, local authorities said.
20 January 2021, 15:17 PM

Thousands protest in Amsterdam against Dutch coronavirus lockdown

Several thousand people held an unauthorised protest in Amsterdam on Sunday against a national lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, before being dispersed by riot police.
17 January 2021, 16:06 PM

UK must not do trade deals with rights abusers, foreign minister says

Britain should not engage in free trade with countries that abuse human rights, but proposals that the country’s courts should decide whether genocide has been committed by trade partners is flawed, foreign minister Dominic Raab said.
17 January 2021, 12:21 PM

Russia to withdraw from Open Skies treaty

Russia yesterday said it was withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty, undermining a post-Cold War defence accord that allows its signatories to carry out unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territories.
15 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal

Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government resigned on Friday, accepting responsibility for wrongful accusations of fraud by the tax authorities that drove thousands of families to financial ruin, often on the basis of ethnicity.
15 January 2021, 16:59 PM

French officers convicted over deadly initiation ritual

A French court yesterday gave suspended jail terms to three soldiers convicted over the death by drowning of a trainee officer during an initiation ritual at the country’s most prestigious military academy.
14 January 2021, 18:00 PM

France court probes minister for conflict of interest

A French court has launched an investigation into Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti for alleged conflict of interest relating to his time as a lawyer, prosecutors told AFP yesterday.
13 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Moscow metro hires first women train drivers

The Moscow metro said Sunday it had hired female drivers for the first time in its recent history, following recent changes in controversial Russian legislation prohibiting women from many professions.
5 January 2021, 18:00 PM

German govt at odds over armed drones

The opposition Greens and the far-left Die Linke are fiercely opposed.
1 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Covid drives Dutch death rate up to highest level since WWII

The number of deaths in the Netherlands increased at the highest rate since World War Two this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Dutch national statistics office (CBS) said on Tuesday.
29 December 2020, 09:46 AM

EU begins vaccine rollout as new virus strain spreads

The European Union began a vaccine rollout Saturday, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain.
26 December 2020, 10:53 AM

First case of new Covid variant found in France as cases rise

France recorded its first case of the new variant of coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 mounted in the country, increasing concerns of a new wave of the virus hitting the euro zone’s second-biggest economy.
26 December 2020, 05:01 AM

EU and UK clinch narrow Brexit trade deal

Britain clinched a Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire.
24 December 2020, 15:52 PM

Hopes for Brexit trade deal hang on leaders’ calls

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson held the fate of a post-Brexit trade deal in their hands yesterday as talks hung in the balance.
23 December 2020, 18:00 PM