PRESS EUROPEAN

Denmark

Going home

DENMARK will reduce its military presence in Iraq in early 2024 in order to focus on Baltic countries. “We must prepare for a long-term Danish presence in the Baltic to establish a balance between soldiers on the ground and readiness to deploy them from Denmark,” Poulsen said.

The Netherlands

Hot stuff

THE meteorological office in De Bilt, (Utrecht) in the centre of the country, registered the Netherlands’ first warm day on May 4 when the temperature rose briefly to 20 degrees for the first time this year. Weather is deemed officially warm once the temperature rises above 20 degrees.

Belgium

Party time

MORE than 10,000 people attended an unauthorised rave at a disused airbase in Sint-Truiden at the end of April after the organisers broke into the base. Police set up roadblocks to stem the flow of revellers but admitted they were powerless to evacuate so many people from the site.

Germany

Fax and figures

EIGHTY-TWO per cent of German companies still use fax machines, according to a survey of firms with at least 20 employees carried out by digital association Bitkom. A third of those taking part in the survey said they continued to use the fax machines “frequently or very frequently.”

France

Nuclear pact

FRANCE and Japan signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in Paris on May 3 which pledged to ‘deepen and accelerate ties’ in researching and developing next-generation fast reactors, while continuing to work on the safe life extension of existing reactors and the decommissioning of nuclear plants.

Norway

High hopes

NORWEGIAN Kristin Harila, 37, the fastest female to climb the world’s 14 highest mountains, now aims to beat a male climber’s 2019 record. She successfully scaled Mount Cho Oyu and Mount Shishapangma in China and has arrived in Kathmandu (Nepal) where she will begin climbing this month.