Police in Armenia Sunday detained 65 protesters near a Russian military base demanding Moscow intervene to dismantle what they say is a crippling blockade by Azerbaijan of an ethnic Armenian enclave, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported. It said around 200 protesters, gathered outside the base in the northern town of Gyumri, were demanding that Russian …
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NATO’s mission in Kosovo, KFOR, has declined a Serbian government request to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to Kosovo after clashes between Serbs and the Kosovo authorities, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday. Serbia’s former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising …
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Briain’s defense ministry said Sunday in an intelligence update about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russia seems undecided about where the greatest threat from Ukraine lies. In the update, posted on Twitter, the ministry said, “The way Russia has worked on improving defenses suggests commanders are highly likely pre-occupied with the potential for major Ukrainian …
Read more “UK: Russia Facing Dilemma on Where to Focus in Ukraine”
The public can now visit the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI in the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica. The pontiff was buried Jan. 5 immediately following a funeral in St. Peter’s Square. Benedict’s tomb lies in the grottoes under the basilica’s main floor. The Vatican announced Saturday that the public could visit the tomb starting …
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German police say they have arrested an Iranian man and one other person on suspicion that the two were about to conduct a deadly chemical attack, using cyanide and ricin. The alleged attack, officials said Sunday, was believed to be motivated by Islamic extremism. Police detained the two in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, which is …
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Mild weather has left many regions of Europe that would normally be blanketed in snow at this time of year bare, and winter sports resorts are fearing for the future. Many are using snow machines to make artificial pistes or ‘snow runs’ leaving thin white lines snaking through otherwise green and brown landscapes. In the …
Read more “Snow is a No-Show as Europe Feels the Winter Heat”
As artillery boomed outside and fighter jets flew overhead, Orthodox Christians in a battered eastern Ukrainian town held a Christmas service in a basement shelter Saturday, vowing not to let war ruin the holiday. Nearly all the congregants and all but one choir singer had already fled Chasiv Yar for safer territory, leaving just nine …
Read more “Christmas in a Bomb Shelter for Orthodox Ukrainians”
French politicians paid tribute Saturday to Charlie Hebdo magazine staff and other victims of the January 2015 Islamist attacks, days after the satirical weekly’s latest edition sparked outrage in Iran. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted the names of all 17 victims of a spate of attacks eight years ago in and around Paris, including the …
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The past year has been difficult for startups everywhere, but running a company in Ukraine during the Russian invasion comes with a whole different set of challenges. Clinical psychologist Ivan Osadchyy brought his medical device, called Knopka, to this year’s consumer technology show known as CES in Las Vegas in hopes of getting it into …
Read more “Ukrainian Startups Bring Tech Innovation to CES 2023”
Thousands of Kurds from around France and Europe marched through Paris Saturday to show their anger over the unresolved murders of three Kurdish female activists in the French capital 10 years ago. The marchers are also mourning three people killed outside a Kurdish cultural center in Paris two weeks ago in what prosecutors called a …
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In response to the hanging of two Iranian protesters, a German lawmaker of Iranian descent has demanded that Germany expel the ambassadors of the Islamic Republic. Earlier Saturday, Iran executed Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini by hanging. They had been convicted of killing a member of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary in Iran. …
Read more “German State Lawmaker Demands Expulsion of Iranian Ambassadors”
Shelling rocked the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Saturday, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a 36-hour cease-fire to observe eastern Orthodox Christmas. Artillery fire could be heard on both sides of the front line in Bakhmut, where Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower trying to push west toward Kramatorsk. What …
Read more “Bakhmut in Russia’s Crosshairs on Orthodox Christmas Day”
The U.N. human rights office has called on the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to drop criminal charges against Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ales Bialiatski and to immediately free him from detention. Belarusian Laureate Ales Bialiatski went on trial Thursday in the capital, Minsk, on charges that human rights activists widely view as bogus. …
Read more “UN Calls On Belarus to Drop Charges Against Nobel Peace Laureate”
A senior State Department official is leading a U.S. delegation to three Western Balkan nations in the coming days following weeks of ethnic tensions in the region. Counselor of the United States Department of State Derek Chollet and the U.S. delegation will be traveling to Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The border between Kosovo and …
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The Islamist Taliban joined British critics Friday to denounce Prince Harry for admitting to being responsible for the killing of 25 people in Afghanistan while serving as a military helicopter pilot there. The British prince made the disclosures in his upcoming memoir, Spare, claiming the army had trained him to view members of the then-insurgent …
Read more “Taliban Denounce Prince Harry for Admitting to Afghan ‘War Crimes’”
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tuerk has warned about what he sees as the “systematic countering of women’s rights and gender equality” around the world. In an exclusive interview Wednesday with Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, Tuerk said he was very concerned about the “backsliding and the pushbacks” he has seen …
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In early December, Ukrainian officials said they estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. We visited Lviv to meet with some of the families that have lost loved ones in the war. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych …
Germany will supply Ukraine with around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles within weeks as part of a new phase of support coordinated with the US, a government spokesman said on Friday. U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Thursday that both their countries will send powerfully armed infantry fighting vehicles to …
Read more “Germany to Send Ukraine 40 Armored Vehicles by Spring”
“Militias from the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) were formally integrated into the Russian armed forces on 31 December 2022,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday in its update on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, posted on Twitter. Luhansk and Donetsk are both internationally recognized as being part of Ukraine. However, Russia …
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Britain’s Prince Harry says his older brother and heir to the throne Prince William knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Harry’s American wife, Meghan, in his much-awaited memoir, which went on sale days early in Spain on Thursday. In his book Spare, Harry also discloses how the brothers, the sons of …
Read more “Prince Harry’s Memoir Sheds Light on Bust-ups Among British Royals”
France announced it will send light tanks to Ukraine, a French official said on Wednesday after a phone call between the two countries’ leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that France would send light AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles — a light tank model the French military has used since the …
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The deadliest Ukrainian strike on Russian troops reported so far has reignited criticism of Moscow’s mobilization drive and laid bare a lack of trust in officials almost a year into the offensive. The Russian army announced 89 soldiers were killed when Kyiv struck a temporary base in the Russian-occupied town of Makiivka with U.S.-supplied rockets …
Read more “Unease, Questions and Some Apathy in Russia After Ukraine Strike”
The corruption scandal at the European Parliament deepened this week as officials said they would seek to lift immunity on two more lawmakers accused of taking bribes from Qatar. The Gulf state has warned that the investigation could impact economic ties between Europe and Qatar, a key emerging supplier of energy to the EU as …
Read more “European Gas Deals at Risk as Qatar Corruption Scandal Deepens “
The corruption scandal at the European Parliament deepened this week as officials said they would seek to lift the immunity of two more lawmakers accused of taking bribes from the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the investigation could impact economic ties between Europe and Qatar, a key supplier of energy. …