Europe

    The European Union must rethink the way it operates after Brexit as member states gang up on Germany over austerity measures, according to a French politician. Major EU nations including Greece, Italy and Spain are set to form a new alliance with other southern states in a bid to take back economic power from the bloc. An EU-wide policy of austerity enforced from Berlin has led to massive youth unemployment and soaring poverty, devastating many Mediterranean economies. Now leaders of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and Malta plan to seize control with plans to meet in Athens on September 9 to counter the austerity-driven agenda of the union's northern member states. Hosted by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the meeting will see the southern leaders face down ...

    Portugal’s Minister of Education was mugged at knifepoint as he headed back to his hotel from the Olympic cycling road race. Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, 39, was stopped by a man brandishing a blade near his hotel in Ipanema on Saturday afternoon. He and his aide Rita Roque were forced to hand over cash and mobiles. The mugger fled after taking their valuables but was intercepted by locals who held him until police arrived and reunited the visiting politician and his advisor with their belongings It is thought an accomplice managed to get away empty-handed. It was a bit of a fright but we’re both okay Rita Roque Miss Roque, who described the weapon the mugger used as a “domestic knife”, admitted: “It was a bit of a fright but we’re both okay.” She said Mr Rodrigues, a biochemi...

    A German politician is writing to London startups in an attempt to persuade them to relocate to Berlin after the Brexit vote. Berlin Senator for Economics, Technology and Research Cornelia Yzer is warning British companies that remaining in Britain after the country leaves the European Union will damage their businesses, and she says that Berlin will provide resources that will help them relocate. "Britain's vote to leave the European Union will severely affect your operations in the United Kingdom," the letter reads. "Probably you will already check the feasibility to move your company right in the heart of the European Union." Yzer's pitch continues: "Berlin is not only the capital of Europe's strongest national economy but also the fastest growing state in Germany ... B...

    A cargo plane has overshot the runway at Bergamo’s Orio al Serio international airport and crashed into a road. The airport in Italy’s Lombardy region was temporarily closed after the incident which happened at 4am Friday morning. Dramatic pictures showed a 737-400 aircraft belonging to courier firm DHL wedged onto a road at the end of the runway. No one was reported to have been hurt in the crash with the crew escaping unharmed. The Corriere de la Serra newspaper said the incident happened during bad weather in the area. The paper carried a statement from Sacbo, the company that runs the airport saying the airport of Bergamo was back operating at 6.47 am. The Italian air regulator, the National Agency for Civil Aviation, said some flights had been rescheduled and rerouted...

    U.S. government hackers at the National Security Agency are likely targeting Russian government-linked hacking teams to see once and for all if they're responsible for the massive breach at the Democratic National Committee, according to three former senior intelligence officials. It's a job that the current head of the NSA's elite hacking unit said they've been called on to do many times before. Robert Joyce, chief of the NSA's shadowy Tailored Access Operations, declined to comment on the DNC hack specifically, but said in general that the NSA has technical capabilities and legal authorities that allow the agency to hack back suspected hacking groups, infiltrating their systems to gather intelligence about their operations in the wake of a cyber attack. "In terms of the ...

    The Home Office has said there are “no immediate plans” to reintroduce navy blue non-EU British passports following the Brexit vote, despite the wishes of some Leave voters. In parliament, pro-Brexit Conservative MP Michael Fabricant asked Home Secretary Amber Rudd if she would bring back the documents, which were last used in 1988. He asked Ms Rudd whether she would “take steps to introduce a new passport with a navy blue cover for the UK following the exit of the UK from the EU”. But Home Office minister Robert Goodwill replied: “There are no immediate plans for changes to the format or colour of the UK passport. “Parliament will be informed of any changes to the passport following UK withdrawal from the European Union.” As part of the EU referendum campaign in June, Uki...

    Muslims have refused to bury one of the terrorists who murdered a Catholic priest as he celebrated Mass. Community leaders in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray said they did not want to "taint" Islam by having any association with Adel Kermiche, the 19-year-old jihadist who killed Fr Jacques Hamel in his hometown in northern France. Mohammed Karabila, president of the local Muslim cultural association and imam of one of the town's mosques, told Le Parisien: "We're not going to taint Islam with this person. "We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial." Muslims in the town were supportive of the decision. Khalid El Amrani, a 25-year-old technician, said he thought it was "normal" that the mosque would refuse to help with the burial. "What this young man did was sinful, ...

    Two men are being held by police in Belgium suspected of planning an attack in the country, prosecutors say. The men, named only as Nourredine H, 33, and his brother Hamza H, were arrested after a series of houses were searched on Friday evening. Raids were carried out in the cities of Mons and Liège by federal police. No weapons or explosives were found in the searches. The federal prosecution office said in a statement: "Based on provisional results from the investigation, it appears that there were plans to carry out an attack somewhere in Belgium." The French version of the statement referred to "planning attacks" in the plural. A judge will later decide whether they should be detained in custody beyond an initial 24 hours. Belgium is on security alert three - of four ...

    France's prime minister said Friday he was "open" to a temporary ban on foreign financing for mosque building, after a spate of attacks in the country claimed by jihadists. Manuel Valls also admitted in an interview with the Le Monde daily it was a "failure" that one of the jihadists who attacked a church and killed a priest earlier this week had been released with an electronic tag pending trial. Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve have come under fire for perceived security failings that have failed to prevent three major terror attacks in France in 18 months. The fact that one of the church attackers, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag meant judges needed to take a "different, case-by-case...

    Angela Merkel is to come under renewed criticism of her open-door immigration policy after another horrific attack on German soil. Last night a Syrian refugee wielding a machete killed a pregnant woman and injured two other people before being arrested by police. The attack happened in the south western city of Reutlingen near a doner kebab stand in a bus station at Listplatz Square. German media have been reporting that the motive for the attack in the city south of Stuttgart was unclear. The 17-year-old, who a witness said shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) during the attack, severely wounded four Hong Kong residents on the train late on Monday, then injured a local woman after fleeing, before police shot him dead. He had entered Germany last summer with waves of migr...