Summary of the day
A mother and child caught in an avalanche in Finnish Lapland have been found dead as extreme cold continues to hit the Nordic countries.
Cold weather and snow continued to cause disruption across the region.
In Sweden, where record low temperatures have been recorded this week, rescue services and the army were working on Thursday morning to free passengers in about 1,000 cars trapped overnight in a snowstorm in the south of the country.
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II rode through the streets of Copenhagen in a horse carriage for the last time as monarch despite the cold weather.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, asked for an MP whose gun was fired at a New Year’s Eve party to be suspended from her far-right Brothers of Italy party.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office has issued an extensive statement on the approval of blessings for same-sex couples, after a December announcement on the issue opened up a rift with African churches.
Serbia’s defence ministry said the country should reintroduce compulsory military service.
The opposition in Serbia doubled down on its campaign to challenge the legitimacy of last month’s elections.
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Serbia’s opposition is doubling down on its campaign to challenge the legitimacy of last month’s elections, after full results gave the country’s ruling party a large win in a parliamentary vote.
Serbia held the snap election, along with local elections, on 17 December, but critics of the government said the vote was fraudulent – in particular in Belgrade, where opposition politicians argue they would have won the city assembly election in a fair race.
The election commission’s numbers “proved that captured institutions in our country are being abused [with the aim of] whitewashing of the electoral fraud and major stomping on the will of our people”, said Borko Stefanović, the deputy president of the Party of Freedom and Justice, part of the Serbia Against Violence coalition.
Concerns about how the elections were conducted prompted several politicians to go on hunger strikes and fuelled tense protests in late December, with at least 38 people detained. An international observation mission also concluded that Serbia’s elections took place under “unjust conditions”.
But opposition politicians say they are not giving up and insist the vote – especially in the capital – must be rerun. “Since our coalition has won in Belgrade, Vučić’s regime is now trying to cover it and to use the silence of our western partners,” said Stefanović. “This shall not pass.”
Read the full story here.
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