McCann Suspect May Face More Jail Time After EU Court Ruling

Years of Near-Zero Interest Rates the Latest Bid to Spur Recovery in US, Canada

The Canadian and American central banks are pulling out all the stops to support the economic recovery, with the latest move being their indications that they expect to hold interest rates near zero over the next few years. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, the hoped-for sustained revival in consumer borrowing and spending is anything but certain. In an unprecedented move on Sept. 16, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it doesn’t expect to raise its key interest rate until 2023, providing a very powerful signal that near-zero rates are here to stay for a long time. A week earlier, the Bank of Canada had said, “The Governing Council will hold the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound [0.25 percent] until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2…

BRUSSELS鈥擜 German man whom investigators suspect of murdering British toddler Madeleine McCann and currently jailed for drug dealing may face more prison time after Europe’s top court retroactively cleared his extradition to Germany for a rape charge.

There had been concerns that Christian B., who is seeking parole, may disappear once he has served his sentence for drug dealing in a prison in Kiel in the north of Germany.

McCann Suspect May Face More Jail Time After EU Court Ruling

The 43-year-old German, who lived in the Algarve region of Portugal when 3-year-old Madeleine vanished from her bedroom in 2007, had disputed the validity of the European arrest warrant issued by Germany when he was in Italy because it cited a drugs conviction but not the 2005 rape charge.

The man challenged the warrant even though Germany had in 2018 obtained Italy’s agreement for his extradition to be prosecuted, and tried for rape and extortion.

A German court had subsequently sought guidance from the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The CJEU on Thursday confirmed the procedures for extraditions, which Germany had complied with.

“A measure involving deprivation of liberty taken against a person referred to in a first European Arrest Warrant (EAW) on the basis of a prior offence different from the one which justified his surrender under a second EAW is not contrary to EU law if that person’s departure from the Member State that issued the first EAW was voluntary,” judges said.

“In that context, consent must be given by the executing authorities of the member state which surrendered the prosecuted person on the basis of the second EAW,” they said.

The case is C-195/20 PPU Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof v XC.

By Foo Yun Chee

Focus News: McCann Suspect May Face More Jail Time After EU Court Ruling

Facebook Removes Fake Chinese Accounts That Posted on US Election, Spread Beijing Propaganda

Facebook has shut down more than 180 fake accounts, groups, pages, and Instagram accounts that it determined to be run in China, which posted content on the U.S. presidential election and spread Beijing’s talking points on a range of topics, from the South China Sea to Hong Kong protests. The U.S. social media giant announced the takedown in a blog post published on Sept. 22, saying that these accounts were a violation of its rule against “coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity.” In total, 155 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, nine groups, and six Instagram accounts were shut down. The Instagram app is owned by Facebook. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy and author of the blog post, explained that while people behind these accounts…