UK & Euro-Asian News
BBC
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:22 EST
© Unknown
The trial of a husband accused of murdering his wife as they slept in a camper van has heard he killed her while he dreamt she was an intruder.
Christine Thomas, 57, was killed in Aberporth, Ceredigion, in July 2008.
Swansea Crown Court heard Brian Thomas, 59, of Neath, accepts he killed her but says he has a sleep disorder which had been triggered by "boy racer activity".
Jurors have been told they can reach a verdict of not guilty or of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecuting barrister Paul Thomas QC, in his opening words to the jury on Tuesday morning, described the case as "highly unusual".
Henry Samuel
The New York Times
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:35 EST
© Getty Images
The latest attempt to remove the outmoded rule was in 2003.
The rule banning women from dressing like men - namely by wearing trousers - was first introduced in 1800 by Paris' police chief and has survived repeated attempts to repeal it.
The 1800 rule stipulated than any Parisienne wishing to dress like a man "must present herself to Paris' main police station to obtain authorization".
In 1892, it was slightly relaxed thanks to an amendment which said trousers were permitted "as long as the woman is holding the reins of a horse".
Then in 1909, the decree was further watered down when an extra clause was added to allow women in trousers on condition they were "on a bicycle or holding it by the handlebars".
Daily Telegraph
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:41 EST
Germany could be home to as many as 17 million fewer people in 50 years' time, official statistics showed today, laying bare the scale of the demographic crisis in Europe's top economy.
At the same time, Germans are greying rapidly, with one in three set to be over 65 by 2060, compared to one in five now, the federal statistics office said. One in seven will be over 80.
The total population, currently 82 million, will slump to between 65 and 70 million and neither immigration nor an increase in the birth rate - currently 1.4 children per woman - can do much to ease the crisis, the office added.
Like other advanced economies, Germany is facing a snowballing population crisis, leaving the country short of workers and adding to the strain on already stretched public coffers.
Daily Mail Online
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:18 EST
© Unknown
Mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh worked at a radio station
The family of a young mother found dying in a street with serious head wounds and her right hand cut off has said she had 'lived in fear for months'.
Geeta Aulakh, who has two young sons, died four hours later in hospital from her horrific injuries.
Police later arrested her estranged husband, 31-year-old Harpreet Aulakh, along with five other men.
Mrs Aulakh was on her way home from her job as a receptionist at community radio station Sunrise Radio when she was attacked.
The 28-year-old was ambushed just yards from the home of her sons' childminder at about 7pm on Monday.
Famagusta Gazette
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:35 EST
© Unknown
Last week Turkish Cypriot press reported that a ferry is now running between Lebanon and north Cyprus, contrary to international law
Just weeks after an illegal ferry service was reportedly started to occupied Cyprus from Lebanon, the Turkish Cypriot press reports today that a new route from Famagusta to Israel will start within weeks.
In a front page splash,
Kibrisli reports the new ferry, which
is expected to carry almost 100 thousand tourists per year from Israel to occupied Cyprus, will bring a fresh impetus to tourism.
The paper writes that the ferry services are planned to start in December and before the New Year's Eve.
Press TV
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:33 EST
© Unknown
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang
As US President Barack Obama plans to pay his first official visit to Beijing, China signals its opposition to new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
The Chinese government believes that negotiation sides should make efforts to settle issues regarding Iran's nuclear case through "political and diplomatic" talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told IRNA on Saturday.
He added that a diplomatic and permanent solution to Iran's nuclear issue will help bring about peace and stability to the Middle East.
As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, said the spokesman.
David Charter
The Times
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:30 EST
The man tipped to be Europe's first president is already considering new EU taxes to fund the rising cost of Brussels and the welfare state.
Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, broke his silence before Thursday's summit to choose the president - but only at a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen.
Mr Van Rompuy's contentious remarks were aired privately amid the grand surroundings of the Castle of the Valley of the Duchess near Brussels. The château hosted the talks on the Treaty of Rome in 1957 that launched the European Union.
David Rising
The Associated Press
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:26 EST
Former SS sergeant Adolf Storms lived in Germany unnoticed for more than six decades after World War II until an Austrian university student last year came across his name while researching a 1945 massacre of Jewish forced laborers.
The student gave the information to state prosecutors near Storms' hometown of Duisburg, and they have now filed charges against the 90-year-old on 58 counts of murder for the killings near the Austrian village of Deutsch Schuetzen, a German court said.
"On March 29, 1945, the accused and his accomplices brought at least 57 Jewish forced laborers in several groups to a nearby forest area, where they had to give up their valuables and kneel by a grave," the court said in a statement. "The accused and other SS members then cruelly shot the Jewish forced-laborers from behind."
The day following the massacre, Storms is accused of personally shooting another Jew who could no longer walk during a forced march in Austria from Deutsch Schuetzen to the village of Hartberg, the court said.
Xinhua
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:52 EST
The European Union's top jobs remained in doubt on Tuesday, only two days ahead of a special summit designed to announce the appointments.
Nearly a hundred ministers of foreign and EU affairs from 27 EU member states failed at a meeting on Monday to decide on the appointments of a permanent EU president, a foreign affairs representative and secretary general of the EU Council.
The situation could drag out the summit, which is planned to last a few hours on Thursday over a working dinner, to days, according to the current Swedish EU presidency.
"There are still some days to go," Swedish Minister for EU affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said after the Monday meeting. "I wouldn't say it's a complete mess, but there's no agreement still."
"If the situation should appear that there is no decision on Thursday, it is up to the presidency to evaluate the situation," Malmstrom said in reply to a question on whether the summit could be extended until Friday afternoon.
Conor Kane
Independent.ie
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:55 EST
© Gary O'Neill
Heavy rain over the weekend preceded the landslide which derailed the Wicklow-Dublin train a few hundred metres north of Wicklow station yesterday.
Iarnrod Eireann was yesterday forced to close a busy commuter line
on the same day that its service along the Malahide viaduct re-opened after its
dramatic collapse three months ago.
While the northern service through Malahide resumed yesterday with user numbers "significantly" down, other rail passengers face two weeks of disruption after a train derailed yesterday following a landslide.
Yesterday's incident occurred at about 6am on a stretch of line a few hundred yards south of the Wicklow station, and after a weekend of heavy rain.
The driver of the out-of-service train, which was heading to Arklow, escaped without injury after it derailed when it hit debris caused by a landslide.
The incident occurred less than 48 hours after a different section of the same line was closed when rail staff found an embankment to be unstable, south of Arklow.
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