Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Denmark's government on Friday proposed new restrictions to curb the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant, saying it now accounted for a fifth of new daily coronavirus cases registered, but shied away from instituting a full lockdown.

The new restrictions, which will need approval from parliament, include closing theatres, cinemas, entertainment parks and conference centres, as well as measures to limit large crowds in stores and shops just seven days before Christmas.

14 Dec 2021; MEMO: Fuel supplier Bunker Holding, its chief executive and its subsidiary were convicted by a Danish local court today for breaching European Union sanctions by selling jet fuel to war-torn Syria, court documents showed, Reuters reports.

COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Former Danish immigration minister Inger Stojberg, known for her hardline stance in that role, was handed a 60-day prison sentence on Monday by an impeachment court for having illegally ordered the separation of under-age couples seeking asylum.

Stojberg was accused of knowingly breaking the law in 2016 by ordering the separation of all asylum-seeking refugee couples where at least one was under 18 years of age, a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

COPENHAGEN, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iceland's current government coalition, consisting of three parties from the left to the right, has agreed to continue for another term after they bolstered their majority in a Sept 25 general election.

Katrin Jakobsdottir of the Left-Green Movement will stay on as Prime Minister of the government, which has provided a period of stability since 2017 after years of political scandals and distrust of politicians following the 2008 financial crisis.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish lawmakers will vote next week on whether Magdalena Andersson, who briefly became the country’s first female prime minister before resigning after a budget defeat, can form a minority government, the parliament speaker said Thursday.

20 Oct 2021; MEMO: An online petition which demands that Denmark should stop the Syrian repatriation policy that puts in danger the residency of a number of Syrian refugees living in the country, got the required number of signatures to be submitted to Parliament, AFP reports.

According to the report, the petition, defending the rights of Syrian people who escape from the war-torn country, has been signed by more than 53,000 people. It needed 50,000 signatures for Parliament to consider it.

11 Oct 2021; MEMO: Syrian refugee families in Denmark have reportedly been fleeing to the Netherlands in an effort to escape the possibility of being deported back to Syria, as Copenhagen continues to deem Syria as safe enough under the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Tuesday she will step down as head of a three-party, minority center-right government after a left-leaning bloc won last month’s parliamentary election. The leader of Norway’s Labor Party, Jonas Gahr Stoere, is expected to take over later this week.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The leader of Norway’s Labor Party is to start talks Tuesday in an attempt to build a coalition after the center-left bloc beat the incumbent Conservatives and won Norway’s general elections.

With all votes now counted, the Labor Party and its two left-leaning allies — the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party — grabbed 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. The last seat is going to a northern Norway health-focused protest party, Pasientfokus.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Denmark has become the only European country with no coronavirus-related restrictions in place, as vaccine rates have reached more than 70 percent of the population.

The return to normality has been gradual, but as of Friday, the digital pass proof of having been vaccinated is no longer required when entering nightclubs, making it the last COVID-19 safeguard to fall.

“It’s quite liberating that Denmark no longer has restrictions.”