The German army is reportedly mulling accepting foreigners into its ranks by offering them German citizenship.

According to report published by RT on Saturday, the measure is aimed at coping with shortage of recruits in the country by filling understaffed military positions.

The logic behind the move will be that a person who is willing the endanger his or her life for Germany earns the right to be a citizen.

“The Bundeswehr will grow, therefore we need qualified personnel. To this end, we try every available option,” a military spokesman was quoted by RT as saying.

The Bavarian Christian Social Union party (CSU), the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU, has proposed the move.

“Within the scope of European free movement, modern models could apply here,” said the party’s defense policy speaker.

Critics of the move claim that it will undermine the basic concept of a citizen’s loyalty to his nation.

Karl-Heinz Brunner, a defense policy speaker with Germany’s Social Democrats argues that if foreigners were permitted into Bundeswehr ranks, even with a prospect of becoming German citizens, it would be turned into “a kind of mercenary army.”

He further argued a person must become a German citizen before he or she enlists in the German army.

“Anyone who obtains the German passport as part of the integration procedure is cordially invited [to enlist],” he said.

The defense ministry was also quoted in the report that the “[the idea of] allowing EU citizens to serve in the Bundeswehr is not new.” Europeans with “specific sought-after qualifications” can be enlisted for civilian service.

Source: Presstv

Members of Parliament in Britain say former foreign secretary Boris Johnson should be evicted for from a tax-payer funded mansion belonging to the UK Foreign Office, saying he is making profit by renting out his own property.

Labor Party MP Stephen Doughty said Saturday that it was the duty of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to make Johnson leave the multi-million pound mansion known as the Carlton Gardens

“It’s high time the Government take back control of this property from this failed former Foreign Secretary,” said Doughty, adding, “It is extraordinary that Boris is still living it up in a grace-and-favor residence while profiting from renting out his own property.”

Johnson is believed to be netting thousands of pounds renting out his own house in London.

Doughty said it was the time for Johnson to “pack his bags and move on” and “If not, maybe we need to order a big red bus to evict him.”

The Foreign Office has leased Number 1 Carlton Gardens from the Crown Estate for a rent said to be 482,341 pounds a year in 2015. That means that Johnson has wasted around 13,000 pounds of the taxpayer money by staying in the property since he quit as foreign minister earlier this month.

A controversial figure known for his colorful language, Johnson once described his salary of 250,000 pounds as a chicken feed. He is expected to receive another 17,000 pounds as a payoff at the end of his career as foreign minister.

Johnson resigned from the cabinet after May announced his white paper for the final phases of Britain’s negotiations for leaving the European Union.

Johnson and David Davis, the former Brexit minister, said May’s plans for leaving the EU was a blow to public aspirations for a genuine Brexit and could make Britain a future colony of the EU.

Source: Presstv

The Italian government has once again closed the country’s sea ports to a rescue boat carrying 60 refugees stranded at sea off Libya, igniting yet another dispute with Malta over who should allow the boat to dock.

The refugees, including five women, a nine-year-old child, and three teenagers, were saved by Open Arms, a boat run by Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms, on Saturday.

The rescue ships being run by humanitarian aid groups have drawn the ire of Italy’s anti-refugee Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has vowed to deny such refugee boats docking in his country.

On Saturday, Salvini said Open Arms “can forget about arriving in an Italian port” and claimed it should go to Malta, the nearest port of call.

Malta immediately hit back on Twitter, with its interior minister contending that the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, was closer to the boat.

“Quit spreading incorrect news, dragging Malta into it for no reason,” Interior Minister Michael Farrugia tweeted, attaching to his post a map that he said indicated the rescue occurred in waters between Libya and the Italian island.

Reports said the refugees on board included Palestinians, Syrians, and Guineans, adding that they were all in good condition.

It remained unclear where the Spanish rescue vessel would be allowed to anchor.

Open Arms is the third such humanitarian rescue ship that has been subjected to Salvini’s crackdown over the past weeks.

Earlier this month, Italy and Malta refrained from accepting the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius carrying more than 600 refugees, sparking an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Malta then allowed another vessel, operated by German charity Mission Lifeline, to dock with 233 refugees on board after Italy rejected it.

Last year, Italian authorities reached an agreement with the internationally-recognized government as well as some militia groups in Libya — the main embarkation point for refugees seeking to reach Europe — to curb the flow of refugees to the continent.

Salvini has threatened to seize rescue ships or bar them from Italian ports altogether as he tries to keep his word on campaign promises to stop the influx of refugees.

Additionally, Salvini has called for processing centers to be set up south of Libya’s borders as a way to block attempts by refugees to cross the Mediterranean.

Over the past five years, more than 600,000 refugees have reached Italy by risking their lives on board rickety boats in the sea. Some 500,000 of them are still staying in the country.

According to the United Nations (UN) figures, at least 500 people have died this year while trying to cross the central Mediterranean. Some 2,853 also lost their lives last year.

Source: Presstv

A crash between a double-decker bus and a lorry in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, has left two people dead and 18 others injured, police say.

The collision took place on the A47 Thorney Road in Guyhirn, a village near Wisbech, around 7:30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Tuesday.

Reports said the deceased were the bus driver, in his 50s, and a passenger, in his 70s.

“We are sorry to report that two men, traveling in the bus involved in the A47 collision, have sadly died. Our thoughts are with their families at this time,” said Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s official Twitter account. “Seven people have been seriously injured and 11 have minor injuries following the collision.”

Police noted that those who were seriously hurt had a combination of broken bones and head injuries, including brain injuries.

Footage from the scene shows the bus, which had been traveling eastbound, rammed into the side of the lorry, which appears to have been heading westbound.

The East of England Ambulance Service said the casualties had been transferred to a nearby hospital for treatment.

A police spokesman announced that investigations continued at the scene of the collision and the road remained closed.

Source: Presstv

The French defense chief says nine European Union countries are set to formalize a plan for the creation of a joint European military intervention force, which would have the backing of Britain following its exit from the 28-nation bloc.

Representatives of the EU countries—France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal—will meet in Luxembourg later on Monday to sign a letter of intent on the issue, Florence Parly said in an interview with Le Figaro.

The plan, which was launched last year by French President Emmanuel Macron, involves “joint planning work on crisis scenarios that could potentially threaten European security,” according to a source close to the minister.

The force is intended to be rapidly deployable to deal with those situations, including natural disasters, intervention in a crisis or evacuation of people.

The joint military force would be separate from other EU defense cooperation and will operate independently of the union.

“This is clearly an initiative that allows the association of some non-EU states,” Parly said. “The UK has been very keen because it wants to maintain cooperation with Europe beyond bilateral ties.”

Germany, which was initially reluctant to join the military plan, announced earlier this month that it would support it.

The new government in Italy “is considering the possibility of joining” but has not made a final decision yet, said the French minister. The former government had shown interest in the plan.

In December 2017, 25 EU states inked a major military deal, under which they agreed to cooperate in various projects, but it is not clear whether London would be allowed to take part in any of them once it leaves the bloc.

Britain, Europe’s biggest military power along with France, will no longer be allowed to operate within the union after its separation from the bloc.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU by a margin of 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent in a referendum held on June 23, 2016. It is now involved in a complicated debate with the EU for the separation.

Source: Presstv

One man died and four others were wounded in a shooting outside an internet cafe in central Malmo on Monday evening.

According to witnesses, 15-20 shots were fired in quick succession and people could then be seen loading injured men into private vehicles. The shooting occurred on Drottningatan, only blocks away from a police station.

Swedish police say the motive for the shooting is still unknown. It is being treated as murder and attempted murder. The area is currently sealed off while further investigations occur. In a statement, police confirmed an 18 year old man had died in hospital.

Three people have died in south London after being hit by a train, according to police. The police said on Monday that the men were in their 20s and the accident happened near Loughborough Junction in south London in the early hours of Monday.

Spray cans were found near where their bodies were found, according to rail industry sources.

“My team is now working hard to understand what happened and how these three people came to lose their life on the railway,” said detective Gary Richardson.

“At this time, we are treating their deaths as unexplained as we make a number of immediate inquiries.

“I would ask anyone who was near to Loughborough Junction this morning, and saw something which they think might be relevant, please contact us as soon as possible.”

British Transport Police (BTP) Supt Matthew Allingham said three men were declared dead at the scene.

“It is believed that they died earlier in the morning and that their injuries are consistent with having been hit by a train,” he told reporters.

Close to one thousand protesters filled Milan’s Piazza della Scala on Tuesday in protest against the Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s decision to close Italian ports to migrant rescue ships.

“We ask to solve problems on the land, not the sea. The sea is the place to rescue people, as soon as possible.” said Giorgia Linardi, a member of Sea Watch, a non-profit organisation which carries out rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

The migrant rescue ship Aquarius rescued 629 people in two different operations with help from the Italian coastguard. They were due to dock in Sicily, but Salvini responded by closing Italian ports and said Malta should take the boat. Spain has since offered ‘safe harbour’ to the migrant rescue ship.

Source: Ruptly

Scotland’s National Party (SNP) leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged supporters to focus on expanding support for independence from the United Kingdom instead of the timing of the secession.

Addressing delegates at the SNP’s summer conference in Aberdeen on Saturday, Sturgeon – who also heads Scotland’s decentralized government – further acted to diminish expectations among her backers of an immediate push for a new independence vote while the outcome of Brexit remains unclear.

“The case for independence is strong. And it is getting stronger by the day,” Sturgeon said.

“As we wait for the fog of Brexit to clear, our opportunity – indeed, our responsibility – is this: Not just to focus on the ‘when’ of independence. But to use our energy and passion to persuade those who still ask ‘why?'”

“Right now, that is the more important task.”

The development came as polls indicate that a majority of Scots are against holding a fresh ballot. This is while a push for an early referendum in 2017 backfired when support for her party declined in a snap election.

In March 2017, Scotland’s parliament authorized Edinburgh to request a transfer of powers from the UK parliament to hold a referendum, though London has not yet agreed to the request.

The last time Scots voted on independence was in 2014. More than 55 percent voted to stay in the UK while nearly 45 percent voted to leave.

This is while a SNP spokesman was cited in a Reuters support as saying that Sturgeon remains committed to updating the public on the timing of a possible new referendum on Scottish independence in the autumn.

Her speech on Saturday further highlighted a new SNP economic report that tackles the weaknesses of the economic arguments from the 2014 vote.

“It doesn’t pretend there are always easy answers – no one believes that. But it does lay strong foundations for independence. Even with no extra growth from independence, the deficit can be turned around in five to 10 years,” Sturgeon underlined.

She also emphasized on the need for more immigration to the sparsely populated northern tip of Britain and greater powers for Scotland to control it as a central feature of economic growth.

“It’s time for powers over migration to come to Scotland,” said the SNP leader.

Scotland’s population, much of which is rural and dispersed unlike the rest of Britain, is aging faster than other parts of the country.

Immigration, meanwhile, remains one of the trickiest political issues in the Brexit negotiations, and limiting the number of foreigners entering the UK was reportedly a key element on which Britain’s overall 2016 vote to leave the EU rested.

Source: Presstv

Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to end the abortion ban after a historic referendum, in yet another example of how the country is moving away from its traditional Catholic values.

Irish people voted 66.4 percent to 33.6 percent on Friday to repeal the Eight Amendment of the country’s Constitution, which has been in place since 1983, effectively banning abortion.

Abortion is currently allowed if a woman’s life is at risk, but not in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality.

However, now the government in Dublin will be able to introduce abortion in Ireland’s health service up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.

“What we have seen today really is a culmination of a quiet revolution that’s been taking place in Ireland for the past 10 or 20 years,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said at a counting center in Dublin before the results of Friday’s vote were released, giving an early indication of the final outcome.

“This has been a great exercise in democracy,” Varadkar said, “and the people have spoken and the people have said: We want a modern constitution for a modern country, and that we trust women and that we respect them to make the right decisions and the right choices about their own health care.”

The outcome, which marks a dramatic defeat for the Catholic church’s one-time domination of the Republic, sparked harsh criticism.

“This is devastating for the Roman Catholic hierarchy,” said Gail McElroy, professor of politics at Trinity College Dublin. “It is the final nail in the coffin for them. They’re no longer the pillar of society, and their hopes of re-establishing themselves are gone.”

“Today is a sad day for Ireland and for people who believe in genuine human rights,” the deputy chairwoman of one of Ireland’s biggest anti-abortion groups, Cora Sherlock, said in a Twitter message. “The struggle to defend the most vulnerable has not ended today, it’s just changed.”

Access to abortion is restricted across the border in Northern Ireland, which is part of United Kingdom.

Source: Presstv