Finland will not drop its plans to construct a nuclear power plant with Russia’s Rosatom. The project “will not shake Finland’s reputation” and “shouldn’t be mixed with politics,” Prime Minister Alexander Strubb told Radio Suomi. There are no differences in the Finnish government over the matter, the premier said. [...]

The far-right Swedish Democrats have doubled their support in Sunday's general election because voters want to see something different as such parties provide options for people who do not favor immigration, sociology professor Mikael Hjerm told RT. The results of the September 14 Parliamentary elections in Sweden marked a shift of power, with the center-left Social Democrats achieving victory, [...]

UK airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria could be illegal without the agreement of President Bashar Assad's government or a UN Security Council resolution, according to a House of Commons Library assessment. Prime Minister David Cameron will recall MPs to parliament to outline his plans for deeper military intervention in Iraq and Syria when he returns from the UN General Assembl [...]

Sterling falls sharply to lowest level since November 2013 as surge in support for pro-independence campaign rattles markets. The pound has slumped to a 10-month low after the yes campaign took the lead in the opinion polls just 10 days before the Scottish independence vote. [...]

London - Friday 19 September 2014, the morning after Scotland votes for independence from the UK. And David Cameron said to Alastair Darling, “Stretch out your hand over Scotland so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” So Darling stretched out his staff over Scotland, and Cameron made an east wind blow across the land al [...]

US and UK intelligence services have secret access points for German telecom companies’ internal networks, Der Spiegel reports, citing slides created in the NSA’s ‘Treasure Map’ program used to get near-real-time visualization of the global internet. The latest scandal continues to evolve around the US’ NSA and the British GCHQ, both of which appear to be able to eavesdrop on German g [...]

Europe saw one of the largest demonstrations in recent years: at least 1.8 million people formed an 11km red-yellow line to show their support for the upcoming independence referendum. A mosaic was made in the form of a 'V' for 'vote'. At least 1.8 million Catalans, dressed in red and yellow, the colors of the Catalan flag, gathered on Gran Via and Avenida Diagonal, two of the main streets in B [...]

The BBC faces accusations of anti-independence bias after its political editor, Nick Robinson, produced a report that wrongly claimed Alex Salmond had ignored his question during a heated press conference. Calling into question the impartiality of the publicly-owned broadcaster, the veteran BBC correspondent edited out Salmond’s lengthy answer, in which the First Minister claimed the BBC had [...]

Politicians clashed over the NHS at a Scottish independence debate. “Yes” supporters say independence could save the health service from privatization, while “No” advocates say Scotland can’t afford it alone. Independence is needed to protect against a “nasty, competitive, profit-driven motive” towards the NHS, Scottish Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie said Thursday. [...]

Members from both sides of the US political spectrum say a Yes vote in Scotland's independence referendum may compromise the UK-US strategic relationship. A weakening of Washington's top military ally and the fate of the UK's nuclear arsenal are key. Representative Bradley Sherman [D-CA], who has vocally opposed the prospect of Scotland breaking away from the UK, said America’s foreign policy [...]

The European Commission has suspended its aid to European farmers hit by the Russian import ban. The amount of submitted claims for some products is several times higher than EU’s annual trade with Russia, with some sources blaming Poland for the exaggerations. [...]

Anti-Englishness is driving the Scottish independence campaign, according to UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who says a split from England would fail to give Scots independence from EU bureaucrats in Brussels. Farage, who described PM David Cameron as epitomizing “all that the Scottish people viscerally loathe about England,” said he “has walked straight into a long-planned ambush.” [...]

France may take part in the US bombing campaign in Iraq aimed at crippling the Islamic State militant group if it would be called upon. "In Iraq... we support the formation of an inclusive government. We will participate if necessary in an aerial military action," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday in a speech in Paris. [...]

The majority of German citizens, for the first time in history, insist on less dependence on the United States in terms of their national security and diplomacy, according to a major survey released by the German Marshall Fund think-tank. The study published on Wednesday shows that most Germans want their country to take a more independent position from the United States, especially on issues a [...]

A"truly" international investigation of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine is required, Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said, adding that there are too many blank spots in the newly released Dutch report on the tragedy. The document, released by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) on Tuesday, said that the Malaysian Boeing-777 crash was the result of structural damage caused by a l [...]

Ukraine's state-controlled gas transit company says Poland cut off reverse flows to Ukraine, alleging that a quarter of Russian gas imports to Poland went missing. Gazprom said it continues to supply the same amount of gas as previously. Uktransgaz CEO Igor Prokopiv accused Russia of reducing supplies to "disrupt reverse deliveries" from Poland. [...]

A group of high-profile trade unions have backed a growing campaign opposed to a new transatlantic trade deal critics claim will make the privatization of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) irreversible. Three of the UK’s largest unions have tendered motions to the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Liverpool, outlining their opposition to the cross-border agreement currently being negotiated [...]

Three of Britain's mainstream party leaders have temporarily abandoned their seats of power in Westminster to travel to Scotland. The trip is part of a last-ditch effort to sway Scottish opinion toward a "No"™ vote in the upcoming independence referendum. Journeying separately and addressing different audiences throughout Scotland on Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberal Democrat le [...]

The Austrian authorities have stopped two schoolgirls who were willing to leave the country and join the jihadists in the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). A third girl was planning to join them, but was stopped by her mother. A 14-year-old girl and her friend, 15, both from Vienna, were earlier reported missing, said Interior Ministry official Alexander Marakovits. [...]

After international summits end, there is always a collective sigh of relief. So it was with the NATO meeting in Wales that ended on September 5. All NATO leaders got something out of the Euro-Atlantic gathering, even if it wasn’t what they had wanted during the run-up to the summit. There were reassurances for NATO’s Eastern European members and promises of technical assistance to Ukraine [...]

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Germany to increase spending to spur the eurozone's flagging economic recovery, and said that a number of structural reforms are needed to revive the bloc’s growth. "We think that public or private investment (in Germany) to finance infrastructure would be welcome," Lagarde told French daily Les Echos in an interview o [...]

Surging support for Scottish independence saw the pound fall to a 10-month low. The head of the "Better Together" campaign, however, denies panic among the ranks despite a plan to grant Scotland more powers if Scots reject independence. The latest opinion poll, conducted by YouGov and the Sunday Times, put the pro-independence movement in the lead for [...]