Europe

Coronavirus infections broke records in parts of Europe on Wednesday, with the continent once again the epicentre of a pandemic that has prompted new curbs on movement and made health experts think again about booster vaccination shots. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary all reported new highs in daily infections …

Slovakia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus among backyard poultry, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday. The outbreak followed several outbreaks among poultry farms in Europe and Asia in recent weeks in a sign the virus is spreading quickly …

Russia’s defence minister on Tuesday accused U.S. bombers of rehearsing a nuclear strike on Russia from two different directions earlier this month and complained that the planes had come within 20 km (12.4 miles) of the Russian border. The accusation comes at a time of high tension between Washington and …

Two refitted former U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats intended to bolster the Ukrainian navy have arrived at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, the Ukrainian navy said on Tuesday. “We appreciate the contribution of the United States to deter the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” naval …

Poland said on Tuesday that groups of migrants had made new attempts to cross over the border from Belarus and it would be premature to say that the worst of the crisis on the European Union’s eastern frontier was over. Border Guard spokesperson Anna Michalska said about 50 migrants tried …

Gunshots were fired overnight at police in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, local authorities said on Tuesday, in a sign that unrest triggered by COVID-19 curbs that have rocked the nearby island of Guadeloupe could be spreading there. No police have been injured and things have calmed down in …

A bus carrying North Macedonian tourists crashed in flames on a highway in western Bulgaria before daybreak on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people, including 12 children, officials said. The cause of the accident was unclear but the bus appeared to have hit a highway barrier either before or after …

Russian energy giant Gazprom will withdraw gas transit to Moldova in the next 48 hours after Chisinau failed to settle its outstanding debt for supplies already delivered, a spokesman for the company announced on Monday. At the end of last month, the Saint Petersburg-based company and Moldavgaz agreed a new …

A boat carrying the bodies of 10 migrants found dead at sea arrived in Sicily on Friday, along with dozens of people it rescued this week as they tried to cross the Mediterranean. The crew of the Geo Barents vessel, run by charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), found the corpses …

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday lashed out at “idiot” rioters who rampaged through cities across the Netherlands this weekend when protests against coronavirus policies turned violent. More than 100 people were arrested during three nights of violence, which saw police open fire at rioters in Rotterdam on Friday. …

Early exit polls showed Bulgarian President Rumen Radev ahead of his rival, academic Anstas Gerdzhikov, in the decisive runoff round of the presidential vote. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is projected to win another term with nearly two-thirds of the vote, according to exit polls published after the Sunday election by …

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday slammed the United States for driving “hysteria” over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine after Western countries accused Moscow of a troop build-up near the ex-Soviet country. His comments come as Western countries this week raised alarm over Russian military activity near Ukraine and …

Five police officers were injured in the Netherlands and at least 40 people detained across three provinces as violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions continued for a second night into Sunday. Dutch authorities used water cannon, dogs, and mounted police to stop rioting youths who set fires and threw fireworks in …

France is sending police special forces to restore order in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe hit by rioting and looting amid protests against COVID-19 protocols, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday. “The first message is that the state will stand firm,” Darmanin told reporters after holding a …

Poland accused Belarus on Sunday of continuing to ferry migrants to its border, despite clearing camps close to the frontier earlier this week, as Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki toured Baltic states to seek support in the crisis. Europe accuses Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East …

Tens of thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna on Saturday against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria’s government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year. Whistling, blowing horns, and banging drums, crowds streamed into Heroes’ Square in front of …

A large fire broke out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L’Opera square in central Paris on Saturday, sending clouds of smoke rising into the air. #France??:A large #fire broke out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the #Place de L'Opera square in …

The number of migrants trying to force their way into Poland from Belarus fell again on Friday after an apparent change in tack by Minsk that could help calm a crisis that has escalated into a major East-West confrontation. The Polish Border Guard said on Twitter that there were 195 …

Two people were being treated in hospital in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Saturday after they were seriously injured when police fired shots during a violent protest against COVID-19 measures, authorities said. Crowds of several hundred rioters torched cars, set off fireworks, and threw rocks at police during the …

A boat carrying the bodies of 10 migrants found dead at sea arrived in Sicily on Friday, along with dozens of people it rescued this week as they tried to cross the Mediterranean. The crew of the Geo Barents vessel, run by charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), found the corpses …