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The Dutch government has spent more than €166 million dealing with the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, according to an official report Thursday.
The massive expense reflects the Netherlands' involvement in everything from repatriating victims' bodies to investigating and prosecuting some of those involved in the disaster.
The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on 17 July 2014, using a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels.
The strike killed 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch citizens.
A Dutch court convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian in November 2022 of involvement in the incident and sentenced them to life imprisonment. However, they were tried in absentia, and have not been detained to serve their sentences.
The court ruled that the missile and its launcher were driven into Ukraine from a military base in Russia and the launcher returned to Russia afterward.
People inspect the MH17 crash site near the village of Hrabove in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine, 2014. Dmitry Lovetsky/Copyright 2014 The AP. All rights reserved
According to the Netherlands Court of Audit, which calculated costs through the end of 2022, repatriating and identifying the bodies of those killed cost more than €31 million, while international legal proceedings and diplomacy accounted for €5.7 million.
But the domestic trial and the massive international investigation that preceded it cost a total of more than €87 million, the audit found.
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The total also does not include about €16.5 million that the Dutch government paid to next of kin last year as an advance on compensation that the court had ordered the three convicted men to pay.
"This compensation should ultimately be paid by the perpetrators, but it is open to question whether they will," the report said.
The Dutch government asked the independent auditor to estimate the costs as it intends to seek compensation from Russia in a case the Netherlands and Australia filed at the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Moscow denies any involvement in the MH17 disaster, and has spent the last decade circulating various debunked and mutually contradictory theories as to what happened.
The Dutch government also is supporting families who have brought a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights.
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More than half of Denmark's drinking water supplies are contaminated with pesticides and other toxins, a new report has revealed.
The investigation commissioned by Danske Regioner, which covers Denmark's five regions, also found that one in ten water sources exceeds acceptable levels for various dangerous substances.
“The contamination of Danish drinking water has reached a critical point," the organisation said in a press release. "If we want clean drinking water for our children, something must be done now."
Danske Regioner sent a letter to the Danish minister for the environment, Magnus Heunicke, warning of the threats to the country's water supplies.
Several waterworks are in the process of purifying their drinking water to eliminate residues of pesticides and other toxins.
Meanwhile, geologists have warned that Copenhagen is using up to 2.5 times more water than is considered sustainable.
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Iran will hold parliamentary elections on Friday amid widespread discontent over the country’s failing economy, but it’s likely that few voters will turn out at the ballot.
Iranians will be voting to elect members to the 290-seat Parliament, formally known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Terms run for four years, and five seats are reserved for Iran’s religious minorities.
Separately, Iranians will vote to fill the Assembly of Experts, whose 88 members serve eight-year terms on a panel that will appoint the country’s next supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who’s now 84.
But as the country's political climate remains tense, many Iranians said they won’t be taking part.
Poor and exhausted
Iran recently faced nationwide mass protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of the country’s morality police in September 2022. The protests were repressed by authorities, who have increased their clampdown on dissent.
The country has also faced growing tensions with the West over its nuclear programme and its support for Russia in its war in Ukraine.
While Iranian authorities have encouraged people to go to the ballot on Friday, the state-owned polling centre ISPA has not yet released any information on the election’s expected turnout.
Out of 21 Iranians interviewed by the Associated Press, only five said they would be voting on Friday. Three said they were undecided, while 13 said they wouldn’t vote.
Iranian women at an election rally wave posters of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini Vahid Salemi/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved
Some mentioned the poor state of the country’s economy as a reason for their disengagement. Inflation is reportedly at around 50%, with unemployment around 20% for young Iranians.
“If I protest about some shortcoming, many police and security agents will try to stop me,” said Amin, a 21-year-old university student who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals. “But if I die from hunger on the corner of one of the main streets, they will show no reaction.”
Morteza, a 53-year-old taxi driver who gave only his first name for fear of reprisal, also expressed disenchantment.
“Why should I vote?” he asked. “I voted many times in the past yet I am paying for the schooling of my three daughters. ... I am still a renter and continuously I keep moving to a poorer area.”