Denmark

COPENHAGEN, April 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization said Europe was seeing an “unimaginable human tragedy” at its care homes, where deaths from the new coronavirus accounted for up to 50 percent in some countries.

The WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, called the situation “deeply concerning.”

Speaking at a weekly press conference, Kluge said estimates from some European countries showed that “up to half of those who have died from COVID-19 were residents in long-term care facilities.”

COPENHAGEN, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Denmark is about to make its first move to relax restrictions imposed to fight coronavirus.

From Wednesday, children aged 11 and younger return to schools and nurseries, after a month of closures.

It’s among the first European countries aiming to put the lockdown into gradual reverse, just as it was one of the first to impose restrictions.

“It’s important we don’t keep Denmark closed for longer than we need to,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, as she announced the move last week.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark offered to take over Canada’s leadership of NATO’s non-combat training mission in Iraq from the end of 2020 until mid-2022, the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“With the contribution we will be able to deliver an even stronger effort in our fight against the terror group ISIL by training Iraqis,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.

Denmark will present the offer at a NATO summit in London next week. It would send around 213 people to the mission which trains Iraqi security forces.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Low-cost fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB says it is suspending leather purchases from Brazil in response to the Amazon fires.

The Stockholm-based group says “a temporary ban on leather from Brazil” was linked to “the severe fires in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest and the connections to cattle production.”

H&M said Friday that the ban will remain in place “until there are credible assurances ... that the leather does not contribute to environmental harm in the Amazon.”

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish politicians on Friday poured scorn on the notion of selling Greenland to the United States following reports that President Donald Trump had privately discussed the idea of buying the world’s biggest island with his advisers.

Trump is due to visit Copenhagen in September and the Arctic will be on the agenda during meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

26 June 2019; DW: Danish lawmaker Mette Frederiksen, who heads the Social Democrats, announced on Wednesday that she will lead a left-leaning government. 

"It is with great pleasure I can announce that after three weeks of negotiations, we have a majority to form a new government," said the 41-year-old, who is set to become Denmark's youngest prime minister.

6 June 2019; DW: Denmark's Social Democrats won the largest share of the vote in the country's parliamentary election on Wednesday, with the preliminary results showing populists shedding support.   

Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen of the Liberal Party conceded defeat to the center-left party led by Mette Frederiksen, which appeared to have gained support thanks to its adoption of a tougher stance on immigration. 

Main preliminary election results:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to Sweden for a revived rape investigation, but should still be questioned in the case while he is imprisoned in Britain, a Swedish court ruled Monday.

The ruling by the Uppsala District Court doesn’t mean the preliminary investigation must be abandoned, only that Assange won’t be returned to Sweden any time soon.

Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden’s deputy director of public prosecutions, said she has not decided whether to appeal.

Xing Er and Mao Er, two giant pandas from China, are unloaded from a cargo plane at Kastrup airport in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 4, 2019.

After arriving in Copenhagen on Thursday, the pair of giant pandas Xing Er, a 5-year-old male, and Mao Er, a 4-year-old female, will head to their new home in Copenhagen Zoo for collaborative research.

They will live in Denmark for 15 years, according to the agreement signed between the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens and the zoo in 2017. (Xinhua/Li Pengfei)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — There’s no escape from the long arm of the law in Sweden. Not even sitting naked in a sauna.

Police spokewoman Carina Skagerlind says an off-duty police officer found himself sitting in the same sauna in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb, as a fugitive who had dodged a jail sentence for aggravated assault, among other offenses.

Skagerlind says after recognizing each other, “the naked police officer calmly told the man that he should consider himself arrested.”