News

Austria must give compensation to an ex-policeman who was dismissed in 1976 for sexual indecency with two minor boys aged 14 and 15 . He had lost 25% of his police pension, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The age of consent was 18 for male homosexuals at the time.

The man also got a three-month suspended jail term. Although the penalty was not challenged, the ECJ said that he was owed his lost pension, going back to December 2003. This case is a reminder that the anti-gay prejudice was rife in 1970’s. The Policeman had a service of 13 years before he got dismissed.

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News

Evie Amati (26), who attacked two people with an axe in an Australian convenience store has been jailed. After entering the 7-Eleven store, Amati used the axe to strike a man in the face and a woman in the back of the head. Both victims suffered serious injuries. The attack happened in Sydney in January 2017. She tried for an attack at a third customer also, but he was not injured.

Amati had pleaded not guilty, arguing that her mental had declined before the time of the attack, but this was rejected by the court. She tried to claim that her mental health had declined since she started taking hormones to transition from male to female.

The victims to this case reported to the court that they thought
Amati had come from a costume party when she entered the store about 02:00 on 7 January last year. Jury rejected her lawyer’s argument that she was suffering from “mental derangement”. Amati will be eligible for parole in 2021.S

Sunaya Paison
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Games

Dmitri Voloshin, an athlete from Moldova sets record for running 50 km in -60 degree weather. Dmitri Voloshin, had been a part of the charity run earlier this month in the Oymyakon district of the Sakha Republic, northeastern Russia. The race was finished in six hours.

Voloshin was the first athlete to run this distance at such a low temperature without any medical aid and rescuers. “It was very difficult to breathe — too little oxygen in the air, and the mask clogged with ice. Here my free diving experience of holding breath came in handy,” said Voloshin. He also added that, at the times when he felt he wanted to stop, thinking about his family helped him to overcome the situation. The IronMan triathlon world championship and swimming across the Strait of Gibraltar are his other achievements.

Sunaya Paison
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News Politics

After Brexit Humiliation, British PM Theresa May survives the Confidence Vote. MPs voted 325 to 306 that they had confidence in May’s Government. The Brexit deal proposed by Theresa May, regarding Britain’s exit from European Union was not a success.

This situation lead to a lack of confidence in continuing May’s government. She must now return to Parliament on Monday to present lawmakers with some sort of “Plan B” for exiting the 28-member union.

The decision regarding Britain’s exit from European Union has to be made within 29th of March. Britain has to give a huge amount to EU as per the agreement. Britain claims for the exit from EU without the agreement, and this is would lead to great complications. It is expected that Theresa May would be leaving to Brasil for discussions regarding this.S

Sunaya Paison
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News

The European Commission pushed back plans to end individual member states’ veto power on the introduction of a proposed tax on digital revenues by five years to 2025. The EU executive suggested that the EU states should take an immediate decision on ending the veto or not, particularly in some sectors such as environment levies.

The progress of the digital tax is blocked by some EU states, and for them, the decision to end the veto could be taken by the end of 2025, it said, pushing back the deadline from 2020.

Pierre Moscovici, the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner said that unanimous decisions don’t protect the national sovereignty of members states, going after an argument often used by critics.

In an important step back from initial plans, the EU Executive led by former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, decided to dismiss a legal procedure that could make tax reforms easier to agree. This leads to encourage the lawmakers to dub the move as a “smokescreen”.

The veto power has blocked many important tax reforms. This includes the energy issues, where the EU still allows subsidies to diesel.

The EU document said that the cost of the vetoes on tax reforms overall are in the hundreds of billions of euros a year.


Sunaya Paison
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Entertainment

The 2019 Küstendorf International Film And Music Festival is on from 11th to 16th January in Drvengrad, Mokra Gora. Organized by Rasta International under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, Küstendorf focuses on emerging filmmakers and the greats of world auteur film. Young directors from Switzerland, Australia, Serbia, Norway, Republic of Srpska, Poland, Russia, Israel, France, Germany, Iran, Mexico, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey, and The Philippines, and their films compete for the Festival awards ‒ Gold, Silver and Bronze Egg respectively.

Sunaya Paison
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