内容摘要：Spain's centre-left government, meanwhile, is taking a very different road. Its Social Democrat prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, loves pointing out the Spanish economy was the fastest growing amongst rich nations last year.

Spain's centre-left government, meanwhile, is taking a very different road. Its Social Democrat prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, loves pointing out the Spanish economy was the fastest growing amongst rich nations last year.

The Met said the number included situations where police could not find an expert witness or were not able to obtain a required medical statement and to suggest it was simply down to lost evidence was misleading.It acknowledged that on "a rare number of occasions" evidence is misplaced, adding: "We continue to make improvements to our recording systems to minimise this risk."

The NPCC said: "When evidential issues occur in a case, the CPS will raise this with police for any action deemed necessary and we will work together to ensure these are resolved wherever possible."The results of a consultation by the Law Commission, which proposed re-establishing a national forensic service and making the mishandling of evidence a criminal offence in some circumstances, are set to go before Parliament next week.From the moment I arrived in Praia da Luz on Monday the word on everyone's lips was "closure".

All the long-term residents of the sleepy Atlantic resort told me closure was what they were hoping for. From the English woman who lived at the time above the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, to the former neighbour of the main suspect in the case.They all said: "We hope her family get closure".

Of course, any chance of a really positive outcome disappeared years ago. Closure now would mean either finding Madeleine McCann's body, or finding her living with another family, unable to remember her parents or her younger twin siblings.

But, frustrated as residents are when the world's media return to Praia da Luz - year after year at the same time that purple flowers appear on the jacaranda trees - they do understand the unbearable pain that Kate and Gerry McCann must feel.Asylum claim applications are certainly down in Denmark, in stark contrast to much of the rest of Europe. The number, as of May 2025, is the lowest in 40 years, according to immigration.dk, an online information site for refugees in Denmark.

But Nordic Denmark is certainly not what's seen as a frontline state - like Italy - where people smugglers' boats frequently wash up along its shores."Frederiksen is in a favourable geographical position," argues Europe professor, Timothy Garton Ash, from Oxford University. But he also praises Denmark's prime minister for addressing the problem of migration, without adopting "hysterical rhetoric".

But others say new legislation has damaged Denmark's reputation for respecting international humanitarian law and the rights of asylum-seekers. Michelle Pace of Chatham House says it has become hard to protect refugees in Denmark, where "the legal goalposts keep moving."Danish citizens with a migrant background have also been made to feel like outsiders, she notes.