France’s transport strike to continue over holiday period
France entered its eighth day of strikes on Thursday and the industrial action shows no signs of abating – not even for the holiday season. A major labour union said on Thursday there would be no break in transport strikes over the Christmas period unless the government backed down on pension reform. “No Christmas break unless the government comes to its senses”, Laurent Brun, head of CGT’s railway branch, said on French radio Franceinfo. “There is a great determination to go all the way. A few weeks of pain are better than a life of misery – that’s what we are defending,” Brun continued. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday that French people needed to work two years longer to get a full pension. The plans drew a hostile response from trade unions who said they would step up strike action to force an about-turn.
Police in Denmark make arrests over suspected terror plot
Police in Denmark have arrested 20 people in connection with suspected preparations for an Islamist terrorist attack. They said several raids were made throughout the country on Wednesday and that suspects were arrested for trying to obtain explosives and firearms. The raids were mounted on the suspicion that several people had been planning an attack, the Danish intelligence service said in a news conference with police. “It is our assessment, that those people are driven by a militant, Islamist motive,” operational chief of the intelligence service, Flemming Drejer, said. Some of those arrested would face preliminary questioning on Thursday on charges of terrorism. Denmark has not seen a militant attack since 2015 when two people were killed and six police officers were wounded. In that incident, a lone gunman shot and killed a man outside a culture centre hosting a debate on freedom of speech, and later killed a person outside a Jewish synagogue in central Copenhagen. The gunman was killed in a shoot-out with police.
Erdogan says Turkey aims to settle 1 million refugees in Syria offensive area
Turkey aims to settle one million Syrian war refugees in the area of northern Syria where it carried out a military incursion in October, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. He told that Ankara would finance the resettlement on its own if allies did not provide support. Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies launched the offensive against the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara views as a terrorist group. After seizing a strip of land inside Syria 120 km long and around 30 km wide running from the town of Ras al Ain to Tel Abyad, Turkey signed separate deals with the United States and Russia to halt its assault. Turkey had previously said it could settle up to 2 million Syrian refugees in a 444-km-long “safe zone” it aimed to form in northeastern Syria, and repeatedly urged NATO allies to provide financial aid for the plans.
Turkey currently hosts more than 3.5 million refugees from neighbouring Syria’s 8,5-year-old war. Turkish officials have not indicated when any resettlement of refugees would beg