World

HELSINKI — Finland is ready to close its last border crossing with Russia if Moscow keeps pushing migrants across, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Monday as migrants continued to make the treacherous journey through the Arctic.

“We have closed all our border stations on the eastern border except for one and we are ready to close the last one if needed,” Orpo told reporters in Helsinki.

“Finland is protecting the European Union’s external border and NATO’s border. We will not let this phenomenon continue,” he added.

Finland has seen a surge in asylum seekers entering without a visa across its 1,300 kilometre border with Russia, with around 800 crossing since August.

The migrants are predominantly from the Middle East and Africa.

This has prompted Finland to close all but its northernmost border crossing, in the remote Murmansk region in the Arctic, over the past two weeks.

Finnish officials claim Russia is attempting to destabilise its Nordic neighbour, with Orpo last week calling it “a systematic and organised action by the Russian authorities”.

In April, Moscow warned it would take “countermeasures... in tactical and strategic terms” after branding Finland’s decision to join NATO as an “assault on our security”.

Since November 23, the only border crossing that remains open is the Raja-Jooseppi station.

Migrants continued to cross there this weekend, with a total of 60 arriving on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, according to the Finnish Border Guard. 

Finland is obligated by international law to ensure that migrants can seek asylum, and the availability of locations can only be limited in exceptional circumstances, according to Finnish legal experts.

CRÉPOL, France — The French government urged calm on Monday after the killing of a teenage boy at a village dance party earlier this month was followed up with violent demonstrations by the extreme right.

The death of the 16-year-old, named only as Thomas, has been seized upon by the far-right who has portrayed the killing as symbolic of increasingly insecure conditions in French society.

Olivier Veran, the spokesman of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government, went to the village of Crepol in southeastern France where Thomas was killed in a bid to keep a lid on tensions.

The death of Thomas is “a tragedy that puts us at risk of a tipping-over of our society, if we don’t rise to the occasion”, he said.

“It’s up to the judiciary to render justice. Not for the French public themselves,” he warned, while acknowledging that the death of Thomas was the result of more than a “simple fight at a village dance”.

Around 100 extreme-right activists travelled to the nearby town of Romans-sur-Isere on Saturday, a police source said, adding that they were looking for a fight with young people from the La Monnaie neighbourhood, where many suspect the perpetrators of the November 19 killing live.

A further far-right gathering in Romans was dispersed by police on Sunday.

‘Injustice or rage’ 

With two dozen people detained over the weekend in connection to these protests, senior prosecutor Laurent de Caigny insisted “no one can take justice into their own hands outside the law” and urged people to allow investigators to do their work.

“Those who oppose this by illegitimate violence will answer for it,” he added.

Six of the people arrested at the weekend faced fast-track court hearings on Monday, including for armed attacks on police.

David Riste, headteacher at the boy’s school, told pupils after a minute of silence in Thomas’s memory that “after such immeasurable pain, a feeling of injustice or even rage can arise”.

“We have to trust in our police and our justice system, and stay united in adversity,” he added.

One woman in her 70s who had been at the dance told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that whoever was behind the violence should “be punished, and no excuses found for them”.

Tensions running high 

Nine people believed connected to the November 19 violence in Crepol were placed under investigation on Saturday for crimes including murder and attempted murder, prosecutors in nearby city Valence said.

Fighting appears to have broken out inside the dance before spilling outside, with a group of suspects arriving by car as the party was ending.

Conservative and far-right politicians have been swift to point to the fight at the village dance as evidence of danger from immigrants and minorities, even as details of the night’s events remain unclear.

Gesturing in the same direction, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told security officials and senior police officers Monday that “far-right and far-left groups” should not deter the authorities “from our resolute action” in fighting insecurity.

Prosecutor de Caigny said the violence appears to have broken out for “petty reasons” rather than being a premeditated attack based on “race, ethnicity, nationality or religion” — perhaps even a passing remark about “somebody’s haircut”.

But prosecutors have added that nine of the 104 witnesses interviewed reported hearing hostile language “about white people” during the fight.

As well as Thomas’s death, nine people were wounded in Crepol on November 19, four of them seriously.

Veran said that victims would be offered legal, psychological and administrative support after meeting one of the injured.

“It’s reassuring for locals to know that the state has heard them,” Crepol mayor Martine Lagut said.

The Crepol incident came with France already on edge, with a surge in anti-Semitic incidents since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the state’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip in response.

Last month’s killing of a teacher by a Muslim former pupil originally from Russia has also stoked tensions.

MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Sunday defended comments he made about the Israeli offensive in Gaza which angered Israel, saying "it was a question of being humane".

Visiting the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Sanchez said the "indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians" in the Palestinian territory was "completely unacceptable".

Both leaders called for a permanent ceasefire in the war-battered territory, with the Belgian premier also denouncing the destruction in the Gaza Strip as “unacceptable”.

The Israeli foreign ministry swiftly summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium for a “harsh rebuke” over comments by the two countries’ leaders, accusing them of supporting “terrorism”.

“Condemning the vile terrorist attacks of a terrorist group like Hamas and at the same condemning the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza, is not a question of political parties nor of ideology, it is a question of being humane,” Sanchez told a gathering of his Socialist Party in Madrid to applause from the audience.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told public television on Friday he had called in the Israeli ambassador to lodge a formal protest against the Israeli government’s allegations.

Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas in response to its unprecedented surprise attack on October 7 and unleashed a withering military campaign that Gaza’s Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in the coastal territory.

ATHENS — One member of the Comoros-flagged ship that sank in gale-force winds off the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos was found dead while one was rescued and 12 more were missing, the Greek coastguard said Sunday.

The body of a man was located and taken to the port of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, a statement said. 

A navy helicopter had earlier picked up one crew member from the RAPTOR cargo ship, who was taken to Lesbos General Hospital alive.

The Ert state-run news website said the man, an Egyptian, was found floating on a barrel, and despite wounds on his head, was in good health. 

“He is in a state of shock”, coastguard spokesman Nikos Alexiou had told AFP.

The fate of the other 12 was not immediately clear. 

Eight cargo ships, three coast guard vessels, air force and navy helicopters as well as a navy frigate joined the rescue effort. 

Authorities said the cargo ship, which was carrying 14 crew members and was loaded with salt, went down 8.3 kilometres southwest of Lesbos, near the coast of Turkey, early Sunday.

The 106-metre ship, built in 1984, had sailed from Dekheila, Egypt, heading for Istanbul. 

The Athens News Agency (ANA), quoting the vessel’s operating company based in Lebanon, said the crew included 11 Egyptians, two Syrians and one Indian. 

According to the authorities, the ship first reported a mechanical failure at 7:00 am local time (05:00 GMT). 

At 8:20 am, the captain reported that the ship was listing, and activated the “mayday” distress signal before disappearing from the radar, Alexiou told AFP. 

According to ANA, the heavily-laden vessel was believed to have taken on water in the hold due to strong waves, causing it to list and sink.

Ships remained docked across several parts of Greece over the weekend, with wind speeds reaching 9-10 on the Beaufort scale, or strong gale to storm force.

An emergency weather warning by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service was upgraded on Saturday from “worsening weather” to “dangerous weather phenomena”, as Storm Oliver (also called Bettina) moved from the Adriatic Sea towards Greece.

Earlier this month, a historic Greek warship was damaged by gale force winds after repeatedly hitting a dock.

The country has been struck by repeated flooding over recent months after facing a series of storms.

Central Greece was devastated in September by cataclysmic amounts of rain dumped by Storm Daniel, destroying crops and killing tens of thousands of farm animals across a wide area that is the heart of Greece’s agricultural production.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday welcomed a truce which has seen some hostages set free in the Middle East and prayed for further releases.

“Today we thank God because there is finally a truce between Israel and Palestine and some hostages have been freed,” the Argentinian Pontiff said in a statement read by a Vatican official at the weekly Angelus prayer.

“We pray that they all may be [freed] as rapidly as possible and that more humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza and that they insist on dialogue,” the 86-year-old leader of the Catholic Church said.

Dialogue “is the only way, the only path to peace. Those who do not want to hold a dialogue do not want peace”, Francis concluded.

The truce, a four-day pause to fighting brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, provides for Hamas releasing 50 hostages in exchange for the release by Israel of 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Francis had a colleague read his statement as he recited recite Sunday’s Angelus prayer from his Casa Santa Marta residence rather than overlooking St Peter’s Square as he deals with a mild bout of flu, the Vatican press service said.

The prayer was broadcast live on screens in St Peter’s Square and streamed on the Vatican News website.

The Pope was recuperating a day after he had a CT scan which ruled out pulmonary complications and cancelled audiences for the day as the Vatican said he was getting over a “light flu”.

Francis is scheduled to make a much anticipated speech at the UN climate summit in Dubai next Saturday. He is expected to criticise the inaction of many governments and urge them to intensify efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

LONDON — Tens of thousands of protesters marched in London on Saturday demanding a permanent ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, as a temporary truce largely held in Gaza.

It was the latest large pro-Palestinian demonstration in the British capital since the October 7 surprise attacks on Israel  that unleashed the latest conflict in the Gaza strip.

"The occupation needs to end. We need a full ceasefire and not a four-day ceasefire," Alaa Hassan, a 24-year-old wellbeing practitioner, told AFP.

The demonstrators waved pro-Palestinian banners and chanted slogans as they walked through central London to the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

Some 1,500 police officers were on duty for the protest, including 500 that had been brought in from forces outside of London.

There were no immediate reports of violence at the demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition.

“We come to show our solidarity and tell the Palestinians they are not alone, we are thinking about them and we are not gonna stop until they are free,” said 25-year-old student Leila Talhi.

In Gaza, a truce was largely being respected as Hamas fighters and Israel’s government released Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas fighters.

 Israel launched an air, artillery and naval bombardment alongside a ground offensive to destroy Hamas, killing nearly 15,000 people, mostly civilians including thousands of children, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.

London police have made hundreds of arrests for alleged hate crimes since the attack.

PARIS — Thousands of people took to the streets across the world on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day highlighting the crime.

On the UN-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, protesters marched in Europe and the Americas.

"The scourge of gender-based violence continues to inflict pain and injustice on too many," US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

"An estimated one in three women globally will experience physical violence, rape, or stalking at some point in their lifetimes. It's an outrage."

"Particularly in areas of conflict, countless women and girls suffer at the hands of perpetrators who commit gender-based violence and use rape as a weapon of war."

"We know what is at stake: whenever and wherever women and girls are under threat, so too is peace and stability", Biden said.

In Guatemala, protesters kicked off commemorations on Friday evening, placing candles to write out 438 — the number of women killed so far this year.

In Chile, protesters marched in Santiago, carrying portraits of victims.

Italy murder 

In Italy, which has been shaken by the murder of a 22-year-old university student allegedly by her former boyfriend, some 50,000 people, according to the AGI news agency, demonstrated in Rome, where the Colosseum was to be lit up in red later on Saturday.

The country has been horrified by the case of Giulia Cecchettin, who went missing for a week as she was due to receive her degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Padua.

Her body was eventually found in a gully about 120 kilometres north of Venice and her former boyfriend, 22-year-old Filippo Turetta, was arrested in Germany.

"This year... takes on particularly important connotations for us... for those in this country who care about the rights, claims and emancipation of all women, following yet another femicide, the killing of Giulia Cecchettin", said Luisa Loduce, a 22-year-old librarian.

In the year to November 12, there have been 102 murder cases with female victims in Italy, 82 of whom were killed by family members or current or former partners, according to the interior ministry.

In Turkey, some 500 women gathered in the Sisli district in Istanbul, as riot police stood by, unfurling banners reading “We will not remain silent” and “Women are united and fighting against male-state violence”.

Protesters also took to the streets in Ankara.

‘Educate your boys’ 

In France, several thousand of people, many wearing purple, the colour of women and gender equality, wove through the chilly streets of Paris and other cities, carrying signs reading: “One rape every six minutes in France” and “Protect your girls, educate your boys”.

“We don’t want to count the dead any more,” Maelle Lenoir, an official from the All of Us activist group, told reporters, urging the government to devote more money to eradicating violence against women.

France has recorded 121 women killed so far this year in femicides, the killing of a woman due to her gender, compared with 118 in 2022, according to government data.

Leonore Maunoury, 22, said that the justice system needed to be changed to deal effectively with the phenomenon, as she march in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

“Sexual violence is difficult to prove. Many cases are dismissed. The justice system is ill-adapted” to deal with the issue, she said.