copenhagen — Sweden has summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires to demand the immediate release of Swedish citizens being held in custody in Iran, the Swedish foreign ministry said on Wednesday. “The Government is working intensively and tirelessly to secure the release without delay of Swedish citizens detained in Iran for no apparent reason,” the ministry said in a statement. “In late 2023, a man with Swedish and Iranian citizenship was detained for no apparent reason,” the statement said. A Swedish man in his 20s also was arrested in Iran earlier in January, the ministry said this week. Those events have added …
LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA — Attempts to depoliticize Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV have led to accusations that new management is simply replacing one political agenda with another by purging the outlet of employees considered too sympathetic to the previous administration. Earlier this month, managers at RTV notified 15 journalists who worked on the daily news show “Panorama” that their services were not required, and that they should stay at home, on reduced pay, until needed. New leadership at the broadcaster said the show, which was established under RTV’s previous managers in 2022, was being taken off the air because of low viewership. But …
FRANKFURT/ OSLO — Freezing rain in central and southern Germany grounded hundreds of flights and restricted train traffic on Wednesday, while heavy snowfall in Norway’s capital led to the closure of its main airport. Oslo airport said it would remain shut at least until 1330 GMT but the outage could also be extended, while Germany’s Frankfurt airport cancelled all its operations from midday as airplanes could no longer be de-iced, said a spokesperson. Around 600 of the 1,047 scheduled Frankfurt arrivals and departures had been cancelled earlier in the day. At Munich airport 254 flights were scratched and a smaller …
LONDON — King Charles III and the Princess of Wales are both dealing with medical issues that will force them to delay previously planned public engagements over the coming weeks. Charles will undergo a “corrective procedure” for an enlarged prostate next week, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday. The palace said the king’s condition is benign. Moments earlier, the princess’ office announced that Kate would remain at a private hospital in London for up to two weeks after undergoing planned abdominal surgery. The princess, formerly Kate Middleton, is the wife of Prince William, the heir to the throne. While it is somewhat …
Vienna, Austria — The rich and famous are paying top dollar for a place at this week’s Davos summit, but heiress Marlene Engelhorn is on the other side of the fence at the glitzy Swiss resort, demanding that they pay more in taxes. The 31-year-old is also pursuing an ambitious plan to pay people to come up with ideas for her to give away the bulk of her $27.4 million wealth so she can escape what she calls a “dynastic rich swamp.” “I’ve inherited a fortune and therefore power, without having done anything for it. And the state doesn’t even want …
Ukraine’s president Tuesday urged leaders gathering at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to give more military aid to his country — or risk Russia attacking other nations. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Kyiv fears the war is slipping off the top of the global agenda. …
LISBON, Portugal — Bobi the Dog’s title as the world’s oldest canine was suspended on Tuesday after Guinness World Records officials began to have doubts about his real age. He died in October at the official age of 31 years and 165 days, eight months after the record-breakers’ hall of fame declared on its website that he was the world’s oldest living dog. The purebred Rafeiro — a Portuguese race of livestock guard dog whose life expectancy is usually 12 to 14 years — was also declared the oldest dog ever, breaking a nearly century-old record held by an Australian cattle …
Washington is stepping up efforts to enforce sanctions against Russia with secondary sanctions meant to stop Turkey from helping Moscow and its trading partners circumvent trade restrictions over the war in Ukraine. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, analysts say the success or failure of the sanctions will depend on how much nations stand to lose by restricting commercial links with Russia. …
london — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged political and business leaders gathering at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday to give more military aid to his country or risk Russia attacking other nations amid fears in Kyiv that the war is slipping off the top of the global agenda. With much attention focused on conflict in the Middle East and Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, Zelenskyy used the Davos stage to remind the world what is at stake in his country’s war against Russian invaders. “If anyone thinks that this is …
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Tuesday added Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar to its terrorist sanctions blacklist over the October 7 attacks on Israel. The move means that the accused mastermind of the attacks is subject to having his assets frozen in the 27-nation bloc and bans EU citizens from conducting transactions with him. Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is already listed as a terrorist organization by the EU. The October attacks, the worst in Israel’s history, resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Militants also dragged about 250 hostages back to …
London — As hundreds of world leaders and chief executives headed to the Swiss ski resort of Davos Monday for this year’s five-day annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Oxfam is warning of a growing gulf of inequality fueled by corporate power. “The world’s richest five men have more than doubled their fortunes this decade since 2020 … while nearly 5 billion people have been made poorer. At current rates, the world will see its first trillionaire within a decade, while it will take over two centuries to end poverty,” said Nabil Ahmed of Oxfam America. Decade of division …
LONDON — An estimated 3.5 million Britons living overseas will from Tuesday be eligible to vote in United Kingdom general elections, in one of the biggest increases in the country’s electoral franchise in a century. The expansion in the electorate follows a change in the law, approved by parliament in 2022, scrapping a previous curb on U.K. citizens voting if they had lived overseas for over 15 years. Implemented ahead of an election set for later this year, it is the most significant change to the voter rolls since a 1928 law granted women equal voting rights, and a 1969 move …
Geneva, Switzerland — China and Switzerland agreed Monday to speed up talks to upgrade their free trade agreement and to simplify visa procedures for travel between the two countries, Chinese state media reported. Bern and Beijing agreed to an early launch of formal negotiations to expand a free trade agreement in place since 2013, state news agency Xinhua reported. China also agreed to provide visa-free entry for Swiss citizens, it said. The agreements were reached during the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the COVID-19 pandemic. Heading the Chinese delegation was Premier Li Qiang, who …
GENEVA — The United Nations is appealing for $4.2 billion to support war-affected communities in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian refugees and host communities in the wider region, as Russia steps up its bombing campaign in the blistering cold weather to inflict maximum pressure on the Ukrainian government and its people. “Next month we are entering a third year of full-blown war and occupation,” said Martin Griffiths, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. He noted that while the war started 10 years ago in eastern Ukraine, “the escalation in 2022 rushed in a whole new level of death, destruction …