Interpol picks S Korean as chief over his Russian rival

Interpol has announced  that Kim Jong-yang of South Korea had been chosen as its new president, beating a Russian official whose candidacy had unnerved Western nations.The US-backed Kim, acting president of the global police body, was picked at a meeting of delegates from member nations in Dubai to replace Meng Hongwei, who went missing in his native China in September. There had been growing calls within Western nations for Interpol to reject Russian candidate Alexander Prokopchuk-a Russian interior ministry official and current Interpol vice president-over fears Moscow could abuse the role to target political opponents.

Olive oil spills beans on drug smuggling plot in Portugal

Who would bring a suitcase full of olive oil to Portugal, one of the world’s biggest producers of the stuff? Police at Lisbon airport were already suspicious of one passenger before they discovered 24 bottles of extra virgin olive oil marked as Argentinian-made in his luggage. “We had information that the man could be a trafficker, so he was stopped for checks, but the fact that he was coming to Portugal with a bunch of olive oil definitely reinforced our suspicions, which proved to be right,” a police official said. The oil was found to be mixed with cocaine. The amount of the drug suspended in the oil would be enough for 33,000 individual doses, he said. The man was arrested.

May to return to Brussels for talks ahead of crunch summit

Theresa May will return to Brussels for Brexit talks this weekend as the UK and EU strive to do a deal in time for Sunday’s summit of European leaders. Prime minister May said progress was being made on the future shape of EU-UK relations. Spain has said it will not agree to the Brexit deal unless changes are made to the wording over Gibraltar. Mrs May spoke to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and said discussions would continue following “good engagement” between the countries and the government of Gibraltar, according to a Downing Street spokesperson. London and Brussels have already agreed the draft terms of the UK’s exit from the EU on 29 March 2019 – a 585-page document covering citizens’ rights, financial issues and the Irish border.