Author: News Desk

Drug trafficking – A criminal group that had set up an international smuggling route for prescription pills was taken down during a large-scale operation coordinated from Eurojust’s headquarters. Romanian, Estonian, Finnish and Serbian authorities, supported by Eurojust and Europol, arrested 47 people and seized over 6 million pills. The criminal group, which operated throughout Europe, bought pills from other criminal networks in Serbia. The pills, used to treat anxiety, seizures and insomnia, were then hidden in tyres, in cars, which were transported on lorries, and in clothing to be taken to Romania and Estonia. After arriving in Romania or Estonia,…

You might have seen the picture of DUP leader Gavin Robinson standing beside graffiti on the wall of the Royal Victoria Hospital supporting Palestine. No, he wasn’t supporting Palestine, though the picture offered an ambiguous interpretation. He was objecting to the graffiti. He claimed it is “upsetting” to members of the local Jewish community “who see it as directly pointing to them”. How does he know? He didn’t say if any members of the local Jewish community had complained to him. The whole matter is so urgent it took him a mere six months to make an issue of it.…

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On September 12, 2020, Jean-François Mayet, on call at the prosecutor’s office in the southeastern French town of Carpentras, was informed about the arrest of a man called Dominique Pelicot, who had been caught filming up supermarket customers’ skirts. At the time, Mayet had no idea that, four years later, alongside his colleague Laure Chabaud, he would be standing up in court to request sentences for 51 defendants an extraordinary rape trial, before the local, national and international press. In the nearby city of Avignon, on the first of two days of closing arguments from the prosecution, on Monday, November…

DHL cargo plane crashes in Lithuania A cargo plane flying on behalf of German logistics company DHL crashed near Vilnius International Airport in Lithuania early on Monday, killing at least one person, according to Lithuanian officials. The deceased person was confirmed by Lithuanian police to be a Spanish national and member of the flight crew, although not one of the pilots. The other occupants of the plane — a German, a Lithuanian and another Spaniard — were reportedly injured, but their condition remained unclear. What did DHL say? “We can confirm that today, at approximately 4:30 am CET [0330 GMT],…

Japan’s space agency, JAXA, aborted an engine test for the Epsilon S rocket after a large fire broke out at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tuesday. “There was an abnormality during today’s combustion test. We are trying to assess what happened,” JAXA said. Footage on national broadcaster NHK showed flames and smoke rising from the site on the southern Japanese island. Journalists positioned around one kilometer (0.62 miles) away reported a large explosion shortly after the test began at 8:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT). Nobody reported hurt, investigation announced No injuries were reported, and the cause of the incident is…

Four security force members were killed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, the country’s Interior Ministry said, after thousands of supporters of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan defied a police lockdown to march in the city center. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as the protesters broke through a barricade of shipping containers blocking off the national capital. The government warned that security forces would respond with live gunfire if protesters used weapons against them. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said four members of the paramilitary Rangers force died after being “run over by a vehicle.” There were no claims of responsibility for…

China has been stepping up its involvement in the Myanmar conflict as rebels continue to advance, with Beijing recently asking the junta to allow Chinese private military corporations to operate within the neighboring country. Myanmar’s junta is reportedly still reviewing the proposal. After nearly four years of conflict, Myanmar’s resistance forces now control over half of the country and occupy key trade routes on the Myanmar-China border. The junta has also suffered several military defeats in the past 12 months, raising alarm in Beijing. “China has billions of dollars of geo-strategic assets in Myanmar, including the China-Myanmar pipeline project, which…

Senegal’s ruling party, PASTEF, secured an overwhelming parliamentary majority following the country’s legislative election held earlier this month. PASTEF won 130 of 165 seats, up from the 56 it held before the vote, according to provisional results announced by the national vote-counting commission last week. The win gives President Bassirou Diomaye Faye a clear mandate to implement the ambitious reforms he promised during the election campaign. Elected in March on an anti-establishment platform, Diomaye dissolved the opposition-led Parliament to allow the early elections. Will Senegal’s Diomaye deliver? Rough reform outline Diomaye, who at 44 is Africa’s youngest elected leader, pledged economic transformation, social justice and anti-corruption reforms under the Senegal…

China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption, British newspaper Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third consecutive serving or former Chinese defense minister to be investigated for alleged corruption. According to FT, the investigation was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Last week, Dong declined to meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a meeting of defense ministers in Laos, citing US actions over Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping has overseen a sweeping anti-corruption purge in the military over the past yearImage: Adriano Machado/REUTERS Third defense minister investigated China’s military…