News In Brief
AFP, Amsterdam
Austria and Hungary on Saturday warned that if Greece cannot control the flood of refugees arriving from Turkey then the EU should consider reinforcing the borders of their Balkan neighbours.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, whose country has set a refugee cap of 37,500 for this year, said the European Union did not seem to fully realise “how serious the situation is.”
UK Labour leader backs staying in EU
AFP, London
Britain’s opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Saturday that staying in the European Union was in the country’s best interests.
The left-wing veteran, who has displayed a eurosceptic streak throughout his political life, said his party would make the case for a “social Europe” during the referendum campaign.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron wants to finalise a renegotiation of Britain’s terms of membership at an EU summit on February 18 and 19.
Five Czech skiers killed in avalanche
AFP, Vienna
Five skiers from the Czech Republic were killed Saturday in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps that also engulfed 17 other people, police said.
Two of the skiers were injured, but not critically, they added.
The five fatalities, men and women, belonged to two groups of off-piste skiers in a valley south of Innsbruck in western Austria.
101 die in Nigeria from Lassa fever outbreak
AFP, Nigeria
A growing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 101 people, as West Africa battles to contain a flare up of the virus, according to data from the nation’s health authorities released today.
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics show that reported cases of the haemorrhagic disease — both confirmed and suspected — stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths since August.
