Navigate / search

Catalonia Fines Airbnb, Threatens to Block Locals From Using Site

MADRID—Tapas, shopping, beaches, the famous Gaudi architecture: Catalonia, and in particular its capital Barcelona, has a lot to entice tourists with. But a chance to live like a local and rent a room through Airbnb may soon no longer be one of them.

Catalonia’s regional government said Tuesday that Airbnb is in “serious” breach of regional law and that it has ordered the company to pay €30,000 ($41,000) in fines within the month or begin adhering to Catalan law.

$30 Million Bounty Offered for MH17 Attackers as Ukraine Turmoil Continues

A German company is offering a $30 million bounty for the identities of the individuals responsible for downing Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine this summer.

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine are suspected of firing surface-to-air missiles at the civilian aircraft, which crashed July 17 while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board. A preliminary report carried out by Dutch investigators said that the crash was the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck the Boeing plane from the outside.

Video Emerges of Ukraine Military and Separatists Clashing at Donetsk Airport

Ukrainian military forces and separatist fighters exchanged fire at Donetsk Airport on Wednesday, as the fragile ceasefire between the Kiev government and breakaway factions in eastern Ukraine frayed further.

The video released by pro-Russia news organization Novorossiya TV shows separatist fighters trading fire with an armored vehicle near the airport. Four minutes into the clip an explosion ignites close to the cameraman, following several minutes of the fighters shooting at the distant vehicles.

Blackmailers Are Threatening the Czech Republic with Ebola for Bitcoin Payment

Anonymous blackmailers are threatening to spread Ebola in the Czech Republic if the country’s government does not pay them a million euros, in Bitcoin.

An email allegedly from the blackmailers, published on Monday by the country’s top commercial TV station TV Nova, claimed they had “biological material” from an infected patient in Liberia.

“An unknown perpetrator or perpetrators are blackmailing this state, threatening to spread the Ebola virus,” Zdenek Laube, the country’s deputy police chief, told reporters, according to AFP.