PA: Europe
Friday, 13 October 2017 10:07
Balkan nationalists take hope from Catalan referendum
Catalonia's drive to separate from Spain is rekindling dreams of independence in ethnic pockets across the Balkans - a dangerous ambition in a region where nationalist violence claimed tens of thousands of lives in the 1990s.…
Friday, 13 October 2017 10:03
Russia: peaceful protesters detained on Putin’s birthday
Over 250 supporters of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny were arrested as they held peaceful protests in eighty cities across Russia on Putin’s birthday. They were demanding that Mr Navalny be allowed to stand in the March…
Friday, 06 October 2017 09:00
Spain: Catalan referendum
Catalonia has its own history, language and culture. It has both ‘nationality’ status and autonomy within the Spanish constitution. It also has a history of nationalist politics. On 1 October there was a referendum on Catalan…
Friday, 06 October 2017 08:57
Iceland wants to eliminate Down’s syndrome
The only Baptist pastor in Rekjavik doesn’t want Down's syndrome eliminated. ‘My family has spent a lot of time at the hospital. For over a year our five-year-old son has been undergoing chemotherapy for leukaemia. Our…
Friday, 29 September 2017 11:36
Germany: influence of AfD
Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013, is a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic political party. In 2016 it made an alliance with the Freedom Party of Austria, with both party leaders saying border control officers should…
Friday, 29 September 2017 11:33
German election, Brexit and Ireland
The German elections have weakened Chancellor Merkel’s leadership authority. Weeks of Brexit talks will be lost while Germany forms a government that can command a majority in its parliament. In the UK there are disagreements between…