Europe
France
French
pool bans 'burkini' swim - 12 August
French officials have banned a Muslim woman from swimming in a
public pool while wearing a swimsuit that covers her entire
body. The woman had swum in July in the pool in Emerainville,
east of Paris, in the "burkini" - a loose-fitting
garment resembling a wetsuit with a hood. But staff stopped her
from swimming in August, citing hygiene concerns. It comes as
the government examines ways to limit burka use after the
president said they reduced dignity. - BBC
News website
Germany
Verdict
awaited in Nazi war trial - 11 August
A court in Munich is due to deliver its verdict in one of
Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials. Former German infantry
commander Josef Scheungraber, 90, is accused of ordering the
killing of 14 civilians in a Tuscan village on 26 June 1944. He
had previously been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military
court to life in prison. He denies the charges, saying he handed
the victims to the military police and did not know what
happened to them. - BBC News
website
Passage
of time helps last Nazis - 11 August
The trial of a former German infantry commander for Nazi war
crimes took 11 months, and ended in what is nowadays a rare
conviction. Josef Scheungraber has been jailed for life after
being convicted of the murder of 10 civilians in an Italian
village during World War II. A Munich state court sentenced the
90-year-old German after a type of trial that is now quite rare.
- BBC News website
Italy
A
Mafia boss breaks silence on an assassination - 3 August
Each year, Italians take part in a midsummer ritual to honor the
victims of the Mafia and speak out against the scourge of
organized crime. From Palermo to Torino, politicians, church
leaders and youth groups gather to mark the July 19, 1992,
assassination of anti-Mob magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was
killed along with five bodyguards in a meticulously planned
car-bombing outside his mother's apartment in the Sicilian
capital. For this year's anniversary, a most unlikely voice
spoke out. Salvatore (Toto) Riina, the Mafia's notorious former
boss of bosses, has broken his silence from his prison cell near
Milan, where he is serving a life sentence for dozens of
homicides, including the masterminding of the Borsellino hit and
one three months earlier of another crusading Sicilian
prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone. - Stumble
Upon website
Maritime
Law
Mystery
deepens over disappearing merchant ship - 13 August
The Kremlin ordered Russian warships to join the hunt for the 4
000-tonne, 98-meter bulk carrier Arctic Sea, whose fate has
baffled maritime authorities across Europe and North Africa. The
Maltese-registered vessel, carrying a $1.3-million cargo of
timber, was supposed to have docked on August 4 in the Algerian
port of Bejaia. It never arrived and is thought to have last
made contact from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France.
Mikhail Boytenko, editor of Russia's respected Sovfracht
maritime journal, said that the ship may have been carrying a
secret cargo unknown to the vessel's owners or operators. A
hijacking in European waters would be almost unprecedented in
modern times. "There has not been a so called incident of
this kind around in Europe for a very long time," said Jim
Davis, chairman of London-based industry group the International
Maritime Industries Forum. "It is a unique incident so far
in European waters". - Reuters
website
Speculation
rife over missing ship - 13 August
It is a mystery that could grace the pages of a thriller novel.
A cargo ship carrying timber worth $1.8m (£1m) from Finland to
Algeria is apparently briefly hijacked off the coast of Sweden
before continuing its journey through the English Channel - and
then disappears. Nothing has been heard from the Maltese-flagged
Arctic Sea since its last recorded sighting on 30 July, and
officials appear to have no idea where it could be. - BBC
News website
Switzerland
Switzerland,
UBS settle US tax case - 13 August
UBS AG and the Swiss and US governments have finalized a
settlement in a tax-evasion investigation that will allow UBS
clients to appeal to a Swiss tribunal before their account
information is handed to US tax collectors. - Wall
Street Journal website
See
also : United
Kingdom. more banks told 'reveal accounts'
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