Finland and Sweden should change their laws if needed to meet demands of Turkey vand win its backing for their bid to join NATO, the Turkish foreign minister said on Tuesday, doubling down on a threat to veto a historic enlargement of the alliance. In a move that shocked its allies, Turkey on May 13 … Read more
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister stated that the Kingdom encourages and supports efforts to establish a political solution to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict and achieve security and stability. During a meeting with his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov in Riyadh on Tuesday, Prince Faisal stated that the Kingdom is willing to assist in such a solution. He … Read more
The UK Home Office is planning to deport up to 30 Kurdish asylum applicants to Iraq on a single charter flight. The expedition to Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, is fraught with danger. Contractors in charge of the voyage have been given specific training to deal with the “high potential of kidnapping from both Daesh and other … Read more
President Joe Biden on Tuesday told New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that after the latest US mass shooting he wants her advice in tackling a rise in gun violence and extremist ideologies. Meeting in the Oval Office with Ardern, Biden referred to the 2019 Christchurch slaying of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims. … Read more
Following a trial in central Ukraine, two Russian soldiers were sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian news agency Interfax. The decision in the Poltava area comes only one week after another court in Kyiv sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison in the country’s first … Read more
The European Council is ready to grant Ukraine nine billion euros (about $9.6 billion), European Council President Charles Michel tweeted Monday night. “#EUCO will continue helping #Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with @G7. EUCO is ready to grant #Ukraine EUR 9 billion. Strong and concrete support to #Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he tweeted. His tweet … Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sent his condolences to the family of French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff who was killed in Ukraine on Monday. Speaking during his nightly address on Monday, Zelensky said he wanted to pay his “condolences to the relatives of this journalist.” “He is the 32nd journalist killed in the war and the … Read more
European Union leaders have agreed “on principle” on a new sanctions package against Russia, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in a news conference on Monday following a summit in Brussels. “I’m very glad that the leaders were able to agree in principle on the sixth sanctions package, this is very … Read more
Rescue workers in Nepal have found the corpses of 20 of the 22 persons on board a tiny plane that crashed in a remote northern region, according to an aviation official in Kathmandu on Monday. “Efforts are being made to convey the remains to Kathmandu,” said Teknath Sitaula, a spokeswoman for Tribhuvan International Airport in … Read more
According to a court official, Lebanon questioned ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn after obtaining an Interpol red alert for his arrest but did not conduct any additional legal action against him. “Judge Imad Qabalan quizzed Ghosn regarding the contents of the red notice in the presence of his legal representation,” the official said on condition of … Read more
A Beijing man put thousands of his neighbors in quarantine after ignoring a stay-at-home order and testing positive for COVID-19, triggering a police probe. Over the last five weeks, the Chinese capital has ordered hundreds of thousands of citizens to stay at home in order to contain the city’s greatest coronavirus epidemic since the pandemic … Read more
Climbing Federation of Kyrgyzstan said Friday that it has removed a Ukrainian flag from a mountain named after Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a police investigation of the stunt. Earlier this week, a Twitter user identifying as a climber posted a video of a Ukrainian flag flying next to a plaque marking the mountain as … Read more
On Monday, three judges at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court found former soldier Lisa Smith guilty of joining the so-called Daesh organisation in Syria. Smith, 40, sobbed in the dock as Judge Tony Hunt read the panel’s judgment after a nine-week trial. The Muslim convert, who appeared in court wearing a headscarf, pleaded not guilty to … Read more
A 36-year-old man has been arrested and placed in psychiatric care after he smeared a glass screen encasing the Mona Lisa with cake, prosecutors said Monday, in a purported protest against artists not focusing enough on “the planet.” Officials at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where the enigmatic portrait holds pride of place, declined to … Read more
According to the State Department, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized last week’s “unjustified seizure” of two Greek-flagged ships by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iranian marines detained two Greek tankers in the Gulf on Friday, only days after Tehran threatened Athens with retaliation for the US seizure of Iranian oil from a tanker off … Read more
An Iraqi court has given the death penalty to a Daesh member accused of orchestrating a 2021 bomb blast in a busy Baghdad market that killed 32 people. It was the city’s first big suicide attack in three years, bringing an end to a period of relative peace following Iraq’s declaration of victory over the … Read more
A California man pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting to blow up the state Democratic Party’s offices, the first in a string of politically motivated threats following the defeat of former President Donald Trump. Under a plea agreement that may land him in federal prison for seven to nine years, Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, of … Read more
According to authorities, a California woman who confessed to punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant after being told to wear a mask and buckle her seatbelt was sentenced to 15 months in jail and forced to pay more than $30,000 in penalties and reparations on Friday. Vyvianna Quinonez, 29, will be on supervised release for … Read more
Ukraine criticized Russia on Saturday for deploying a ship to the occupied Ukrainian port of Mariupol to load a consignment of metal intended for Russia. The Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights Liudmyla Denisova said in a statement that the Russians were “sending 3,000 tons of metal products by the first ship from Mariupol to … Read more
According to the deputy head of the Russian-appointed government in occupied Kherson, the area will not hold a vote on legally joining Russia until violence in Kherson and surrounding districts of Odesa and Mykolaiv subsides. According to Kirill Stremousov, deputy director of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration, there are present “no negotiations regarding a referendum.” “We’ll … Read more
According to the Metropolitan Police, a prominent leader of the Tottenham Turks gang was apprehended in Moldova after fleeing jail in Turkey. Izzet Eren was sentenced to 21 years in prison for weapons offenses in 2015, and he was moved to a Turkish prison in August 2019. Eren allegedly escaped from that prison a month … Read more
Russia’s ambassador in Britain has told that he does not believe his country will use tactical nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine. Andrei Kelin said that according to Russian military rules, such weapons are not used in conflicts like this one. Russia has very strict provisions for their use, he said, mainly when the … Read more
Binance said on Friday its legal entity in Italy had registered with the regulator in the country, as the major cryptocurrency exchange seeks to gain traction in Europe. The registration of Binance Italy, which was established in recent months, could potentially make the company more accountable and reduce the prospects for money laundering. Binance said … Read more
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said on Friday that the business will not set up a manufacturing factory in India until the company is first authorized to sell and repair imported automobiles in the nation. Responding to a Twitter user who questioned Musk on Tesla’s plans to open a manufacturing unit in India, the billionaire … Read more
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli troops shot and killed a teenager during an operation in a community near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Friday. Zaid Ghunaim, 15, was named as the killed kid by the ministry. According to the report, he was shot in the neck and back by Israeli soldiers, … Read more
Security forces in Sudan killed a demonstrator on Saturday amid the latest large protests against last year’s military coup, medics said. The unidentified protester died after “receiving a bullet to the chest” during marches in Khartoum, according to the pro-democracy Central Committee of Sudan Doctors. The latest death raises the total to 97 from a … Read more
On Saturday, China’s foreign minister signed an agreement to strengthen diplomatic relations with Samoa, while Australia’s new leader declared he had a “complete plan” for the Pacific, as Beijing and Canberra maintained competing attempts to woo the region. China is expanding on a security pact it recently inked with the Solomon Islands, which has disturbed … Read more
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s former president, said Saturday that he was prohibited from leaving the country, accusing the government of violating a so-called political cease-fire in place since Russia’s invasion. Poroshenko, who was president from 2014 to 2019, has made numerous public appearances since the war began, including commentary on foreign television. After President Volodymyr Zelensky’s … Read more
