Macron starts 2-day state visit to Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Jan 30, (AP): French President Emmanuel Macron was welcomed Tuesday with pomp and ceremony at the start of a two-day state visit to Sweden during which he will meet Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the Scandinavian country’s monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were greeted by the king in the inner courtyard of the downtown Stockholm royal castle that is the official residence of the Swedish royals. There, Macron and Carl Gustaf reviewed members of the Grenadier Guards that had lined up.
Macron noted that it had been too long since a French president visited Sweden - the last time was in 2014, when Francois Hollande traveled to the Scandinavian country.
Later Tuesday, Macron is to discuss the future of European security at a military academy in Stockholm, together with Kristersson and the king. Russia’s war on Ukraine and Sweden’s NATO application are likely to be on the table.
After more than a year of delays, Turkey earlier this month completed its ratification of Sweden’s bid to join NATO, meaning Hungary is now the last member of the military alliance not to have given its approval. All NATO countries must agree before a new member can join the alliance.
‘Deal with Italy can go ahead if approved’:
Albania’s Constitutional Court on Monday said a deal can go ahead with Italy under which thousands of migrants rescued at sea by Italian authorities would be sent to Albania while their asylum applications are processed.
Thirty Albanian lawmakers attempted to block the deal’s ratification by referring it to the court. Now the agreement signed in November between Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni can be voted on in Parliament.
The court’s head, Holta Zacaj, called the deal “in line with the Constitution.”
With Rama’s left-wing Socialist Party holding 74 of Parliament’s 140 seats, the deal is expected to pass. No date has been set for the parliamentary debate and vote.
Russian oppn figure moved to another jail:
Lawyers for prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, said Tuesday that he has been transferred to another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement again, for at least four months, over an alleged minor infraction.
The move comes amid unrelenting pressure on Russian dissidents at home and abroad that has intensified significantly since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine almost two years ago.
Kara-Murza, 42, was held in a prison in the Omsk region, but his supporters said on Monday he apparently was no longer there.
Kara-Murza lawyer Maria Eismont told Russia’s independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper on Tuesday that she had received a letter from him in which he said he was transferred to another penal colony in the city of Omsk and placed in a restricted housing unit for at least four months. In the letter, a copy of which his other lawyer Vadim Prokhorov posted on Facebook, Kara-Murza said that prison officials on Friday accused him of disobeying a command he said wasn’t even given to him.
Charles, Kate discharged from hospital:
King Charles III and his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, have both left a private London hospital following unrelated medical treatments that have made the health of the royal family headlines news in the United Kingdom.
The 75-year-old monarch was admitted to the London Clinic on Friday for treatment of an enlarged prostate, which Buckingham Palace described as benign. The princess, formerly Kate Middleton, has been at the hospital in central London for the past two weeks following abdominal surgery for an undisclosed condition.
Charles walked out of the clinic with his wife, Queen Camilla, at about 3 p.m. local time (1500 GMT; 10 am EST) on Monday, stopping to smile and wave to well-wishers but ignoring shouted questions from reporters. A few hours earlier, the princess’ office said that she had returned home to recuperate, though she wasn’t seen leaving the hospital and details about when she left weren’t released.
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Party agrees to end 2-yr boycott:
Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party has agreed to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a powersharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days.
After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Tuesday that the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the UK government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions.”
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London police fatally shoot a suspect:
A man reportedly armed with a crossbow was fatally shot by officers in London on Tuesday as he broke into a home where he had threatened the occupants, the Metropolitan Police said.
The suspect, believed to be in his 30s, was reportedly armed and threatened people in the home in the Southwark part of the city. He was trying to break into the house when officers arrived.
When the man threatened officers who attempted to speak with him, armed police were called in. He was shot as he got inside the property. The man died at the scene after officers and paramedics tried to provide first aid.
❑ ❑ ❑ Georgia prime minister steps down:
The prime minister of the country of Georgia resigned on Monday and said he had accepted an offer to become chairman of the Georgian Dream ruling party ahead of national elections in the autumn.
“We will elect a new parliament in the fall, and Georgian Dream should prepare to win elections decisively to continue the way forward in achieving other goals,” Irakli Garibashvili said in announcing he was leaving the post.