A party for the King, in Groningen

Festivities in the name of the Dutch King’s birthday, Willem-Alexander, started on Saturday in Groningen when hundreds of people joined many music events and parties outdoors and indoors, despite the cold weather.

Over the last three days numerous parties and activities were organized all over the Netherlands. In Groningen DJs and music bands, offered music for all tastes. They became the core of the parties, performing day and night in the city center’s most central squares, Vismarkt and Grote markt. Their groovy vibes motivated citizens of every age and every nationality to dance and sing along.

The day Ireland raved

In an unexpected and totally accidental experiment with liberalization, Ireland’s Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that possession of Ecstasy, Ketamine, Crystal Meth, and more than 100 other substances is now 100% legal. People wishing to dig out their old trance CDs and glow sticks should be warned however: after 12am on Thursday, these drugs will be made illegal again.

A Russian Alarm Clock

Reddit user walt_ua was woken up on February 10^th, not by his alarm clock, but by the impact of a BM30 Smerch missile, which smashed through his apartment balcony. His apartment is located in the city of Kramatorsk, 50km from the frontline of fighting in eastern Ukraine, previously considered a ‘safe’ area.

After seeing walt_ua’s post, I invited reddit users from the city of Kramatorsk to share their pictures from the city with me.

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Pushed to the limit

“So that the whole world knows… Mexico is a fallen country, Tamaulipas is a state governed by the drug dealers, what the hell are you waiting for to do something about it???”

 A 26-year-old Mexican from Tampico, shattered by the grief for the kidnapping of his brother and two of his friends, decided to use Facebook to say the names and surnames of the criminals who took them.

The next day for Greece

Alexis Tsipras’ speech after winning the Greek elections

Today, Greece’s new government was officially formed after the Greek president Karolos Papoulias handed a mandate to Alexis Tsipras, leader of Syriza and winner of the elections.

“Hope is what wrote history today. Citizens gave me a powerful andstrong command. Greece leaves behind the strategy of austerity and destruction.  Greece and Greeks must find their lost dignity. The country will move with dignity into a new era. A new era for the whole Europe,” Tsipras mentioned during his first speech after winning the elections yesterday.

A tweet can put you in Jail

Nabeel Rajab, a renowned Bahraini activist and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), was sentenced yesterday to six months in prison for “publicly insulting official institutions.” He had posted a tweet in which he accused the Bahraini soldiers to be fighting for the Islamic State, suggesting the Bahraini institutions as an ideological incubator for terrorism.

The blogger who will receive 1000 lashes due to his writings

Tomorrow Raif Badawi, 31, a Saudi Arabian blogger, will receive another round of lashes. He was sentenced in 2014 to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes. The lashes will last for 19 weeks in total.

Badawi was arrested and accused of apostasy, disaffiliation from a religion, in 2012. He was accused of insulting Islam, through his website, Liberal Saudi Network, which he started in order to encourage political and religious debate in his country. Badawi is already serving his sentence, which entails ten years in prison and 1000 lashes.

Norman Atlantic’s recent tragedy

A few days ago firefighters managed to extinguish all fires in Norman Atlantic, which was towed to Brindisi’s port. Italian authorities entered the ship and started their investigations yesterday.

During the last days of December fire broke out in the lower deck of Norman Atlantic, an Italian ship, while it was travelling from Greece to Italy. The fire turned out to be a tragedy. Due to severe weather conditions and Beaufort of high intensity, it took almost two days for Greek and Italian rescuers to transfer hundreds of passengers to a safe place. Many of them were mainly suffering of hypothermia or mild carbon monoxide poisoning and were immediately taken to the hospital.

A whole mystery is surrounding this tragedy. Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation as the reason that caused the fire is still unknown. In the next few days, investigators will examine the ship’s black boxes in order to find out more about what happened that night.

Modern Day Slavery: Human Trafficking in Dutch Neighborhoods

More than 110 human trafficking offenders were taken into custody by the Dutch police in the last six months, reported the NL Times. Justice Secretary Fred Teeven wrote a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives in November, saying that the fight against human trafficking is therefore “effective.”

But what exactly is human trafficking? The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines the issue as “a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Turkish press crackdown distracts from corruption

The Turkish president Erdoğan ordered the arrest of several politically critical parties, including Turkey’s biggest paper’s editor-in-chief last Sunday.

Zaman’s lead editor Ekrem Dumanli was arrested that afternoon. This sparked a number of protests from both employees and readers, and foreign editor Mustafa Edib Yilmaz was there to witness it all:

If they can do this to the editor-in-chief of the largest newspaper in this country, then only God knows what else they can do to the others.