Europe

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk on Saturday in support of a popular local governor arrested this week for allegedly ordering several murders. A court in Moscow on Friday ruled to hold 50-year-old Sergei Furgal for two months pending trial for the murders …

Bosnia is marking the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the only crime in Europe since World War II that has been declared a genocide, with only a small number of survivors allowed to take part in commemoration events due to the coronavirus pandemic. The brutal execution in July 1995 …

Athens police were bombarded with Molotov cocktails and pelted with stones amid major protests against a new government bill limiting public gatherings. Some 10,000 people had assembled to protest across the Greek capital. Shortly after 8.30 pm local time, a group of some 200 protesters was gathered outside the parliament …

The Notre Dame spire in Paris will be rebuilt to its original Gothic design with no modern updates after it was destroyed in a massive fire last April, French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed. The national heritage and architectural commission in charge of the restoration approved plans to restore it …

The European Union’s executive said on Thursday that “significant divergences” persisted in its talks with Britain on their new relationship from 2021. Britain left the EU in January and is in a standstill transition period with the bloc to give the two sides time to forge a new relationship on …

A quirky wooden sculpture of US First Lady Melania Trump is reported to have been set on fire near her hometown in Slovenia, prompting its removal. Brad Downey, the American artist who commissioned the statue, said it was targeted on 4 July, Independence Day in the US. The Berlin-based artist …

To counter a second coronavirus wave, President Aleksandar Vucic announced a new lockdown. Protesters reacted with fury at his inconsistency, amid wider anger over his strongman leadership. Thousands of Serbs demonstrated for a second consecutive night on Wednesday in response to President Aleksandar Vucic’s management of the coronavirus crisis and …

Russia and Turkey will continue joint efforts on finding a solution to the Libyan crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday. The two countries are seeking an approach that would allow for an immediate cease-fire in Libya, the minister said, speaking at a news conference in Moscow. “Within the …

The European Commission has struck deals with drugmakers Roche and Merck KGaA to secure supplies of experimental treatments for COVID-19, a Commission source told Reuters on Wednesday. The deals cover Roche’s arthritis medicine RoActemra and Merck’s multiple sclerosis drug Rebif – both seen as potential treatments for COVID-19 – and …

Police in the Netherlands arrested six men suspected of preparing to commit kidnappings and hold people, hostage, after discovering an “underworld” prison equipped with a torture chamber made from converted shipping containers in a warehouse. In a statement on Tuesday, the National Prosecutor’s Office said the seven shipping containers were …

Protesters and police clashed violently in Belgrade on Tuesday evening amid anger over the return of strict lockdown measures to tackle coronavirus. Earlier on Tuesday, a weekend curfew was announced after a rise in Covid-19 cases in Serbia and across the western Balkans. A group of protesters stormed the parliament …

Russia says it will introduce sanctions against the United Kingdom in retaliation for British bans targeting more than two dozen Russian officials. “We can only regret such unfriendly measures,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a press conference on Tuesday, stressing that, “obviously, the principle of reciprocity will be applied.” …

An adviser to the director of Russia’s state space corporation has been detained on treason charges, the nation’s top security agency said Tuesday. Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who served as an adviser to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, was detained in Moscow by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), …

A nationwide antibody study in Spain has found that only 5.2 percent of the country’s population has been exposed to coronavirus, suggesting that herd immunity could be unachievable. The findings marked the conclusion of a three-month study into the prevalence of the virus, which involved testing almost 70,000 people across …

The eurozone economy will drop deeper into recession this year and rebound less steeply in 2021 than previously thought, the European Commission forecast on Tuesday, with France, Italy, and Spain struggling the most due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The downbeat assessment of Europe’s economy comes amid concern the U.S. recovery …

Austria is investigating whether the weekend killing of a Chechen dissident was politically motivated, the prosecutors’ office handling the case said on Monday after two suspects were arrested. The 43-year-old, whom police have declined to identify, was shot dead on Saturday near a shopping center on the edge of Vienna. …

The head of the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI said there would not be a total ban on using equipment from Huawei in the rollout of the French 5G telecoms network, but that it was pushing French telcos to avoid switching to the Chinese company. “What I can say is that …

The festering dispute between France and Turkey over a naval standoff in the Mediterranean Sea has shone a glaring searchlight on NATO’s struggle to keep order among its ranks and exposed weaknesses in a military alliance that can only take action by consensus. The dispute has also revealed NATO’s limits …

The center-right party won the most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary vote, exit polls suggest. The opposition said voters had been endangered by the “rush” to hold early elections amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is poised for victory in Croatia’s parliamentary election, exit polls indicated on …

Officials in Spain’s north-western region of Galicia have re-imposed restrictions on an area of 70,000 people following a Covid-19 outbreak. Only those traveling for work will be allowed to leave or enter the coastal district of A Marina from midnight on Sunday to Friday. The move comes a day after …