DENMARK ““ (BBC) Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world’s first “˜fat tax’ ““ a surcharge on foods that are high in saturated fat. Foods such as butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil, and processed foods are now subject to tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat. Some consumers have begun hoarding these foods to avoid the extra costs, while other Danes have already begun to shop abroad. Danish officials hope the new tax will help limit the population’s intake of fatty foods.
FRANCE ““ (CNN) A French woman seized in northern Kenya was taken to Somalia by her captors after a sea battle to rescue her failed, said Kenyan government officials. Gunmen snatched the woman early Saturday from her home in Manda Island. The woman is in her sixties and lives in Kenya for approximately six months out of every year. French authorities are doing everything in their power to free her. Kenyan security minister George Saitoti has said “every effort is being made to rescue the victim.”
ITALY – (Forbes) Amanda Knox, an American student who had been convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007, has been released from prison. An Italian court has thrown out Knox’s 2009 conviction, bringing her four-year prison sentence to an end. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, has also been acquitted of all charges and released. The pair faced twenty-six and twenty-five years in prison, respectively, if convicted of further charges.
NETHERLANDS ““ (BBC) A ban on foreign tourists has come into play in cannabis-selling coffee shops of the Dutch border city of Maastricht. City authorities say the influx of tourists is threatening public order and causing problems within the city. The ban does not apply to visitors from Germany or Belgium who, ironically, comprise the majority of foreign customers to the area. The move comes ahead of a proposed nationwide crackdown under discussion in the Dutch parliament. The ban in Maastricht may serve as a test case for implementation in other Dutch towns and cities in the future.
NORWAY ““ (Daily Mail) Norway has reopened the island of Utøya for the first time since the mass killings in July by Anders Behring Breivik. Officials declared that holiday camps will resume and that more than £3. 5 million has been donated for island renovations. The island will open to larger parts of the public in time, but officials have asked that it receive respect as the site of the killings. Adrian Pracon, a 21-year-old survivor of the July attacks, believes reopening the island is important so “people understand what happened there.” A commemorative monument is planned for the island.
TURKEY ““ (BBC) An explosion outside of a Turkish military police headquarters has left one person dead. Two others were wounded in the attack in Goynuk. Local media suggest the possibility of a suicide bomber triggering the blast as he approached the checkpoint outside of the building. In recent years, Turkey’s main cities have seen similar attacks, for which the Kurdish insurgent movement typically receives blame. Turkey has responded to the attack with a police crackdown on suspected rebel sympathizers and air strikes on Kurdish sites in northern Iraq.
