Thousands of people have demonstrated in the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region to demand that lawmakers elect a new regional leader and continue working toward total secession from Spain.

An estimated 45,000 demonstrators, holding Catalan flags, rallied in Barcelona on Sunday, according to the city’s urban police. They were holding banners calling for a “republic now!” and chanting “freedom for political prisoners.”

Vice President of the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC) Agusti Alcoberro said during the rally that what the Spanish state was doing was “outrageous.”

“We mobilized people and on December 21 [2017], we got a majority in the parliament in favor of the Catalan republic,” he said. “What we are doing today is taking to the streets as citizens to demand that the republic that we voted for in October continue forward.”

Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders held a referendum on October 1, 2017, which had been banned by Spain’s central government and declared illegal by the country’s Constitutional Court. Organizers said 90 percent of voters backed secession. Before and during the referendum, Spanish police carried out a heavy crackdown on separatists.

Former regional president, Carles Puigdemont, who unsuccessfully declared independence from Spain on October 27 last year — in violation of the nation’s constitution — later fled to Belgium to escape arrest.

Catalonia, one of Spain’s wealthiest and most productive regions, is now theoretically under the direct control of the Spanish national government in Madrid. Pro-independence parties won a slim majority after a December 2017 election called by the Spanish government. However, they have since been locked in drawn-out negotiations on forming a government.

Puigdemont announced earlier this month that he was temporarily withdrawing his bid for presidency and proposed the jailed Catalan independence leader, Jordi Sanchez, to take the job.

The regional parliament was due to vote on the region’s new leader on Monday, but the speaker of the parliament, Roger Torrent, suspended the vote on Friday. He decided to wait for a European Court of Human Rights ruling on whether a jailed leader of Catalonia’s independence movement can be the next president.

Torrent made the decision after Spain’s Supreme Court turned down Sanchez’s request to leave prison and attend the planned session of parliament.

Lawmakers had planned to vote on making him the region’s leader. But Spain’s central government says individuals who face charges and who are unable to be present at the debate and vote in Barcelona can’t be elected by the regional parliament.

Sanchez, the former head of Catalan National Assembly, has been imprisoned near the Spanish capital, Madrid since October over allegations that he and another secessionist figure used a major protest in September to stop Spanish police officers from following a judge’s orders to halt the banned referendum.

Source: Presstv

An extreme cold snap across Europe claimed more lives, forced the closure of airports in Scotland, Switzerland, France, and Ireland, and left hundreds of drivers stranded on snowy highways Thursday.

Heavy snow and high winds halted all flights in and out of Dublin Airport, with authorities saying they are unlikely to resume until Saturday. Irish Rail said no trains are likely to run until Saturday.

Forecasters said a new storm is bringing blizzards, 100-kph winds, freezing rain, and thunderstorms to Ireland, southwestern England, and Wales later Thursday. They predicted zero visibility and deep pockets of snow.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar urged people to get home by 4 pm Thursday and stay there until the storm has passed. The Irish stock exchange shut down at midday and will be closed all day Friday.

“The risk to life and limb presented by severe weather conditions should not be underestimated,” said Varadkar.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday that the cold weather poses particular risks to vulnerable people such as the elderly, children, and those with chronic diseases or disabilities.

Swedish media reported that a woman who had left her home at an asylum center with her daughter and son, aged 8 and 9, was pronounced dead in the hospital after being found in a forest.

Danish police said an 84-year-old woman with dementia became the second person to die in the country because of the cold weather.

It was travel chaos at Europe’s airports and on its highways.

Geneva’s airport closed after the Swiss city was hit with 13 centimeters of snow over a three-hour period early Thursday. It reopened several hours later after extensive de-icing of the runway, plans and facilities.

Snow also shut down Glasgow and Edinburgh airports in Scotland, and there were cancellations at Heathrow and other airports in Britain. Airports in the southern French cities of Montpellier and the Atlantic beach resort of Biarritz were also affected.

Around the Paris region, about two dozen officials braved Arctic temperatures for a night outdoors to call attention to the plight of the homeless after at least 13 died from exposure since January 1.

Dragging blankets and sleeping bags, officials from an array of political parties wearing their blue, white, and red sashes hunkered down near Austerlitz train station as snow began falling early Thursday.

Hundreds of drivers were trapped in their cars overnight in Scotland, and authorities said everyone except emergency workers should stay off the roads.

Police in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England said most roads there are impassable, with as much as 60 centimeters of snow in rural areas.

In southern France, about 2,000 cars were blocked on highways in the Herault region, where snow — and snowplows — are extremely rare.

Macedonia’s government urged employers to exempt pregnant women and people over 60 from working for a day and to pay special attention to keeping construction workers warm due to the freezing conditions. The low temperature Thursday in Macedonia dropped to -18 Celsius near the border with Bulgaria.

(Source: AP)

The UK’s National Grid says it needs to buy gas in order to meet the demand amid severe drops in temperature and gas supply outages due that have raised consumption levels to a five-year high.

The NG requested shippers on Thursday to post offers on the OCM locational market after wholesale gas prices soared 74 percent within a day.

Earlier, the company issued another warning after forecast for the day initially showed a shortfall of 49.5 million cubic meters below the country’s projected need of 395.7mcm per day.

According to the Guardian, the deficit had been narrowed down to 35.2mcm.

“We are in communication with industry partners and are closely monitoring the situation,” the NG said.

Widespread snow and unprecedentedly cold temperatures following the arrival of the “Beast from the East” polar vortex and Storm Emma have forced people across the UK to fire up their heating.

The situation has been further affected by several outages in the supply line, which has proven vulnerable to very cold weather over the past.

So far, problems have been have been reported at a pipeline to the Netherlands, while there has been reduction in gas flows from Norway.

Technical issues have also been plaguing main gas facilities in the UK, including the North Morecambe Barrow terminal.

The UK’s gas storage has also hit the lowest levels since 2006, mainly because of the decision last year by energy company Centrica to close down the country’s biggest gas storage facility, Rough. The site accounted for 70 percent of the UK’s gas storage.

Last year, a “perfect storm” of energy supply crisis forced Britian import gas from Russia, despite London’s role in a series of strict sanctions that were supposed to cripple the Russian energy industry.

Source: Presstv

Demonstrators from vegan and animal activists group “269 Life France” demonstrated against French president Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, February 24, during his first visit as president to the country’s main agricultural fair in Paris.

Macron received whistles and other protests as he met visitors to the fair and journalists. French farmers are discontent over producer prices, European Union trade talks and Chinese land purchases.

In a country with a profound attachment to its pastoral roots, the Salon de l’Agriculture is a mandatory rite of passage for political leaders, who tend either to relish the event – as former president Jacques Chirac visibly did – or endure it. Nicolas Sarkozy, during his presidential farm show debut a decade ago, let rip with an expletive-laden insult against a man in the crowd who had declined to shake his hand. His words were caught on video and haunted him for the rest of his term.

Macron responded differently to provocation on Saturday, scrapping his itinerary to engage several of his hecklers in a lengthy and detailed exchange on trade policy, social charges and food standards in front of TV cameras.

The European Union is to double the budget allocated to a multi-national force in West Africa’s Sahel region as part of a declared mission to crack down on militancy and human trafficking there.

Europe fears that growing instability in the Sahel region of Africa — an arid land mass lying to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the breadth of the African continent — could worsen the already high levels of human trafficking toward Europe and create a springboard for militant attacks on the West.

“There is a direct European interest in restoring stability to the region,” a senior EU diplomat said as quoted by media reports published on Friday. “There is a general awareness now that the future of the European Union is also the future of Africa.”

The deaths of two French soldiers in Mali this week and four US soldiersin Niger in October last year, where most Americans did not know the United States had forces, has highlighted the security threat in the vast scrublands spanning from Mauritania to Chad.

To address the mounting security threats, Brussels and Washington have devised a two-sided strategy, including military and development aid in Africa.

The West created the G5 Sahel force — made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania — to counter militancy in the region. The Western-backed force is to receive more than 400 million euros (494 million dollars) to be able to meet its declared objectives.

The new budget is almost double the 250 million euros it has now.

France, which has more than 4,000 troops in the region, has been frustrated that it is the only EU member with combat troops on the ground, although others have contributed trainers.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the military approach alone would not be effective and called for greater efforts to relieve the roots of the conflict, namely poverty, poor governance, and climate hazards.

“When you add more weapons, you add more suffering,” Patrick Youssef, the deputy head of the ICRC’s operations for Africa, told Reuters. “That needs to be accompanied with real measures to alleviate the suffering that is the main reason why this war was created.”

A “large” gas leak in London’ West End has shut down the Charing Cross station and prompted the police to evacuate hundreds of people from a hotel and a nightclub, rail operators and the fire brigade say.

“Around 1,450 people have been evacuated from a nearby hotel and a nightclub,” the London Fire Brigade said, adding that firefighters were assisting police at a ruptured gas main in Craven Street off Strand, WC2.

The fire brigade said it received a call at 0200 GMT, and that two fire engines and two fire rescue units and around 20 firefighters were at the scene.

Fire crews using detection equipment have identified high levels of natural gas in the atmosphere, it said.

Emergency services are dealing with the incident and a cordon and road closures are also in place, Britain’s Network Rail said in a statement.

Some services may be delayed or cancelled as a result, it said, adding that the station would be reopened as soon as it gets clearance from emergency services.

Rail services are expected to resume by noon, Southeastern railway said on its website.

Transport for London tweeted that “A4 Strand / Northumberland St – Rd is closed” between Trafalgar Square and Bedford Street.

(Source: Reuters)

Axe-wielding robbers stole jewelry on Wednesday possibly worth more than $5 million from a store in the famed Ritz Paris hotel, police said.

Five thieves carried out the heist at the luxury hotel in late afternoon. Three were arrested while two others got away. There were no injuries.

“The loss is very high and remains to be assessed,” one police source said. Another put the figure at 4.5 million euros ($5.38 million), but said that a bag had been recovered possibly containing some of the loot.

The hotel first opened in 1898 and was the first Paris hotel to boast electricity on all floors and bathrooms that were inside rooms.

Armed heists targeting jewelry stores are not uncommon in the ultra-chic avenues near Place Vendome in central Paris where the Ritz is located.

Place Vendome, with its opulent window displays of jewelers and high-end watchmakers, has been the scene of several audacious daytime raids.

Security had been boosted in the area, which also houses France’s Justice Ministry, in 2014 after several daring armed raids on Place Vendome in which jewels worth between 420,000 and two million euros were seized.

The landmark Paris Ritz hotel re-opened its palatial doors to guests in 2016 after nearly four years of renovations and a major fire.

The hotel founded by Swiss entrepreneur Cesar Ritz in 1898 is storied as the lodging of choice of Marcel Proust, Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who has a small bar named after him.

In more recent history however, the Ritz has become known as the place where Britain’s Princess Diana spent her last hours before a car accident in a tunnel in the French capital while being pursued by paparazzi.

(Source: Agencies)

Winter storm Eleanor swept into France, Belgium and the Netherlands on Wednesday after tearing through England and Northern Ireland, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and forcing airports and train services to halt operations.

A skier was killed by a falling tree at Morillon in the French Alps while 15 others have been injured by the storm across the country, four of them seriously, civil defense spokesman Michael Bernier told AFP.

Another person was hurt by a falling tree in the southern Dutch village of Heesch.

Heavy winds led the airports in Strasbourg and Basel-Mulhouse on France’s border with Germany and Switzerland to close before they were reopened shortly after midday.

At Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, 60 percent of departures were delayed Wednesday morning, as were a third of arrivals, while a handful of flights had to be rerouted before the winds eased back a bit.

The winds were also wreaking havoc with train services in several French regions.

About 200,000 homes across northern France were without electricity, while “particularly intense” flooding was expected on the Atlantic coasts.

The Eiffel Tower, which attracts six million visitors a year, was closed until at least Wednesday afternoon, while worries about falling tree branches prompted Paris officials to close all city parks for the day.

Eleanor barreled into continental Europe after whipping across England, Northern Ireland and Ireland, with the Thames Barrier, one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world, closed as a precautionary measure to protect London from swelling tides.

Gusts of 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) were recorded at Great Dun Fell in Westmorland, northwest England, while overturned vehicles and trees caused closures of major motorways.

In Ireland, power supply company ESB said electricity had been restored to 123,000 customers, while 27,000 remained without power.

Belgium and parts of Spain were also put on “orange” alert, the third of four warning levels, with officials urging people to exercise caution when venturing out.

Although the winds eased toward midday, rescue workers in Brussels were kept busy with about 70 calls across the city, mainly after trees were knocked down, and several parks were closed.

In the Netherlands, 252 of about 1,200 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, a key European hub, as weather alerts were issued for several regions.

Several main roads and train lines were also closed as officials rushed to prepare flooding defenses.

Flights were also disrupted at Frankfurt’s airport in Germany, where the storm has been baptized Burglind, and at Zurich airport, as Swiss officials urged hikers to avoid forest walks.

RTS television reported that about 14,000 homes were without power in several Swiss cantons.

Eleanor is the fourth major storm to hit Europe since December.

The storm is now heading for the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, where meteorologists are warning of violent gusts that could reach 200 kilometers per hour.

Austria is also in its path, where the avalanche risk was expected to be raised to four on a scale of five in several areas Wednesday afternoon.

(Source: AFP)

Catalan separatists won a crucial snap poll Thursday, plunging their region into further uncertainty after a failed independence bid rattled Europe and triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

With turnout at a record high and 99.6 percent of the ballots counted, the election handed a mandate back to the region’s ousted separatist leaders, even after they campaigned from exile and behind bars.

In a clear indicator of the huge gulf over independence afflicting Catalan society, anti-secessionist centrist party Ciudadanos was meanwhile on course to win the biggest individual result with 37 of the 135 seats in the regional parliament.

“It’s a strange feeling. We won the majority of seats, but we lost in votes. As such both sides will be able to claim victory,” 26-year-old doctor and separatist supporter Fran Robles told AFP after the results were announced.

“It’s a good reflection of the reality that Catalonia is politically divided,” he added. But unless the three pro-independence lists fail to clinch a deal to work together in the coming months, they will rule Catalonia with 70 of the 135 seats in parliament — two less than their previous tally of 72.

For Catalans on both sides of the divide the day had been a moment of truth, following weeks of upheaval and protests unseen since democracy was reinstated following the death in 1975 of dictator Francisco Franco.

“This is a result which no one can dispute,” deposed leader Carles Puigdemont said from self-imposed exile in Belgium, as he celebrated the separatists’ win.

“The Spanish state was defeated. (Spanish Prime Minister Mariano) Rajoy and his allies lost,” he told reporters.

Upset for Rajoy

The Spanish government called the election after it took the unprecedented step of stripping Catalonia of its treasured autonomy in the aftermath of an independence declaration on October 27 that rattled a Europe already shaken by Brexit.

At stake was the economy of a region that has seen its tourism sector suffer and more than 3,100 companies — including the largest banks, utilities and insurers — move their legal headquarters out of Catalonia since the referendum.

The declaration came weeks after a banned independence referendum on October 1, which saw a police crackdown that sent shockwaves around the world.

Rajoy and his conservative cabinet tried to nip the independence movement in the bud, sacking the regional government and dissolving its parliament.

In a further obstacle for the separatist cause, the judiciary pressed charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of funds against the secessionist leaders.

Puigdemont, who had fled to Belgium where he tried to rally international support for the separatist cause, has not since returned to Spain, where he faces arrest. His Together for Catalonia list nonetheless secured the best result of the three separatist groupings — in a major upset for Rajoy’s government.

“Puigdemont president!” chanted Puigdemont’s campaign manager Elsa Artadi at a rally celebrating the result.

“The result we have obtained is heroic, we have won, Mr Rajoy,” Together for Catalonia candidate Eduard Pujol said.

What still remains unclear, however, is whether Puigdemont will be renamed president, and if so, whether he will return from Belgium and how he might govern.

(Source: AFP)

At least two people have been killed and several others injured in two stabbing attacks in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, police say.

The police said in a statement that two stabbing attacks had been carried out on Thursday night a few hundred meters away from each other in a residential neighborhood in northern Maastricht, a city close to the Netherlands’ borders with Belgium and Germany.

In the first incident, a man was stabbed to death during a fight and a suspect fled the scene. Ten minutes later, another attack occurred, in which a woman was fatally stabbed and two men were injured. Another wounded person was later found at a local mosque and transferred to hospital, police explained.

One suspect was detained on suspicion of involvement in the incidents, police said, adding that, “Research has shown that there is no reason to assume that these incidents have a terrorist motive.”

Police added that they “are still investigating these incidents in the neighborhood.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was at a European Union summit in the Belgian capital of Brussels, also said the attacks were not terrorism-related.

Source: Presstv