Tag Archives: Europe

Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the suspension of direct flights between Iraq and Belarus and the temporary withdrawal of the work permit of the honorary Belarusian consul in Baghdad. Ahmed Al-Sahaf, the Ministry’s spokesperson, said to Al-Iraqiya News, “the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has temporarily withdrawn the work …

Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills on Friday near the Polish and Lithuanian borders, during a standoff between Belarus and the EU over migrants camped in freezing forests at the frontier. The exercise at the Gozhsky training ground involved airborne units landing and carrying out combat training, including capturing …

Austria’s government is likely to decide on Sunday to impose a lockdown on people who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus as daily infections have surged to record levels, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday. Schallenberg did not say when the lockdown would take effect, but the two provinces …

Two people have died after another hospital fire in Romania. The blaze broke out in the infectious disease wing of a hospital in the city of Ploiești, where 21 patients were receiving care, authorities said. The cause of the fire, which was quickly extinguished, is not yet known, but an …

The Dutch government on Thursday was considering whether to impose Western Europe’s first partial lockdown since the summer, as new coronavirus cases jumped to the highest level since the start of the pandemic. A surge in infections that started when social distancing measures were lifted in late September has put …

Countries bordering Belarus on Thursday warned the migrant crisis on the European Union’s eastern borders could escalate into a military confrontation while Ukraine said it would deploy thousands more troops to reinforce its frontier. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia said Belarus posed serious threats to European security by deliberately escalating its …

British Brexit minister David Frost said on Wednesday that Brussels should stay calm and avoid embarking on “massive and disproportionate retaliation” if London follows through on its threat to escalate a post-Brexit trade dispute. Frost said he wasn’t yet ready to give up on talks aimed at finding a solution, …

Russia took the rare step of dispatching two nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace on Wednesday in a show of support to close ally Belarus at a time when it is locked in a migrant standoff with the European Union. Moscow’s decision to up the ante came as the …

Swedish centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven formally resigned on Wednesday, opening the way for Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson to become the country’s first woman premier if she can win parliament’s approval. Lofven, a former welder and union negotiator, has headed a minority coalition with the Greens since 2014 and said …

The EU said Tuesday it is pressing more than a dozen countries to prevent their nationals leaving for Belarus on a perilous attempt to get into the bloc. The effort is part of Brussels’ reaction to what it says is an orchestrated campaign by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to destabilize …

Several EU member states on the UN Security Council have criticized Israel’s move to proceed with settlement construction in Palestine’s West Bank and East Jerusalem while slamming the decision to dub six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. “We reiterate our strong opposition to the expansion of settlements and will not …

A 27-year-old man who stabbed four people with a knife on a German high-speed train apparently attacked his victims “at random” and showed signs of mental illness, authorities said Sunday. Police and investigators told reporters in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz that the attacker’s intentions were still unclear, but there is …

A knife attack on a high-speed train in Germany has injured several people, police confirmed Saturday morning. Local police told The Associated Press that they received a call about the attack around 9 a.m. local time on Saturday. The train in question, one of Germany’s high-speed ICE trains, was traveling …

Russia has left military units near the Ukrainian border after exercises, with the number of Russian troops in the area now totaling 90,000, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Russian armed forces recently held a series of large-scale drills, including with airborne troops, the ministry said late on Tuesday. After the …

Bulgaria on Monday deployed 350 soldiers to the border with Turkey to help police cope with the growing influx of migrants, the defense minister announced. “Soldiers arrived at the Bulgarian-Turkish border since today to back up the border police,” Georgi Panayotov told the private bTV channel. The 350 troops deployed …

The European Parliament on Friday launched a lawsuit against the European Commission for perceived tardiness in applying a mechanism linking EU funds to rule of law in member states. “As requested in parliamentary resolutions, our legal service has brought an action against the European Commission for failure to apply the …

Greece mounted a rescue operation on Friday for a cargo ship carrying about 400 migrants after it sent out a distress signal off the island of Crete, the coast guard said. The Greek coast guard quoted passengers as saying the Turkish-flagged vessel had sailed from Turkey, calling it “one of …

France gave verbal warnings to two British boats that were fishing in waters off its port of Le Havre, the government said on Thursday, as tension simmers between the neighbors over post-Brexit arrangements. The French maritime ministry said it gave the warnings overnight to the two boats, one of which …

EU antitrust regulators opened on Wednesday a four-month-long investigation into Nvidia’s $54 billion bid for British chip designer ARM, saying the deal could lead to higher prices, less choice, and reduced innovation. The European Commission said concessions offered by the world’s biggest maker of graphics and artificial intelligence (AI) chips …

A Cambridge University college and Paris museum will on Wednesday hand back cultural artefacts that were looted from West Africa during the colonial era, setting a precedent that will pressure other institutions to return stolen works. Jesus College, Cambridge, will return a sculpture of a cockerel taken by British troops …