Caption: MILAN: One of Italy’s seven cities with underground trains
Photo credit: CC/Luca Volpi
Italy: Mini-Metro Italy’s underground train network serves seven cities with just 251 kilometres of track, less than Madrid whose metro system covers 297 kilometres, a National Council for Economy and Labour (CNEL) report revealed. It was essential to encourage the use of public transport by expanding the network, CNEL said.
Denmark: Really Lucky Nigerian pirate Lucky Frances, severely injured during a 2021 gunfight with Danish sailors in the Gulf of Guinea, will receive a publicly-funded prosthetic leg. First admitted to a Ghana hospital where his leg was amputated, Frances received further treatment in Denmark where he applied for, and received, asylum.
Stock up More than half of the Danish population have not yet acted on government advice to keep a stock of basic food and hygiene items in their homes. They should lay in sufficient amounts of essential supplies to survive for three days without power or water in a crisis situation, the Emergency Management Agency said.
Norway: All alone Two-thirds of the inmates at Indre Ostfold prison in Mysen were kept in isolation for between 19 and 21 hours each day owing to staff shortages, the local media revealed. An Ombudsman report said this “disproportionately interfered with prisoners’ rights”, adding that the treatment of young prisoners was “deficient.”
Late justice A Stavanger lawyer who operated a phony loan scheme for several years and swindled relatives, friends and business associates out of 765 million kroner (€64.4 million) committed suicide before he could stand trial. The hearing will nevertheless go ahead, in order to formally establish responsibility.
Belgium: Family affair An Antwerp appeals court ruled that a man who discovered that he was not the father of his ex-wife’s two children was entitled to €83,000 compensation. The tribunal pointed out that if he had known he was not the children’s biological father, he would not have contributed towards their upkeep for so many years.
Old tradition Organic wine made from grapes grown in the Ruddervoorde in West Flanders is on sale four years after the first vines were planted and two years after the first grapes were picked. Grower Filip Vermeulen said it was not unusual to produce wine in the area, as Bruges had been a renowned wine region centuries ago.
Germany: Bomb blast Three Cologne hospitals were evacuated and 6,400 residents briefly left their homes on October 11 while a bomb disposal team deactivated a 1,000-kilo Second World War bomb discovered on a building site. After specialists failed to defuse the bomb, the city authorities instead carried out a controlled explosion.
Fire gaffe An ultramodern, multimillion fire station, inaugurated in Stadtallendorf last year, was burnt to the ground on October 16 because the building had not been fitted with a fire alarm. Ten fire engines were destroyed in the blaze which began in one of the vehicles, causing damage that will take €20 million to repair.
Netherlands: Self-service A man of 46 and his 38-year-old wife received six-month prison terms for killing two sheep belong to a Wilp farmer. Although they were prosecuted only for the Wilp killings they slaughtered more than 20 sheep in adjoining towns between February 2020 and March 2022, taking the choicest cuts home to freeze.
Birds and bees Pesticides containing neonicotinoid that are used in agriculture and horticulture not only kill bees and bumble bees but they also harm birds, Wageningen University researchers found. Birds that eat food that has been contaminated with the chemical have shorter lives and their chicks are less likely to survive.
France: Museum piece The company which turned the Paris house of the late singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg into a museum 12 months ago is now in receivership owing to legal disputes, mismanagement and debts. With visits booked until the end of 2024, a court-appointed manager will oversee the business to avoid bankruptcy.
Two views A study by Public Health and Social Statistics Office (DREES) revealed that 60 per cent of men claimed to split childcare duties equally with their partners. At the same time 25 per cent of women but only 10 per cent of men told EU researchers that they argued at least once a week about sharing tasks.
Finland: Sensitive area Fewer men specialise in gynaecology as more women ask to be examined by a female practitioner in Finland. Despite plummeting numbers, Juuso Isotalo (32), a gynaecologist, told broadcaster YLE that he believed women would begin to accept male doctors now that men are “more sensitive” to their health issues.
Get ready Finland’s population will receive updated instructions on the government’s Suomi.fi website on preparing for war and other crises in November, the Interior ministry revealed. Information will cover home emergency supply kits and discuss war, civil defence, national defence and the duty to defend the country.
Ireland: Go fish The Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO) said overfishing by Norway was the main reason for the European Union’s recommendation of reducing the mackerel quota by 22 per cent. Ireland’s fishing fleet could lose more than €10 million in 2025 as the Brexit deal has already cut their mackerel quota by 26 per cent.
Grim mementoes Bomb disposal specialists were called to a house in Dublin’s Fishamble Street to remove explosives found in what has been described as one of the city’s oldest still-inhabited houses. The items, believed to date from the Civil War in the 1920s, were found under floorboards during renovation work.
Portugal: Oil spill Crude oil has been washing up on Algarve beaches, principally at Cabanas Velhas and Boca do Rio, which have been closed to the public while polluted material is sent for testing. Environmentalists believe the spills probably occurred while cleaning containers at sea, a banned practice that many ships ignore.
Lamprey dearth Lampreys, a gourmet delicacy, are disappearing from the River Mondego where their population is now the lowest ever recorded. The lamprey-fishing season will be reduced in 2025 to offset the shortage while there have also been calls to eliminate the nets that prevent them from swimming upstream to spawn.
Sweden: No problem Ten train drivers, who staged a wildcat strike in April 2023 in protest against the removal of guards to check tickets and keep order, will have to pay a fine of 470,000 krona (€41,195). The drivers said they regarded this as a victory, as they had already raised 2 million krona (€175,269) for the strike fund.
In a hurry A man was fined 4,000 kronor (€350.50) for driving at 148 kilometres per hour on a section of the E6 in Angelholm with a 110-kilometre limit. Despite explaining that his wife had gone into labour and he was going to collect her, a district court later said the situation was not a matter of life or death.
