World

By Alessandro Parodi - The number of temporary protection status permits issued to Ukrainians in the European Union dropped in most member states in February, the bloc's statistics institute Eurostat said on Monday. EU countries had issued over the course of 2022 more than 4 million permits to Ukrainian nationals, Eurostat data shows. However, the influx seems to be gradually decreasing. "The number of decisions granting temporary protection to Ukrainians in February fell in 19 of the 26 EU members with available data," Eurostat said. Poland and Germany, each counting a total of about one million asylum seekers coming from Ukraine, saw in February a monthly drop of 3,540 and 3,080 permits to 24,905 and 25,125 respectively, the agency said. Of them, over 6,000 were under the age of 18 in Poland, and almost 8,000 in Germany. Poland, which has been for many asylum seekers the first dest...
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Yemen mediator said on Monday there is the most serious opportunity in eight years to make progress toward ending the conflict, but warned that the "tide could still turn unless the parties take bolder steps toward peace." Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that any new agreement in Yemen must be a clear step toward a Yemeni-led political process and that there needed to be a Yemeni-owned ceasefire. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Susan Heavey)...
BEIJING - China is highly concerned about heightened Israeli-Palestinian conflict and favours the two sides resuming peace talks as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Monday. Qin, in separate phone calls with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, said China is willing to play a constructive role in promoting peace in the region, according to statements posted by China's foreign ministry. U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza -territories Israel captured in a 1967 war - have stalled for almost a decade and show no sign of revival. (Reporting by Twinnie and Meg Shen; Editing by Mark Heinrich)...
By Nelson Acosta HAVANA - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is widely expected to be chosen this week by assembly lawmakers to lead the country for another five years, despite a rocky first term marked by the coronavirus pandemic and a near-unprecedented economic crisis. Diaz-Canel, 62, heads the Communist Party, to which all 470-members of the legislature elected by Cubans last month either belong or are sympathetic to. Cuba argues its one-party system promotes unity and limits financial interference in the assembly elections. The assembly will vote Wednesday to elect the country's president and his cabinet. No candidate other than Diaz-Canel is seen as emerging for the presidency. Once his next term is confirmed, Diaz-Canel will need to focus his efforts on overhauling Cuba's economic system, said Carlos Alzugaray, an independent political analyst formerly from the diplomatic service. "That is the great chal...
MOSCOW - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will appeal on Tuesday against his arrest and detention in Moscow's most notorious former KGB prison on charges of espionage, according to court documents. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on March 30 it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex. Gershkovich, the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, and the Journal have denied he was involved in espionage, as has the United States. According to a public Russian judicial document, Lefortovo District Court will hear on Tuesday a complaint filed by Gershkovich against the decision to keep him in custody in Lefortovo prison while the case is being investigated. The court documents gave nothing more than basic...
By Helen Coster WILMINGTON, Del -Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox Corp and Fox News will proceed with jury selection starting on Tuesday, a judge announced on Monday. Judge Eric Davis did not provide a reason for the delay. Dominion is suing Fox Corp and Fox News for $1.6 billion over the network's coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The trial is one of the most closely watched U.S. defamation cases in years, involving a leading cable news outlet with numerous conservative commentators. Rupert Murdoch, the chair of Fox Corp, is set to testify, along with a parade of Fox executives and on-air hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. The trial is considered a test of whether Fox's coverage crossed the line between ethical journalism and the pursuit of ratings, as Dominion alleges and Fox denies. Dominion has accused...
UNITED NATIONS - The United States and more than 40 other countries said in a joint statement on Monday that they are deeply concerned over Russia's detainment of a Wall Street Journal reporter and protested Moscow's "efforts to limit and intimidate the media." They also said in the statement due to be read at the United Nations later on Monday by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "We urge Russian Federation authorities to release those they hold on political grounds, and to end the draconian crackdown on freedom of expression, including against members of the media." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Susan Heavey)...
ERBIL - Ukraine's foreign minister visited Iraq on Monday for the first time since Russia's invasion, seeking diplomatic support from the Middle East where Moscow has been cultivating friends. "We definitely see Iraq as a country that is capable of building bridges," Dmitro Kuleba said at a press conference alongside Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein. "We welcome every effort to restore peace in Ukraine. There is one key cornerstone that must be laid down at the very foundation of every effort: and that cornerstone is the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity." Hussein called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying this was the same message given to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who visited Iraq in February. "We always strive to be a part of the solution. Wars end with negotiation and dialogue; that’s why we believe in the language of dialogue," Hussein said. "That’s why when we negotiate or dis...
ANKARA - At least 133,000 people affected by February's devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey will vote outside their home towns, the head of the country's High Election Board (YSK) said on Monday. The presidential and parliamentary votes are set for May 14, three months after powerful earthquakes struck 10 provinces in Turkey's south, killing more than 50,000 people and leaving millions homeless. YSK officials are visiting earthquake-hit provinces to oversee preparations for the voting process, its head Ahmet Yener told reporters. "Some 133,000 voters from the earthquake zone have changed their registered polling place to other provinces, and 600,000 voters in total have changed their polling place in Turkey as a whole," Yener said. The YSK has previously said there are no obstacles to holding elections in the quake zone, and announced additional measures such as setting up ballot boxes for voters in temporary shel...
By Pavel Polityuk KYIV - Kyiv said on Monday a U.N.-brokered initiative allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was in danger of "shutdown" after Russia blocked inspections of participating ships in Turkish waters. Ukrainian Black Sea ports were blockaded after Russia's invasion last year, but access to three of them was cleared last July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv that was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. The agreement - intended to help ease a global food crisis - was extended last month, but Ukraine said the number of cargo ships passing through the Bosporus carrying Ukrainian agricultural products was critically low. "For the second time in 9 months of operation of the Grain Initiative, an inspection plan (for participating vessels) has not been drawn up, and not a single vessel has been inspected," Ukraine's restoration ministry said on Facebook under the headline "Grain initiative un...
By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Chinese worker was charged with blasphemy in northern Pakistan after angry workers surrounded his office accusing him of insulting the Prophet Mohammad, then stormed a police station to try to find him, officials said. Police moved in as crowds gathered at the Dasu hydropower project in Kohistan district on Sunday afternoon and officers took the man to a safer location, police official Naseer-ud-Din Khan said. Hundreds gathered again on Monday morning and stormed the main district police station, believing the man was hiding in the building, Khan added. But officials, fearing the man might be attacked, had moved him to another district by military helicopter, Khan said. The man was charged and had so far declined to give a statement, police officials said. Blasphemy is a crime under Pakistani law that can be punishable with death. No one has ever been execut...
By Seun Sanni LAGOS - Nigerian aviation employees on Monday blocked roads to the domestic terminal of Lagos airport, slowing traffic and threatening to delay flights as they began a two-day strike in protest over working conditions and wages. The strike is likely to add to problems in a sector that regularly faces jet fuel shortages, which often ground local flights and where international carriers struggle to repatriate revenue from ticket sales due to a shortage of foreign currency. In the commercial capital Lagos, chanting workers blocked roads to the domestic terminal, creating a traffic jam and forcing passengers to finish their journey on foot. International flights were not affected. Police and army personnel watched from a distance. "It is time for us to release aviation workers from the bondage of this imperialist aviation management that we have been having for years," Abdulrasaq Saidu, secretary gene...
LONDON - The British parliament's Commissioner for Standards opened an investigation into Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this month, according to a list of open inquiries posted on its website on Monday. The list said the matter under investigation was a "declaration of interest". Sunak's office did not immediately have a comment. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout; editing by William James)...
By Humeyra Pamuk and Sakura Murakami TOKYO - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations agree on the need to stand up to any Chinese "coercion" or efforts to exert control in the Taiwan Strait, a senior U.S. State Department official said, amid increased tensions around Taiwan. Concerns about what the G7 ministers see as China's increasingly aggressive stance on Taiwan and more broadly in the Indo-Pacific region have been in sharp focus during their three days of talks in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa. "The message is the same across the G7: that we want to work with China in those areas where China is prepared to work with us," a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters on a call. "We are certainly going to stand up against any coercion, any market manipulation, any efforts to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," the official added. The G7 ministers are keen to demonstrate a...
- Russia on Monday brushed off Japanese criticism of naval exercises by its Pacific Fleet, saying it needed to be on guard against a variety of regional threats while focusing on Ukraine. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said earlier on Monday that Tokyo had lodged a protest with Moscow over its military exercises around disputed islands near Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying the drills were taking place "in strict accordance with international law". "Our environment is very turbulent on many fronts. It's fraught with conflict situations, regional conflicts," Peskov told reporters. "We are all well aware of the geography of these regional conflicts." Japan has a territorial dispute with Moscow over islands in the north Pacific that dates back to the end of World War Two. As a member of the Group of Seven rich democracies, Japan has joined Western sa...
By Eimi Yamamitsu, Mayu Sakoda and Tom Bateman TOKYO - An explosive thrown at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at an election rally on Saturday has raised alarming questions about the state of VIP security, less than a year after a former premier was gunned down and weeks before Japan hosts G7 leaders. Kishida was about to speak at a by-election campaign event at a fishing harbour in Wakayama City, western Japan, when a smoking metal cylinder landed within a metre of him. Kishida was bundled away from the partly enclosed area as police and bystanders subdued a suspect. Seconds later the small device exploded. Media said one or two people were slightly hurt. The incident exposes vulnerabilities in Japan's security system and a failure to institute changes following the killing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign last year, four experts interviewed by said. "There is no doubt th...
AMSTERDAM - China is the greatest threat to Dutch economic security, the Netherlands' intelligence service said on Monday in an annual assessment of threats it said included commercial espionage and covert investments. Citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it also said Russia was a major threat to national security. While the Netherlands regards China as a major trading partner, its military ambitions are driving attempts to obtain Dutch and Western technologies, the agency known by its acronym AIVD, said in its 2022 annual report. "Chinese companies and knowledge institutions sometimes are valued partners for Dutch institutions. At the same time, the country forms the greatest threat to Dutch economic security," the agency said. "China uses both legitimate investments, corporate takeovers and academic cooperation, as well as illegal (digital) espionage, insiders, covert investments and illegal export. Dutch companies, knowl...
DUBAI - Iran has officially invited Saudi Arabia's king to visit the country, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday, after the two regional rivals agreed to end years of hostility following a China-brokered agreement in March. After years of bad relations that fuelled proxy conflicts across the Middle East, where Tehran and Riyadh backed opposite sides from Yemen to Syria, the Shi'ite revolutionary Iran and the Sunni-led Kingdom reached an agreement to end a seven-year diplomatic rift. "Iranian President (EbrahimRaisi) has sent an invitation to the Saudi king in return for an invitation by Riyadh for him," Nasser Kanaani told a televised news conference. Technical delegations from both countries are preparing to officially reopen their missions, and Tehran said these missions would restart their activities by May 9, Iran's semi-official Tasnim News agency reported. (Reporting by Elwely Elwel...
By Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira PORTO - Fraudster Tiago Espanhol has been behind bars for a little over two years. He has 2-1/2 more years before release but he says building confessionals for Pope Francis' visit to Portugal this summer is speeding up time. "We pass our time and it's good for us," the 38-year-old said as he gave the final touches to a chair at the prison's carpentry workshop. "Working is better for us - at least to see if we can go home as soon as possible." Lisbon will host the World Youth Day from Aug. 1-6, an international festival bringing together the pope and hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from across the globe. As part of the event, 150 confessionals built by inmates at three Portuguese prisons are set to be installed at the "Park of Forgiveness", a space for the faithful to confess their sins. Espanhol, an evangelical Christian who is at Porto's Prison Establishment (E...
- Sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison on charges including treason, Vladimir Kara-Murza joined a growing list of Russians who have received long jail terms after speaking out against President Vladimir Putin or the invasion of Ukraine. Here are some of the most prominent cases. VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA Kara-Murza, 41, was convicted by a Moscow court over a series of interviews and speeches last year in which he condemned Russia's leadership and the war in Ukraine. The 25-year term he received was the harshest of its kind since Russia invaded its neighbour last February. ALEXEI NAVALNY Navalny, the most prominent opposition figure in Russia, is serving sentences totalling 11-1/2 years at the IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow. He was convicted of fraud and contempt of court, charges that supporters and human rights groups say were trumped up to silence him. His spokeswoman said last week...