Month: April 2022

A group of Catalan separatists, including several members of the European Parliament, other politicians, lawyers and activists from Spain’s northeastern region, had their phones hacked with a controversial spyware called Pegasus, a cybersecurity firm said Monday. Citizens Lab, which is associated with the University of Toronto, said at least 65 people were targeted using the …

Read more “Cybersecurity Group Says Catalan Leaders Targeted With Spyware”

Turkish military forces using planes, helicopters and drones attacked Kurdish rebel positions inside northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Monday. The targets included camps and ammunition depots in the regions of Metina, Zap, and Avashin-Basyan, the military said. Kurdish rebels have launched attacks in Turkey from northern Iraq, and Ankara said they were planning …

Read more “Turkish Forces Attack Kurdish Rebel Positions in Iraq”

Cyprus authorities on Monday made traveling to the east Mediterranean island nation easier as the summer tourist season kicks into gear by rescinding the need to undergo any COVID-19 tests prior to boarding a flight or on arrival. According to the new regulations, only unvaccinated people who haven’t contracted and recovered from the coronavirus must …

Read more “Tourism-Reliant Cyprus Scraps Virus Tests for Most Travelers”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of engaging in “deliberate terror” with mortar and artillery strikes on residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, while Ukrainian forces in the southern city of Mariupol defied a Russian deadline to lay down their arms.  Zelenskyy, in a video address late Sunday, said he expects Russia to launch an offensive …

Read more “Zelenskyy Says Russian Forces Conducting ‘Deliberate Terror’   “

Manning checkpoints and patrolling towns and cities: the reservists of Ukraine’s territorial defense force are the last line standing between ordinary civilians and Russian troops. Standing 2.07 meters (6 feet, 9.5 inches) and dressed in camouflage fatigues that reveal only his eyes under a hood, “Buffalo” quit his job in construction and signed up for …

Read more “Ukraine’s Reservists, the Last Line of Defense”

On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadn’t yet found a home. All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. Volunteers dug them up one by one Sunday — two weeks after the soldiers …

Read more “‘This Land Is in Blood’: A Ukraine Village Digs Up the Dead”

A migrant was killed by gunfire at the Greece-Turkey border while she and several others attempted to cross a river separating the two countries, Greek police said on April 17.  It wasn’t immediately clear who fired the shot that killed the woman the night before. An autopsy showed that the victim was shot in the …

Read more “Greek Police say Migrant Shot Dead While Crossing From Turkey “

Ukrainian officials say their forces in the besieged city of Mariupol will not submit to Russian demands to surrender. They are also calling for more help from Western allies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

For once, the distant thunder of shelling cannot be heard in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Orthodox Palm Sunday has granted its residents some respite before an expected Russian onslaught.   In the Orthodox Svyato-Pokrovsky church, around 40 people — mostly women wearing colorful headscarves — occupy the largely empty pews as the sermon …

Read more “Orthodox Palm Sunday Brings Brief Respite to Ukraine’s Kramatorsk”

The party of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon gave no voting instructions for the French presidential runoff after its internal consultations showed most people would abstain or vote blank on April 24, adding to the uncertainty over the outcome. President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen are looking to attract voters who chose …

Read more “French Far-Left Gives No Voting Instructions After Internal Consultations”

Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure. Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish …

Read more “Unrest Sparked by Far-Right Demos Continues in Sweden”

Shuffling down the corridor of a refugee center in Ukraine with his gray tracksuit sleeve rolled to his shoulder, 71-year-old Vladimir Lignov reveals the remains of a severed limb he says he can still feel. “It was on the 21st of March, I went out to smoke. Then a shell hit. I lost my arm,” …

Read more “‘This Is My Third War’: Ukraine’s Elderly Are Conflict’s Forgotten Victims”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned a British plan to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers to the East African country of Rwanda, saying the policy did not stand “the judgment of God.” Delivering a sermon on Easter Sunday at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the strategy announced last week by British Prime Minister …

Read more “Archbishop of Canterbury Condemns Britain’s Rwanda Asylum Plan “

Ukraine’s prime minister said Sunday that the strategic port city of Mariupol remains under Ukrainian control. “The city still has not fallen,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told ABC’s “This Week,” hours after the expiration of a Russian deadline for holdout Ukrainian fighters in the besieged port city to surrender their weapons. “There’s still our military …

Read more “  Ukraine Says Mariupol Has Not Fallen  “

On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said Jesus, the victor over sin, fear and death, called on the world not to surrender to evil and violence. He made an impassioned plea for an end to the war in Ukraine and urged the faithful to appeal for peace and the end to cruelty and senseless destruction. For …

Read more “Pope Urges World Not to Surrender to Evil, Violence in Easter of War”

Pope Francis on Saturday invoked “gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war” in an Easter vigil homily in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian lawmakers. The pontiff noted that while “many writers have evoked the beautify of starlit nights, …

Read more “Pope Prays for Peace as Ukrainian Mayor, Lawmakers Attend Easter Vigil”

The Russian defense ministry on Saturday announced it had cleared the entire urban area of Mariupol of Ukrainian forces and said only a few fighters remained in the Azovstal steelworks, the scene of repeated clashes. In an online post, the ministry said that as of April 16, Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city had …

Read more “Russia Says All Urban Areas of Mariupol Cleared of Ukrainian Forces”

Russia’s warplanes bombed Lviv and its missiles struck Kyiv on Saturday, as Moscow followed through on a threat to launch more long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities after its Black Sea Fleet’s flagship was sunk. In besieged Mariupol, scene of the war’s heaviest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe, Russian troops pressed recent advances, hoping to make …

Read more “Russia Hits Kyiv, Lviv; Presses Offensive in Ruins of Mariupol”

Russia’s foreign ministry said Saturday it had barred entry to the country for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members and politicians. The move was taken “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British Government, in particular the imposition of sanctions …

Read more “Moscow Bars Entry to Russia for Britain’s Johnson, Truss, Wallace”

The free flow of information about Russia’s war on Ukraine was a focus of this year’s TED – Technology, Environment and Design – conference in Vancouver, Canada. It was the first such gathering of esteemed speakers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and architect Alison Killing was among the eclectic group …

Read more “Defeating Censorship About War in Ukraine a Focus of TED Conference”

A Frenchman and a Moroccan received heavy prison terms on appeal Friday for an attack plot that was foiled after an intelligence agent posing as a jihadi infiltrated their cyber network. Yassine Bousseria, 42, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for participation in a terrorist conspiracy to prepare terrorist acts, the same term he …

Read more “Two Men Get Lengthy Jail Terms in Foiled Attack Plot in France”

Thousands of faithful attended the “Way of the Cross” prayer service, presided over by Pope Francis at Rome’s Colosseum on Friday, a ceremony overtaken by the war in Ukraine. It was the first time the traditional event on Good Friday, which marks the day Jesus Christ died on the cross in the Christian calendar, was …

Read more “Thousands Join Pope for Good Friday Service With Ukraine in Mind”

The only surviving member of the Islamic State attack team that terrorized Paris in 2015 asked Friday for forgiveness and expressed condolences for the victims, wiping away tears during court testimony as he pleaded with survivors to “detest me with moderation.” For years, Salah Abdeslam was silent about what happened November 13, 2015, in the …

Read more “‘Detest Me With Moderation,’ Paris Attacks Defendant Pleads”

It is more than 10,000 kilometers from Medyka, the Polish border city that is a first stop for many Ukrainian refugees, to Tijuana, Mexico, where more than 1,700 Ukrainians are waiting for a chance to cross into the United States. “They’re arriving as tourists,” says Enrique Lucero Vásquez, the municipal director of migrant care in …

Read more “Reporter’s Notebook: Amid Laughter and Tears, Ukrainians Wait at Mexico-US Border”