The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it was taking joint action with Turkey against a network it said played a key role in money management, transfer and distribution for the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria. Turkey has frozen the assets of members to the network, who also were added to the U.S. …
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Mourners pour into St. Peter’s Square for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to pay their final respects to the German theologian who made history by retiring and to participate in a rare requiem Mass for a dead pontiff presided over by a living one, The Associated Press reports. …
Pope Francis presided at the funeral of former Pope Benedict on Thursday, delivering a homily comparing his predecessor to Jesus before tens of thousands of mourners in St. Peter’s Square. To the sound of tolling bells, 12 pallbearers had carried the wooden coffin holding Benedict’s remains out of St. Peter’s Basilica and placed it on …
Read more “Pope Benedict to be Buried Under St. Peter’s Basilica”
Mourners poured into St. Peter’s Square early Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to pay their final respects to the German theologian who made history by retiring and to participate in a rare requiem Mass for a dead pontiff presided over by a living one. Thick fog shrouded the Vatican before dawn …
Read more “Thousands Gather in St. Peter’s Square for the Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI”
Pope Francis will preside at a funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday for his predecessor, former Pope Benedict, who died Saturday at 95. More than 60,000 people are expected to attend. There will be official delegations from Italy and Benedict’s native Germany. Other leaders, including the king and queen of Belgium and the …
Read more “The Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict: What to Expect”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate armed with the country’s latest Zircon hypersonic missile on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force as tensions with the West escalate over the war in Ukraine. Russia says the Zircon missile can evade any Western air defenses by flying at an astounding 11,265 kilometer …
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Iran warned France on Wednesday of consequences after satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons depicting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Tehran deemed to be insulting. The weekly magazine had published dozens of cartoons ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic republic as part of a competition it launched in December in …
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With Russian rockets targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and electrical grid, scientists in the northern city of Sumy, some 330 kilometers east of Kyiv, are hoping to start mass producing solar technology that could help keep the lights on. Olena Adamenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera and video editing by Mykhailo Zaika. …
Journalists and their audiences in Belarus remain at risk of arrest, media analysts say, as authorities continue to persecute opposition voices. Even with a large number of journalists now living and working in exile, “repression against journalists in Belarus has not significantly decreased,” said Barys Haretsky, deputy chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. In …
The first high-level talks between Turkey and Syria in over a decade held in Moscow last week reflect the common interests of the two nations in limiting the autonomy of Syrian Kurds, experts say. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said more talks are planned for later this month. Analysts speaking to VOA believe that if …
Read more “Is Assad-Erdogan Reconciliation Likely Before Turkey’s Elections?”
European Union regulators on Wednesday hit Facebook parent Meta with hundreds of millions in fines for privacy violations and banned the company from forcing users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized ads based on their online activity. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission imposed two fines totaling 390 million euros ($414 million) in its decision …
Read more “Meta Fined 390 Million Euros in Latest European Privacy Crackdown”
A son of Equatorial Guinea’s long-ruling president is under investigation in connection with kidnapping and torture allegations that observers say will damage the president’s attempts to improve his international reputation. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 80, has ruled the oil-rich former Spanish colony since 1979, and after winning a sixth term in office in November, observers …
Read more “Spanish Court Investigates Equatorial Guinea Leader’s Son for Kidnapping”
Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday general audience in the Vatican, while thousands of people paid tribute to the former pope on the final day of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd in the Paul VI …
Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland got a formal welcome into the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, taking the two-year seats they won unopposed in June. In a tradition that Kazakhstan started in 2018, the five countries’ ambassadors installed their national flags Tuesday alongside those of other members outside the council chambers. Mozambican Ambassador Pedro …
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Turkey on Tuesday hosted the leaders of Syria’s opposition in a bid to assuage their concern following its overtures to Damascus. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted images of his meeting in Ankara with the opposition Syrian National Council chief Mahmut al-Maslat and other leaders. The talks came less than a week after the defense chiefs …
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Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare. The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, …
Read more “Drone Advances in Ukraine Could Bring Dawn of Killer Robots”
Tens of thousands more people paid homage to former Pope Benedict on Tuesday on the second day his body lay in state, and the Vatican announced that his funeral will be similar to that of a reigning pope, including a three coffin burial. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who like Benedict has called for the …
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Zohra stuffs packages of sliced bread, fresh fruit and canned vegetables into her shopping cart — free handouts she once never thought she would need. Other Parisians patiently wait their turn for the Salvation Army’s weekly food distributions in the French capital: two women from Africa, a middle-aged man from the French Antilles, a young …
Read more “War in Ukraine Bolstered EU Solidarity—Will it Last?”
Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement on Monday. Zelenskyy discussed details of the high-level meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in his first phone call of the year, the statement …
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary has written a tell-all book that his publisher on Monday promised would tell the truth about the “blatant calumnies,” “dark maneuvers,” mysteries and scandals that sullied the reputation of a pontiff best known for his historic resignation. Archbishop Georg Gaenswein’s Nothing but the Truth: My Life Beside Pope …
Read more “Benedict Aide’s Tell-all Book Will Expose ‘Dark Maneuvers’”
Belgium will test wastewater from planes arriving from China for new COVID variants as part of new steps against the spread of the coronavirus as infections in China surge, the government announced Monday. “This will be an additional monitoring objective to verify that the data we receive from China is accurate,” Steven Van Gucht of …
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The German government Monday condemned incidents on New Year’s Eve in which police officers and firefighters were attacked, mostly with fireworks. People across Germany on Saturday resumed their tradition of setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places to ring in the new year. That followed two years in which sales of fireworks were …
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Europe’s wholesale natural gas prices fell Monday to their lowest level since Russia invaded Ukraine, which had driven them to a record high last year. A mild winter has enabled countries to tap less gas from stocks that were built up in anticipation of cuts in supplies from Russia, which was Europe’s main supplier before …
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The suspected mastermind behind the removal of a Banksy mural in a Ukrainian town could face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Monday. The artwork, depicting a woman in a gas mask and a dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher, was taken off a wall in the town …
Read more “Mastermind of Banksy Removal Could Face Years in Jail, Ukraine Says”