Several people shot at Copenhagen shopping mall, police

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 03 July 2022

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COPENHAGEN - Danish police said Sunday that several people were shot at a Copenhagen shopping mall.

Copenhagen police said that one person has been arrested in connection with the shooting at the Field’s shopping mall, which is close to the city's airport. Police tweeted that “several people have been hit” but gave no other details.

Images from the scene showed people running out of the mall, and Denmark’s TV2 broadcaster posted a photo of a man being put on a stretcher. Witnesses said people were crying and hid in shops.

A huge police presence was on hand, with several fire department vehicles also parked outside the mall.

Ex-president of Russia warns of World War Three if Nato encroaches on Crimea

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 28 June 2022

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MOSCOW - The former president of Russia has warned that World War Three could break out if any Nato member encroaches on the disputed land of Crimea.

Moscow has launched a wave of fresh missile attacks on Kyiv in recent days to coincide with the meeting of G7 leaders in Germany.

And former leader Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012, sharpened the rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin on Tuesday.

Medvedev told reporters any advancement on the peninsular in the south of Ukraine - which has been disputed territory for the past eight years - could amount to a declaration of war on Russia.

"For us, Crimea is a part of Russia. And that means forever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war against our country," Medvedev told the news website Argumenty i Fakty.

"And if this is done by a Nato member state, this means conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance; a World War Three. A complete catastrophe."

Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, also said if Finland and Sweden joined Nato, Russia would strengthen its borders and would be "ready for retaliatory steps". He warned that could include the prospect of installing Iskander hypersonic missiles "on their threshold."

In 2014, Russia seized Ukraine's southern peninsula of Crimea, an area of strategic importance in an invasion which marked what one Western intelligence official described as the "creeping militarisation" of the Black Sea.

While Nato and the international community deemed the annexation illegal, they failed to stop it and Moscow has since established two federal "subjects" in the area - the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.

Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February this year has been seen as an attempt by Moscow to annex more territory and influence in the country.

However, Russian troops faced stiffer-than-expected resistance and have since withdrawn and focused its efforts in the Donbas region in the south east. On Saturday, pro-Russian forces claimed control of the strategically import city of Severodonetsk.

The invasion has increased tensions between Russia and the West, specifically between Nato.

The military alliance announced on Monday it was boosting its high-readiness force nearly eightfold to 300,000 troops as part of its response to an “era of strategic competition”.

The reaction force currently has around 40,000 soldiers who can be deployed quickly if needed.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it "the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War".

More countries are looking at joining Nato following the invasion, with Sweden and Finland each applying to join the bloc.

On Tuesday, the new head of the British army is expected to warn that the UK must be ready to "fight and win", and that these times are "our 1937 moment".

General Sir Patrick Sanders, the Chief of the General Staff, will say he had never seen such a clear threat to peace and democracy as the “brutal aggression” of Putin.

In his first public engagement since taking up his post, Gen Sanders will say his focus is on mobilising the Army to help prevent the spread of war in Europe by being “ready to fight and win alongside our Nato allies and partners”.

“In all my years in uniform, I haven’t known such a clear threat to the principles of sovereignty and democracy, and the freedom to live without fear of violence, as the brutal aggression of president Putin and his expansionist ambitions,” he is expected to say.

“This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war – but must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure that the British Army plays its part in averting war.”

He will liken the current situation to the run up to the Second World War, saying Britain must be prepared to “act rapidly” to ensure it is not drawn into a full-scale conflict through its failure to contain Russian expansionism.

Two dead, 14 wounded in Norway nightclub shooting, police

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 25 June 2022

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By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche

OSLO -Two people were killed and 14 wounded on Saturday in a shooting at a nightclub and in nearby streets in Norway's capital Oslo, police said.

A suspect believed to be the sole perpetrator was apprehended, police told reporters. The suspect was known to authorities, public broadcaster NRK reported, adding he was not cooperating with police.

The crime scene extended from the London Pub via a neighbouring club and onwards to a nearby street where the suspect was apprehended a few minutes after the shooting began in the early hours of Saturday, police spokesman Tore Barstad told newspaper Aftenposten.

The London Pub is a popular gay bar and nightclub in the centre of Oslo.

"I saw a man arrive with a bag, he picked up a gun and started to shoot," journalist Olav Roenneberg of public broadcaster NRK reported.

It was not immediately clear what the motive for the attack was.

Oslo is due to hold its annual Pride parade later on Saturday, just months after Norway marked 50 years since the abolition of a law that criminalised gay sex.

The attack was a "terrible and deeply shocking attack on innocent people," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement to Norwegian news agency NTB.

"We don't know yet know what is behind this terrible act, but to the queer people who are afraid and in mourning, I want to say that we stand together with you."

Two people were confirmed dead and some 14 people were taken to hospital, several with severe injuries, police said.

Photographs published by newspaper VG, broadcaster NRK and others showed a large gathering of emergency responders outside the London Pub, including police and ambulance workers.

Helicopters hovered above central Oslo while ambulance and police car sirens were heard across the city.

Oslo's university hospital said it had gone on red alert following the shooting.