Month: August 2024

Євросоюз

NATO air base in Germany raises security level due to ‘potential threat’

berlin — The NATO air base in the German town of Geilenkirchen has raised its security level “based on intelligence information indicating a potential threat,” it said late Thursday. “All non-mission essential staff have been sent home as a precautionary measure,” the base said in a statement on the social media platform X, without giving details. “The safety of our staff is our top priority. Operations continue as planned.” A spokesperson for the base in Geilenkirchen said the threat level had been raised to Charlie, the second highest of four states of alert, which is defined as “an incident (that) has …

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Євросоюз

Volcano in Iceland erupts for sixth time since December

COPENHAGEN, denmark — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday, the meteorological office said, spraying red-hot lava and smoke in its sixth outbreak since December. “An eruption has begun. Work is under way to find out the location of the recordings,” the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes, said in a statement. The total length of the fissure was about 3.9 kilometers (2.42 miles) and had extended by 1.5 kilometers (.93 mile) in about 40 minutes, it said. Livestreams from the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula showed glowing hot lava shooting from the ground. Studies had shown …

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Євросоюз

Belgian coalition talks in turmoil as chief negotiator quits 

brussels — Talks on forming a Belgian coalition government were thrown into turmoil Thursday when the chief negotiator handed his resignation to King Philippe, threatening further political limbo for the country two months after elections.  With its linguistic divide between French and Dutch and a highly complex political system, Belgium has a record of painfully protracted coalition discussions, reaching 541 days back in 2010-11.   Five groups had agreed in mid-July to formal coalition talks led by Flemish conservative Bart De Wever, in the wake of June legislative polls that boosted right-leaning parties.  Usually, the person forming the coalition goes on …

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Євросоюз

2 still missing from Mike Lynch’s sunken yacht in Sicily

PORTICELLO, Italy — Search efforts off the coast of Sicily for two remaining bodies missing from the sunken yacht belonging to the wife of British tech magnate Mike Lynch were due to resume early on Thursday. On Wednesday four bodies were retrieved from the wreck and transported to nearby hospitals, in the city of Palermo. A source said a fifth body might have been located late on Wednesday, but the fire brigade and the coast guard, overseeing the operations, did not confirm this. Italian authorities did not officially identify the corpses, but Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that two of the dead …

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