Month: October 2024

Stockholm — Sweden wants the European Union to classify Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization after several attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden that Stockholm blames on Iran, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday. The Scandinavian country’s intelligence agency, Sapo, has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of …

Read more “Sweden wants EU to classify Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization”

VILNIUS/PANEVEZYS, Lithuania — Lithuania’s center-left opposition Social Democrats (SD) will attempt to form a majority coalition government together with two other parties following the country’s parliamentary election, its leader said Sunday. Early results showed SD ahead in the election, which was dominated by concerns over living costs and potential threats from neighboring Russia. “I think it …

Read more “Lithuania’s center-left opposition says it will try to form government”

dijon, France — The International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), a sort of “U.N. of wine” which brings together experts from the sector, called for “sustainable development” of the vine Sunday, following a ministerial meeting in France. “The effects of climate change amplify” the challenges facing the vine, stressed 37 members out of 50 participating …

Read more “International Wine Organization calls for ‘sustainable development’ of vines”

Since May 2024, heavy fighting has been going on near the village of Hlyboke, some 30 kilometers from Kharkiv, and animals are the victims of active fighting just as much as locals. Volunteers recently rescued four ponies from Hlyboke, and now these horses are giving back… in their own way. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. …

Reykjavik, Iceland — Iceland’s three-party coalition government collapsed Sunday over disagreements on policy issues, Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson said, with new elections to be held in November. Benediktsson, head of the conservative Independence Party, told reporters that tensions had mounted within the left-right coalition on issues ranging from foreign policy to asylum seekers and energy. The …

Read more “Iceland government collapses, new election set for November”

Madrid — Thousands protested Sunday in Madrid to demand more affordable housing amid rising anger from Spaniards who feel they are being priced out of the market. Under the slogan “Housing is a right, not a business,” residents marched in the Spanish capital to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions. Twelve thousand people …

Read more “Thousands march in Spain to demand affordable housing”

Paris — Chinese state-owned carmaker GAC is exploring the manufacture of EVs in Europe to avoid EU tariffs, the general manager of its international business told Reuters on Sunday, joining a growing list of Chinese companies planning local production.  The company is among China’s largest automakers and is targeting 500,000 overseas sales by 2030. It does …

Read more “Chinese carmaker GAC considers making EVs in Europe as tariffs loom”

Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron called on Iran’s leader Masoud Pezeshkian to support a “general de-escalation” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a telephone conversation Sunday, his office said. Macron stressed “the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilizing actors that enjoy …

Read more “Macron calls on Iran’s president to back Mideast ‘de-escalation’”

…

Kyiv — Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman urged international organizations Sunday to respond to a claim that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August. DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said Russian troops shot and killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators …

Read more “Ukraine’s human rights envoy urges response to alleged killings of Ukrainian POWs in Kursk”

moscow — Speaking behind the thick white walls of Moscow’s ancient Danilov Monastery, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk is adamant: People must not be forbidden to pray in their chosen branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. He speaks calmly, but Yakimchuk is one of many Orthodox Christians in Russia who are angry about a law passed by Kyiv in …

Read more “Ukrainian move to ban Moscow-linked church stirs anger in Russia”

paris — A 22-year-old Afghan was indicted and imprisoned in France on Saturday, accused of supporting the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) and of having “fomented” a “plan for violent action” in a football stadium or a shopping center. His arrest, which took place Tuesday in Haute-Garonne, has “links” with the arrest of an Afghan …

Read more “Afghan man imprisoned in France, accused of planning ‘violent action’”

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanians elect a new parliament Sunday in a vote dominated by concerns over the cost of living and potential threats from neighboring Russia, with the opposition Social Democrats tipped to emerge as the largest party but well short of a majority. The outgoing center-right coalition of Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has seen its …

Read more “Lithuanians elect new parliament amid cost of living, security worries”

WARSAW, POLAND — Poland’s leader said Saturday that he plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a new migration policy, pointing to its alleged abuse by eastern neighbors Belarus and Russia. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that “the state must regain 100% of the control over who enters and leaves Poland,” and …

Read more “Poland to suspend asylum rights amid pressure on Belarusian border”

PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Persistent ethnic tension in north Kosovo could trigger a repeat of violence seen in the area last year when four people died in a gun battle and NATO peacekeepers were hurt in clashes, a senior official from the military alliance warned Saturday. Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian, but about 50,000 Serbs in the …

Read more “North Kosovo ethnic tensions at risk for violence, NATO official says”

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran has sent two locally made satellites to Russia to be put into orbit by a Russian space vehicle, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported Saturday, in the latest space cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries. The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is …

Read more “Iran sends satellites to Russia for rocket launch, Tasnim reports”

MOSCOW — An explosion at a gas station in Russia’s southern region of Chechnya killed at least four people, officials said Saturday. The explosion of a gas tank triggered a fire at the service station in the regional capital, Grozny, said Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, adding that two children were among the dead. The fire was extinguished. …

Read more “Explosion, fire at service station in Russia’s Chechnya kills 4”

OSLO, NORWAY — Norway is introducing temporary border checks on its frontiers with other Western European nations after the domestic security agency raised the terror threat level, police said Saturday. The checks will apply until October 22, according to a police statement. It cited “a challenging threat picture” and the October 8 announcement by the security …

Read more “Norway introduces temporary border checks after terror threat level raised”

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia said on Saturday it had downed 47 Ukrainian drones while Kyiv reported neutralized 24 drones fired by Moscow. The Ukrainian air force said many missiles were fired from the Russian border region of Belgorod, without specifying the number or the type. It said Russia had fired 28 drones at Ukraine, of which …

Read more “Ukraine, Russia each say they foiled dozens of drone attacks”