Moscow expelled 20 Czech diplomats on Sunday in a confrontation over Czech allegations that two Russian spies accused of a nerve agent poisoning in Britain in 2018 were behind an earlier explosion at a Czech ammunition depot that killed two people.On Saturday, Prague ordered 18 Russian diplomats to leave the country, prompting Russia to vow …
Read more “Russia Expels 20 Czechs After Blast Blamed on Skripal Suspects”
A company in Wales has found a way to repurpose discarded personal protective equipment, or PPE, to help keep it out of landfills amid the coronavirus pandemic. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …
Clashes between a recently banned Islamist party and police in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, reportedly left at least two people dead and scores of others wounded Sunday.Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was demanding that Pakistan expel the French ambassador over the French president’s remarks defending freedom of expression regarding caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Police from Punjab province …
Read more “In Pakistan, Clashes Between Police, Islamists Reportedly Leave 2 Dead “
Allies of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny announced nationwide protests for this Wednesday — after the opposition figure’s family and personal doctors released blood analysis results that suggested Navalny was at high risk of cardiac arrest or kidney failure barring immediate care. The planned protests fall on the same day that President Vladimir Putin …
Read more “Russian Opposition Calls for Protests as Navalny’s Health Worsens “
Germany held a national memorial service on Sunday for its nearly 80,000 victims of the coronavirus pandemic, with the president urging the country to put aside deep divisions over COVID restrictions to share the pain of grieving families. Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier joined an ecumenical service in the morning at Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm …
Read more “Germany Calls for Unity as it Mourns COVID Dead “
Pope Francis on Sunday voiced apprehension over a recent Russian troop buildup near the border with Ukraine and called for efforts to ease tensions in the 7-year conflict in eastern Ukraine pitting Ukrainian forces against Russia-backed rebels.Ukrainian authorities say cease-fire violations have become more frequent in recent weeks, with nearly 30 troops killed this year. …
Read more “Pope Calls on Russia, Ukraine to Seek Reconciliation”
World powers should draw “clear red lines” with Russia and consider possible sanctions against Moscow when they’re crossed, French President Emmanuel Macron told U.S. news network CBS in an interview.”We have to define clear red lines with Russia,” Macron said, according to a video excerpt of the interview to be aired later on Sunday.”This is …
Read more “CBS: France’s Macron says ‘Clear Red Lines’ Should be Drawn with Russia”
A judge on Saturday ordered former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial on kidnapping charges for having refused to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people onboard at sea for days.Judge Lorenzo Iannelli set September 15 as the trial date during a hearing in …
Read more “Italy’s Salvini to Stand Trial for 2019 Migrant Standoff “
Russia’s main security agency says it has arrested two Belarusians who it said were preparing a plot to overthrow Belarus’ government and kill authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.One of the men arrested, Aleksandr Feduta, is a former Lukahsenko spokesman who later joined the opposition. The other, lawyer Yuras Zyankovich, has dual Belarusian-U.S. citizenship.The Federal Security Service …
Read more “Russia Arrests Two Alleged Belarus Coup Plotters “
A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said Saturday that test results he received from Navalny’s family showed him with sharply elevated levels …
Read more “Navalny’s Doctor: Putin Critic ‘Could Die at Any Moment’ “
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is urging Western governments to criminalize any insulting remarks against Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and treat offenders the same way they do those who deny the Holocaust.Khan spoke Saturday after violent nationwide protests this week by a radical Islamist party demanding expulsion of the French ambassador over the publication of cartoons …
Read more “Pakistan PM: Insulting Islam’s Prophet Should Be Same as Denying Holocaust “
The Czech Republic is expelling 18 Russian diplomats over suspicions that Russian intelligence services were involved in an ammunition depot explosion in 2014, its government said on Saturday.The central European country is a NATO and EU member state, and the expulsions and allegations have triggered its biggest row with Russia since the end of the …
Read more “Czechs Expel 18 Russian Envoys, Allege Russian Link to Ammunition Depot Blast “
As military bands played and a procession of royals escorted his coffin to the church, Prince Philip was laid to rest Saturday in a funeral ceremony that honored his lifetime of service to the U.K., the crown and his wife of 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II.The widowed British monarch, setting an example amid the coronavirus …
Read more “Britain’s Prince Philip Laid to Rest at Windsor Castle”
Russia accused a Ukrainian diplomat Saturday of trying to obtain classified information and ordered him to leave the country by April 22, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Ukraine as border tensions simmer. Russia’s FSB security service said Oleksandr Sosoniuk had been detained when he tried to access information from Russian law enforcement databases during …
Read more “Russia, Ukraine to Expel a Diplomat Each as Tensions Simmer”
Iran’s top negotiator at talks to rescue a nuclear deal said Saturday progress had been made but that much work remains to be done before a final agreement is reached. Iran and world powers resumed talks in Vienna that began earlier this month to revive a 2015 nuclear deal the U.S. abandoned three years …
Hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen marched into place Saturday at Windsor Castle, where Prince Philip was being remembered as a man of “courage, fortitude and faith” at a funeral that salutes both his service in the Royal Navy and his support for Queen Elizabeth II over three quarters of a century.Philip, who died April 9 …
Read more “Prince Philip’s Funeral Gets Underway at Britain’s Windsor Castle”
Queen Elizabeth will bid a final farewell to Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, at a ceremonial funeral on Saturday, with the nation set to fall silent to mark the passing of a pivotal figure in the British monarchy.While the ceremony will include some of the traditional grandeur of a significant royal …
Read more “Queen Elizabeth and Britain to Bid Farewell to Prince Philip”
Following are details of the funeral this Saturday of Britain’s Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, who died on April 9 aged 99.The funeralThe funeral, which will be broadcast live, will take place at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).As planned, it will be a ceremonial royal funeral, rather …
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A Ukrainian national arrested for his role in a hacking group that compromised millions of financial accounts was sentenced to a decade in prison, U.S. prosecutors said Friday.Fedir Hladyr, 35, had a high-level role as a manager and systems administrator for a hacking group known at FIN7, authorities said.He was one of three Ukrainians arrested …
Read more “Member of FIN7 Hacking Group Sentenced to US Prison”
The United States and NATO accused Russia of again ramping up tensions, criticizing Moscow’s plans to limit access to the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait for most of the next six months due to military exercises. The U.S. Defense Department said Friday the Kremlin’s decision is “just the latest example” of Russian aggression in the …
Read more “US, NATO Slam Russian Plan to Block Parts of Black Sea ”
A Rwandan priest was arrested in France this week on charges of providing, among other things, food to militiamen who massacred members of the Tutsi minority in his church during the 1994 genocide in the African country, authorities said Friday. Marcel Hitayezu, who was born in 1956, was charged on Wednesday with genocide and being an …
Read more “Rwandan Priest Arrested in France for Alleged Role in Genocide”
Russia announced late Friday it will expel 10 U.S. diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to Washington’s decision to send 10 Russian diplomats packing under a wide-ranging U.S. sanctions package levied against Moscow earlier this week.Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the retaliatory moves during a press conference with his Serbian counterpart in Moscow.Russian …
Read more “Matching US Sanctions, Russia Expels 10 American Diplomats”
Tensions between Greece and Turkey reached a new high this week when the two countries’ foreign ministers traded accusations during a live, televised news conference. The two NATO allies have been trying to rebuild relations after a dispute over a Turkish drilling ship pushed them to the brink of war last year. At first, …
Read more “Greek, Turkish Foreign Ministers Clash at News Conference”
NATO is accusing Russia of again ramping up tensions, calling Moscow’s plans to limit access to the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait starting later this month “an unjustified move.” In a statement, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the planned restrictions appear to be part of “a broader pattern of destabilizing behavior.” “Russia’s …
Read more “NATO Slams Russian Plan to Block Parts of Black Sea”