News Digest (16 stories, 6.11.15)
06 November 2015
BULGARIA:
Third Night of Bulgaria Police Protest Goes Peacefully (Balkan Insight, link):
"Hundreds of police officers demonstrated on Thursday for a third night in a row against planned cuts of social benefits at Bulgaria's Interior Ministry."
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Czechs not for NATO presence (Prague Post, link):
"he Czech Republic is not a NATO border country and it does not see any reason for the presence of Alliance units on its territory, but it respects the opinion of other member nations, Jan Hamácek told the Czech News Agency after a summit of nine NATO eastern member countries in Bucharest today."
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Egg-citing development in Zeman protest case (Prague Post, link):
"A state attorney has cancelled the prosecution over pelting Czech President Miloš Zeman with eggs at a ceremony marking the November 1989 Velvet Revolution in Prague last year as unlawful and returned the case to the police for completion, Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes."
GREECE:
Students Hold Protests Across Greece Against Education Cuts (Greek Reporter, link):
"High school and university students carried out demonstrations all around Greece against the Greek government’s reduction of funds in the educational system ‘s budget, and demanded increased funding to schools and universities as well as the addition of more teachers and professors."
NATO Urged to Strengthen its Eastern Flank (Balkan Insight, link):
"Ahead of the NATO summit in Poland, members of the Alliance in Eastern Europe, meeting in Romania, have demanded a tougher response to Russia's 'posturing'."
Research reveals 9 of 10 websites leak user data to third parties (The Next Web, link):
"The idea of websites tracking users without their knowledge or permission isn’t new, but you might be surprised at just how big a problem it really is."
SCOTLAND:
Review on raising age of criminal responsibility to begin (Holyrood, link):
"Senior figures from the criminal justice and children’s sectors will begin formal talks on raising the age of criminal responsibility in the next ten days."
SPAIN:
Catalan riot officer says he batoned youth’s ear “by mistake” (El País, link):
"A Catalan police officer standing trial for bodily injury told a judge on Wednesday that he had aimed his baton at the plaintiff’s legs, but was thrown off balance and hit his head instead."
SPAIN:
Zaragoza hosts major NATO exercise to prepare for Mediterranean threat (El País, link): "After focusing almost obsessively on the Russian threat following the invasion of Ukraine, the North Atlantlic Alliance admits it cannot ignore the threats on its southern flank."
Spanish PM agrees to reform Constitution if he wins re-election (El País, link):
"Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will accept discussing reforms to Spain’s 1978 Constitution if he wins a second term in office in the December 20 general election."
UK:
Former head of GCHQ advising Shell and private intelligence firm (The Guardian, link):
"A former head of GCHQ has become an adviser to Shell and an influential private intelligence company after retiring from the UK’s electronic eavesdropping agency late last year."
UK:
Jury returns damning conclusions at inquest into death of Imran Douglas (Garden Court Chambers, link):
"Imran took his life five days after being sent to HMP Belmarsh to begin his sentence. He had turned 18 the previous month. After three weeks of evidence and four days of deliberations, the jury at Southwark Coroner’s Court returned 17 pages of narrative conclusions on Tuesday 3 November, criticising the Ministry of Justice, Care UK, the Youth Justice Board and Tower Hamlets Youth Offending Team."
UK:
Media law QC warns police could use Investigatory Powers Bill to 'routinely' identify journalistic sources (Press Gazette, link):
"He said it is "good" that the IPB "gives explicit protection to journalists", an improvement on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
"But he said the Bill "would not bring our law into line with the requirements under Article 10" of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"And he added: "The worry is that the police will now start using these powers routinely to identify sources.""
UK:
The map that shows huge regional variation in rape convictions across England and Wales (The Independent, link):
"Alleged rape victims are three times more likely to see their attacker convicted in certain parts of the country compared to others, figures from the Crown Prosecution service have revealed."
UK:
Thousands back child smuggler Leeds aid worker (Yorkshire Evening Post, link):
"A CAMPAIGN has been launched to help an aid worker from Leeds who is facing jail for trying to smuggle an Afghan child out of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais."
UK: Union ban ex-student from talking about his experiences fighting ISIS (The Tab, link): "They said 'one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist'
"The Union banned a YPG fighter from talking at the University – in case he influences others to go and fight."