DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Indian sailor Abhilash Tomy rescued at sea after injury The French vessel Osiris found and rescued Indian sailor Abhilash Tomy on Monday after racing 740 kilometers (460 miles) through the Indian Ocean to reach the stranded 39-yearold. Tomy was taking part in the Golden Globe race around the world when his yacht was damaged and its mast broken in a storm on Friday. The Indian navy commander sustained a serious back injury. After boats from the French vessel managed to extract Tomy from his vessel, Indian reporter Shiv Aroor said the commander was "doing okay, conscious & in good spirits." Earlier, Australian authorities said Tomy was trapped in his bunk, communicating with rescuers via text. However, his main satellite phone was damaged in the storm and his injury made it impossible for him to reach the second satellite phone or the radio, and the batteries on the devices he had been using were running low.
European Union takes Poland to court over judicial reform The European Commission issued a statement on Monday saying Polandʼs law on the Supreme Court, which lowers the retirement age of judges to 70 from 65, effectively forcing 27 of the 72 sitting judges into retirement, was "incompatible with EU law as it undermines the principle of judicial independence." It goes on to say that Poland does not "fulfil its obligations" of the "Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union." The EUʼs executive sees Polandʼs judicial reforms as detrimental to the EUʼs legal order, "creating a risk of serious and irreparable damage to judicial independence in Poland."
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Angela Merkel admits mistakes in row over spy chief German Chancellor Angela Merkel has apologized for mistakes
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has apologized for mistakes in the handling of the controversy over ex-intelligence chief HansGeorg Maassen. She says the coalition will now focus on "solving peopleʼs problems." Angela Merkel conceded that the coalitionʼs decision to removeexintelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen from his postonly to reward him with a higher-paid job, and effectively, apromotion to a post in the Interior Ministry"could not convince people." In an unprecedented move, she admitted that she had been too focused on the "proceedings in the Interior Ministry" and had not paid enough attention to "what people are rightly preoccupied with when they hear about a promotion." "Iʼm sorry that we allowed that to happen," she said at a news conference. She stressed that the solution the coalition found for Maassen, who is now going to be a consultant to the Interior Ministry, was "appropriate" and was more likely to be seen as reasonable by the public "precisely because it is not a promotion." DW political correspondent Simon Young said the admission "should help calm things
down, as it is not very often that chancellor comes out to make a public apology." Merkel also said the coalition needed to focus on "solving peopleʼs problems" as "we have been too preoccupied with ourselves in many areas." "That has got to change," she added, citing Brexit, digitalization, the care sector and diesel regulations as some of the issues that need to be tackled. Maassen made headlines earlier this month when he called into question the veracity of footage showingfarright sympathizers chasing people in the eastern city of Chemnitz. Shortly thereafter, he was criticized over reports that he had passed sensitive information aboutIslamic extremism to the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Despite this, his boss, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer stood behind him, marking the latest in a series of conflicts between the Bavarian conservative and Merkel.
Deadly storm brings major disruption to Germany Germanyʼs firstmajor autumn storm devastated southern and central parts of the country on Sunday. Storm "Fabienne" claimed the life of a 78-yearold German woman, who died after being struck by a falling tree at a campsite in Bavaria. Meanwhile, in the neighboring German state of Baden-Württemberg, violent winds blew a large beech tree onto a car in which a four-year-old boy was sitting. According to officials, the child suffered severe head injuries and was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he remains in critical condition. The south of Hesse, parts of Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony were all particularly badly hit by "Fabienne" Several roads across Germany were closed as authorities cleared away fallen trees, whilerailway operator Deutsche Bahnsaid that several tracks and overhead lines in the south of the country had been damaged in the storm.
Russia to supply Syria with S-300 defense systems yrian regime troops willreceive S-300 missile defense systemsfrom Russia within the next two weeks, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday. The modernized version of the Soviet-era system "is capable of intercepting aerial attacks at the distance of over 250 kilometers and simultaneously countering several targets," the minister said. The move comes after Moscow blamed Israel for indirectly causingthe destruction of Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane last week.
weather today BUDAPEST
10 / 17 °C Precipitation: 0 mm