Month: May 2020

A Ukrainian court has found a university student guilty of torching an RFE/RL reporter’s car, a decision that the media organization’s president said brings prosecutors closer to apprehending the organizers of the premeditated crime.   A court in the western city of Lviv on May 25 handed down a suspended five-year sentence with a three-year probation period …

Read more “Ukrainian Court Finds Lviv Student Guilty of Torching RFE/RL Reporter’s Car “

Two Uzbek sports journalists have left their positions after criticizing the state-run television channel for its coverage of the aftermath of a devastating dam failure earlier in May that killed at least four people and displaced tens of thousands of others.Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of Sport TV and Radio told RFE/RL on …

Read more “Uzbek Sports Journalists Ousted After On-Air Comments About Dam Failure”

The worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 350,000. The milestone comes as South Korea announced Wednesday its highest number of new cases in 49 days. Authorities are focusing on testing workers from e-commerce giant Coupang after dozens of cases were linked to a company site outside of Seoul. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and …

Read more “Coronavirus Deaths Top 350,000 Worldwide”

Greece is mobilizing forces to boost defenses along its land frontiers with Turkey. The move as Turkey threatens to resume the flow of thousands of migrants to Europe through Greece. The deployment also follows plans by Greece to expand its border fence in the contentious border region. Officials in Athens say they are deploying more than …

Read more “Greece Deploys Forces to Build Fence on Turkish Border “

The British Health Ministry announced a new trial Tuesday of the anti-viral drug remdesivir as a treatment for patients with COVID-19.Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock holds the daily coronavirus disease news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, May 21, 2020.At his usual COVID briefing in London, Health Minister Matt Hancock called trials for the …

Read more “Britain Begins Trials for Drug Remdesivir on COVID-19 Patients ”

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) says Russia recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian state-sponsored, private military contractors, who are helping forces fighting the U.N.-supported Libyan government.The Russian fighter aircraft arrived at al-Jufra Airfield in Libya from an airbase in Russia after a stop in Syria where they were repainted to camouflage their …

Read more “AFRICOM: Russia Deploys Fighter Jets to Libya”

With shops, hairdressers and other places opening again across Europe, business owners are working overtime to ensure they will make up the lost income after two months of closure. But few believe this spike in pent-up business signals a post-crisis boom.Wils Wolvers — whose salon outside of The Hague has been operating for the past 14 years …

Read more “Europe’s Businesses Work Overtime, but Are They Booming? “

Italy’s new contact tracing app for the coronavirus is about to be launched in a number of pilot regions. It will be available to everyone in the country on a voluntary basis and will guarantee the privacy of users, officials who commissioned its development say.   Italians will be able to download the contact tracing …

Read more “Italy’s New COVID-19 App Tracks Contacts and Protects Privacy”

Merck & Co Inc, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.   It also announced a partnership with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral …

Read more “Merck Leaps Into COVID-19 Development Fray with Vaccine, Drug Deals”

Kazakhstan on Monday eased some restrictions on tightly-controlled public demonstrations but rights groups said they still fell short of international standards.Until now, protesters in the energy-rich country needed to apply for permission to hold a rally, and permits for political demonstrations were almost never granted.According to the legislation signed into law by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev …

Read more “Kazakhstan Adopts Controversial Law on Protests”

The tourism industry is slowly being revived in some European countries with new precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.Greece, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, reopened cafes and restaurants Monday under new social distancing guidelines.Travel to previously closed islands also resumed Monday, but thus far applies to domestic tourists, as the country is not …

Read more “Greece, Spain Slowly Reopen Tourism Industries”

Russian prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to find former Marine Paul Whelan guilty of espionage — a charge Whelan and U.S. officials vehemently deny — and sentence him to 18 years in prison.Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said on May 25 that the Moscow City Court set June 15 as the date to hand down …

Read more “Russian Prosecutors Seek Long Jail Term for Ex-US Marine on Spying Charges”

Greece restarted regular ferry services to its islands Monday, and cafes and restaurants were also back open for business as the country accelerated efforts to salvage its tourism season. Travel to the islands had been generally off-limits since a lockdown was imposed in late March to halt the spread of the coronavirus, with only goods …

Read more “In Race for Tourism, Greece Reopens Cafes, Island Ferries”

Vietnam has one of the only economies in the world that will grow in 2020, a distinction to be boosted as it heads into a final vote on its trade deal with Europe this week. The National Assembly of Vietnam scheduled a vote on the long-awaited deal for Thursday. The European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement …

Read more “Vietnam to Vote on EU Trade Deal as Economy Emerges from Virus”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is defending one of his top advisers who has come under scrutiny for violating travel lockdowns.   Johnson said he would not fire adviser Dominic Cummings, who drove 400 kilometers to his parents’ house from London while he and his wife were sick with the novel coronavirus.   Opposition politicians …

Read more “UK’s Johnson Won’t Fire Adviser Over Lockdown Violations”

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is expected to reach 100,000 in a few days.  To mark the solemn landmark, the front page of the print version of the Sunday New York Times is a simple list of names of dead victims of the disease and brief personal details about them scoured from media …

Read more “New York Times Marks ‘Incalculable Loss’ in US COVID Deaths”