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The European Parliament voted Tuesday to waive the immunity of the former head of Spain’s Catalonia region and two other separatists, raising the prospect they could be extradited to Spain to face sedition charges.
 
Carles Puigdemont and former cabinet members Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati have had immunity since winning seats in the European Parliament, and they plan to appeal Tuesday’s decision.
 
The Spanish government welcomed the European Parliament vote, saying the country’s matters should be settled internally.
 
Puigdemont and other separatists fled after a 2017 independence referendum for the Catalonia region.  Puigdemont and Comin have been in self-imposed exile in Belgium, while Ponsati has been in Scotland.
 
Voters overwhelmingly approved the referendum, but the Spanish government called it illegal.  A police crackdown injured hundreds of people in Catalonia.
 
In addition to sedition charges, Puigdemont and Comin are also facing charges of misusing public funds.
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The United States denounced Monday what it called a Russian disinformation campaign against U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccines, saying Moscow was putting lives at risk. The Global Engagement Center, an arm of the State Department whose activities include monitoring foreign propaganda, said that Russian intelligence was behind four online platforms involved in a campaign. The sites have “included disinformation about two of the vaccines that have now been approved by the FDA in this country,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It is very clear that Russia is up to its old tricks, and in doing so is potentially putting people at risk by spreading disinformation about vaccines that we know to be saving lives every day,” Price said.A medical specialist holds a vial of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in a department store in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Global Engagement Center’s findings, which said that the websites played up risks of the U.S.-made Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in an apparent bid to boost Russia’s homegrown Sputnik V. In an assessment provided last year to AFP, the Global Engagement Center said that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have run a coordinated campaign to undermine official narratives on COVID-19 including by spreading allegations of U.S. involvement. The center found that China briefly made a similar effort but ultimately decided it made more traction by highlighting Beijing’s own efforts. U.S. intelligence has long suspected Russia in disinformation campaigns on health, including spreading the myth in the 1980s that U.S. scientists created the HIV virus that causes AIDS. 
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New controversy is brewing for Britain’s royal family after an interview on U.S. television with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle raised questions of possible racism in the royal family. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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For her studies in quieting wind turbines and making other forms of renewable energy more competitive, a University of California-Merced student from Germany has been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in the U.K. In October, Selina Brinkmann will start four years of study, all expenses paid, courtesy of the Rhodes program that awards a mere 102 scholarships each year to academically outstanding applicants around the world. Brinkmann told VOA she is passionate about renewable energy and has focused her research on desalinating farm wastewater in the agriculturally lush Central Valley of California. The valley produces half of all fruits and vegetables in the U.S., but requires massive irrigation, some of which requires desalination.  “I’m working on the third alternative, which will allow them to reuse the wet content of their drainage water — the water, because that’s valuable, especially here because it’s so dry — while also not having any salt, like on the ground,” Brinkmann said.  Prior to UC-Merced, Brinkmann attended the University of Siegen in Germany and spent a year in the U.S. at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. Brinkmann said that her parents were very supportive of her and her three siblings growing up. They expected her to achieve, but weren’t strict about it, she said.   “My parents would never be upset with me if I had bad grades if I showed that I actually tried it,” she said. “My parents would really get annoyed at me though, if I was just like not doing anything and then got a bad grade — that was bad. So, they were definitely into education.”  After graduating high school in Germany, Brinkmann spent a year in Edinburgh, Scotland, before attending the University of Siegen. “I went to my local university and I stayed at home, which was nice,” Brinkmann said. “It allowed me to save up money for traveling and doing my own hobbies,” which include backpacking, dancing and ultimate frisbee.  In her third year, she studied abroad on a grant in the U.S. at the University of Tulsa. A graduate student fellowship followed through the DAAD — the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, or the German Academic Exchange Service. Brinkmann applied to the German Rhodes Scholarship in fall 2020, working toward her Ph.D. to follow the master’s degree she is working on now. The Rhodes interview was conducted over video. “Yeah, so and then the unique thing is, you obviously hear back the same day, which considering the time difference was really nice, because I just went to bed and woke up in the morning to get the email,” she explained to VOA.  Her plans for Oxford fit in with her experience and passion for renewable energy. She reached out to two professors at Oxford before even applying to the Rhodes Scholarship. “I’ll be joining the center for doctoral training in wind and marine energy systems and structures,” she said. She noted that the program combines her precise interests: sustainable energy and turbo machinery. Brinkmann is excited for the opportunity, but acknowledged how daunting studying at Oxford is.  “It’s not like any university,” she said.  
 
Other famous Rhodes Scholars include former President Bill Clinton, U.S. senator Cory Booker, American actor and songwriter Kris Kristofferson, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow.  
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Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says there’s sufficient evidence to warrant labeling the country’s main opposition party, the populist far-right Alternative for Germany, AfD, as “anti-constitutional” and an organization hostile to democracy.With nationwide elections just half a year away, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) wants a court to agree it can place the entire party under surveillance. On Friday, a court ordered the BfV to delay the surveillance until a ruling is made on a party challenge to the monitoring.If the courts agree that designating the AfD a menace to democracy is warranted, the agency would be able to step up monitoring of the party and its members, allowing the BfV to eavesdrop on party communications and recruit informants.AfD officials say the move is anti-democratic and a “scandalous” attempt to influence public opinion about the party ahead of multiple federal and regional elections and would undermine its ability to contest the polls on an equal footing with rivals.But politicians from other parties say the surveillance is needed.“The concept of a defensible democracy means naming and fighting the opponents of the free democratic basic order,” says Volker Ullrich, the interior affairs spokesman for the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.Green party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz told broadcaster Deutsche Welle: “We know from our history that even in a democracy, enemies of the rule of law can be elected” and “then eliminate democracy and the rule of law.”If the BfV manages to secure court approval, it would amount to a historic move. The AfD wouldn’t be the first German political party to come under a formal surveillance regime — that distinction goes to the left-wing party Die Linke, which was monitored from 2007 to 2014 over suspicions of extremism — but it would be the first time since the Second World War that Germany’s main parliamentary opposition was officially deemed extreme.German intelligence officials say they have no choice but to target the AfD, arguing that since its founding in 2013 as a euro-skeptic and anti-immigrant party, it has moved further to the far-right.Mounting influence of FlügelMuch of the BfV’s worry focuses on the mounting influence within the AfD of Flügel, a faction within the party that was formally disbanded last year but whose former adherents, government officials and analysts say, are continuing to operate and whose reach and clout are expanding.The BfV’s decision to target the AfD was taken after a year-long inquiry that produced a 1,000-page report. The study was undertaken by BfV agents, lawyers and academic experts on extremism, who examined speeches, broadcasts and social media posts of 302 AfD leaders and officials.According to Der Spiegel magazine, which obtained a copy, the report concluded that the AfD has a questionable relationship to democracy and is dismissive of human rights. Its stoking of hatred of Muslims and immigrants is poisoning the political climate in the country and risks spawning violence, the report’s authors say. A substantial part of the party, the report says, “seeks to awaken or strengthen a fundamental rejection of the German government and all other parties and their representatives.”The report’s authors also worry that the “perpetual defamation of and contempt for the democratic order and the party’s political opponents” risks triggering the kind of political violence seen in January in Washington, when Trump supporters from shadowy fringe groups, including the QAnon conspiracy movement, stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to disrupt congressional confirmation of Joe Biden’s election as president.And the authors highlighted how Germany’s Bundestag was targeted in August when several hundred protesters clambered over fencing ringing the national parliament, and ran toward the entrance, some waving the “Reichsflagge” — the black, white and red flag of the German Empire, colors later adopted by the Nazis. Police pushed back the mob.While the AfD has seen a precipitous slump in its poll ratings since the coronavirus pandemic struck — the party was polling at just 9% of support last month — officials say violent right-wing extremists, united in their opposition to what they say are illegitimate curbs on freedom, are gaining a boost from the coronavirus and strengthening their mobilization around anti-government conspiratorial narratives.“We are doubling down on our scrutinizing of groups and individuals on watch lists and adding to the lists — especially in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Congress,” a German intelligence official told VOA last month. The BfV has been monitoring regional branches of AfD for some months.According to researchers, Germany accounts for a large proportion of European adherents of the QAnon conspiracy movement, which believes former U.S. President Donald Trump has been waging a secret war against elite Satanists and pedophiles in government, business and the media. Q flags, which were on display January 6 in Washington, have also been spotted being unfurled at protests in Germany.German intelligence officials have also voiced alarm at multiplying connections between the AfD and other groups they deemed extremist, including the anti-refugee “Ein Prozent” (One Percent). 
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The U.S. State Department recognized 21 women who demonstrated leadership in advocating for human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, giving them an “International Women of Courage Award” during a ceremony in Washington Monday.This year seven Afghan women were given the award posthumously after they were assassinated in 2020 while serving their communities during a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s history. Other award-winners are from Belarus, Myanmar, China, Iran, Somalia, Turkey and Venezuela.Among this year’s honorees are jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova who fights for democratic movement in the aftermath of the disputed election; Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Yu who was imprisoned and now remains in China under an exit ban; Iranian chess arbiter Shohreh Bayat, who chose to be a champion for women’s rights after being accused of violating her country’s strict Islamic dress code; Venezuelan labor rights advocate Ana Rosario Contreras, who fights for the healthcare professionals; and Congolese human rights activist Julienne Lusenge who fights against gender-based violence.Watch the award ceremonyChinese Lawyer AbsentChinese human rights lawyer Wang did not take part in Monday’s virtual award ceremony, in which the State Department played a pre-taped message from Wang.”We’ve not been in regular communication over the past two days.  We are concerned because we know that she wanted to attend today’s ceremony.  We will be following up and if necessary speaking out on her case,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Monday.In her pre-taped message, Wang said “as a lawyer by training, I think I have the obligation to push for the rule of law; therefore, I would like to see more people stand up and speak out for the rule of law, fairness, and justice in China.”Wang added she had witnessed “judicial corruption and degeneration” while handling multiple politically sensitive cases.In 2016, the Chinese government barred human rights activist Ni Yulan from traveling to Washington to accept the International Women of Courage Award.  Ni continues to face threats and physical assault.Burmese Award-WinnerThe United Nations says that in Myanmar more than 50 people have been killed in violence following a coup and the arrest of the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.Phyoe Phyoe Aung, co-founder of the Wings Institute for Reconciliation, an organization that aims to bring young people together to bridge cultural and religious differences was recognized in Monday’s ceremony.”It is a time of dramatic change in my country.  There are women leaders from all walks of life… who courageously joined the anti-coup movement,” she told VOA’s Burmese service.”I feel awkward, uncomfortable, and sad to receive this award in this difficult time.  Even though I do not deserve this award compared to those who sacrificed most, I am accepting it on behalf of all courageous women who fight for democracy and freedom for our country,” she said.During the ceremony U.S. first lady Jill Biden spoke about the common struggles of the awardees.”Your fight is our fight. And your courage causes us to come together again, and again, and again,” said Biden.”Diplomacy at its best is a recognition of this connection that freedom for women in Afghanistan strengthens communities everywhere, that education in Burma creates opportunity far away, that fair elections in Belarus will bolster our own democracy too,” added the first lady.The IWOC award, now in its 15th year, has recognized more than 155 awardees from over 75 countries since March of 2007.
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Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is in Switzerland this week to drum up international pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko to resign and negotiate a peaceful transfer of power. Lukashenko was reelected for a sixth term in office on August 9 in an election that was widely seen as fraudulent.Tikhanovskaya said she will be pressing her case for greater support for her country in her meetings with the president of the Swiss Parliament and with officials of U.N. and private agencies involved in human rights issues.She said conditions in Belarus continue to deteriorate. Currently, she notes Belarus is holding 207 political prisoners, more than 1,000 criminal cases are pending, and more than 55,000 people have been detained throughout the past months for protesting against the government.She said people in jail are being subjected to torture, rape and other atrocities. She is calling for the release of all political prisoners and detainees and for perpetrators of crimes to be brought to justice. She is appealing to the United States, the European Union and other countries to put more pressure on Lukashenko to leave office and end the suffering of her people.“It is up to every country to live their values of democracy.  Are they just words for the country or they want to make these words…into action…It is a challenge for all democratic countries just to prove that human rights is not just words for them,” she said.Tikhanovskaya said she is in contact with U.S. officials and received a strong message of support from President Biden after his election. She said she hopes to arrange a visit to Washington sometime soon.While she expresses disappointment in the Kremlin’s support for Lukashenko, she said Belarus has close ties with its Russian neighbor and that will not change.  At the same time, she said she sees signs of disaffection emerging toward the regime.“Putin supported Lukashenko after the election but now we see that Lukashenko is becoming like too expensive for Putin politically and financially…and I am sure that they would prefer Lukashenko to step away,” said Tikhanovskaya.But she hastens to add, whatever changes occur will happen through peaceful means.The U.N. Human Rights Council is in session and is expected to adopt a strong resolution on the crisis in Belarus. Tikhanovskaya said she would like the resolution to create a strong group of experts that will monitor conditions in her country and keep world attention focused on the critical situation in Belarus.
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Britain opened all its schools Monday. The openings come as the country has experienced some of its lowest coronavirus death tolls since October.Vietnam began its COVID-19 vaccination program Monday with its front-line health care workers as the first recipients of the shots.Japan’s rollout of its COVID vaccine program has been slow, hampered by vaccine and syringe shortages. Three weeks in, a little over 46,500 front-line medical workers have received their shots. The elderly will be the next in line.Japan, however, intends to speed up its vaccination program. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has promised to have enough of the shots to vaccinate Japan’s entire population by the start of the Summer Olympics in July, according to Reuters.The European Union has warned member states against purchasing Russia’s COVID vaccine since the EU has not yet finished its review of Sputnik V. Despite the warning, several nations have made moves to purchase the vaccine.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday that there are almost 117 million global coronavirus cases.The U.S. has more infections that any other location with nearly 30 million, followed by India with 11.2 million and Brazil with 11 million.
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 Italian state police arrested an Algerian citizen in Italy’s southern city of Bari Monday who is suspected of belonging to Islamic State and providing help for the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.  Police identified the 36-year-old Algerian as Athmane Touami, also known as Tomi Mahraz.   According to investigators, Touami gave direct support for the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, the Stade de France, and in three boroughs of Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The Paris attacks in which hundreds more people were wounded, were France’s deadliest since World War II. Touami is also believed to have provided counterfeit documents to the gunmen and bombers who participated in the attacks, a statement by the Bari police said. Athmane Touami, his brothers Medhi and Lyes, and several other individuals, some of them not yet identified, had been operating in Italy and Algeria, as well as in France, Belgium, Spain and Syria, with links to radical jihadist circles, the statement said. Athmane Touami has been in prison in Bari since 2019, because while in the Temporary Detention Center for migrants in Bari, he was found in possession of false documents used to move freely in the countries of the Schengen zone.    He was tried and sentenced to two years in prison, and due for release on June 19, 2021.  
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Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that could send shockwaves through the monarchy.The 39-year-old, whose mother is Black and father is white, said she had been naive before she married into royalty in 2018, but that she ended up having suicidal thoughts and considering self-harm after pleading for help but getting none.Meghan said that her son, Archie, now 1, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family about “about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.””That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations that family had with him,” Meghan recounted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS late Sunday.Meghan declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry, who said his family had cut them off financially and that his father, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.Buckingham Palace had no immediate comment about the interview, which aired in the early hours of Monday morning in Britain.The sit-down conversation with Winfrey was the most anticipated royal interview since Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, shared intimate details of her failed marriage to Charles in 1995, denting the heir’s reputation and the family’s standing in the eyes of the British public.Nearly three years since her star-studded wedding in Windsor Castle, Meghan described some unidentified members of the royal household as brutal, mendacious and guilty of racist remarks.She also accused Kate, the wife of her husband’s elder brother, Prince William, of making her cry before her wedding.While the family came in for open criticism, neither Harry nor Meghan attacked Queen Elizabeth directly.Still, Meghan said she had been silenced by “the Firm” — which Elizabeth heads — and that her pleas for help while in distress at racist reporting and her predicament had fallen on deaf ears.”I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” Meghan said, wiping away tears.’Really let down’Harry and Meghan’s announcement in January 2020 that they intended to step down from their royal roles plunged the family into crisis. Last month, Buckingham Palace confirmed the split would be permanent, as the couple looks to forge an independent life in the United States.Harry, 36, said they had stepped back from royal duties because of a lack of understanding, and he was worried about history repeating itself — a reference to the death of his mother, Diana, who was killed in a 1997 crash as her car sped away from pursuing photographers.Asked what his mother would say about events, he said: “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad.”He felt “really let down” by his father and added: “My family literally cut me off financially.”Harry denied blindsiding Queen Elizabeth, his grandmother, with his decision to shun life within the monarchy, but said his father stopped taking his calls at one point.”I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, ‘Can you put this all in writing?’”Detractors say the couple wanted the limelight but were not willing to live with the attention it brought. To supporters, their treatment shows how an outdated British institution lashed out against a modern, independent biracial woman.Lies and tearsThere have also been allegations of bullying against Meghan which appeared in The Times newspaper in the buildup to the couple’s appearance. Buckingham Palace said it would investigate the claims, adding it was “very concerned.”Meghan told Winfrey that people within the royal institution not only failed to protect her against malicious claims but lied to protect others.”It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family,” Meghan said.Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media and the palace.”The reverse happened,” Meghan said. “A few days before the wedding she (Kate) was upset about something, pertaining to yes, the issue was correct about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.”Meghan, who said they were not paid for the interview, conceded she had not realized what she was marrying into when she joined the British monarchy and “went into it naively.”The couple also revealed that Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, was expecting a girl.Harry said Meghan had “saved” him from his trapped royal life. “I would disagree, I think he saved all of us. You made a decision that certainly saved my life,” Meghan said.”This is in some ways just the beginning for us.”
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The White House on Sunday urged computer network operators to take further steps to gauge whether their systems were targeted amid a hack of Microsoft Corp’s Outlook email program, saying a recent software patch still left serious vulnerabilities.”This is an active threat still developing and we urge network operators to take it very seriously,” a White House official said, adding that top U.S. security officials were working to decide what next steps to take following the breach.CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration was forming a task force to address the hack. The White House official, in a statement, said the administration was making “a whole of government response.”While Microsoft released a patch last week to shore up flaws in its email software, the remedy still leaves open a so-called back door that can allow access to compromised servers and perpetuate further attacks by others.”We can’t stress enough that patching and mitigation is not remediation if the servers have already been compromised, and it is essential that any organization with a vulnerable server take measures to determine if they were already targeted,” the White House official said.A source told Reuters that more than 20,000 U.S. organizations had been compromised by the hack, which Microsoft has blamed on China, although Beijing denies any role.The server vulnerabilities can impact credit unions, town governments and small business, and have left U.S. officials scrambling to reach victims, with the FBI on Sunday urging them to contact the law enforcement agency.Those affected appear to host Web versions of Microsoft’s email program Outlook on their own machines instead of cloud providers, possibly sparing many major companies and federal government agencies, records from the investigation suggest.A Microsoft representative on Sunday said it was working with the government and others to help guide customers, and the company urged impacted clients to apply software updates as soon as possible.Neither the company nor the White House has specified the scale of the hack. Microsoft initially said it was limited, but the White House last week expressed concern about the potential for “a large number of victims.”So far, only a small percentage of infected networks have been compromised through the back door, the source previously told Reuters, but more attacks are expected.
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A report coinciding with International Women’s Day on Monday finds the number of women parliamentarians globally is increasing, but so slightly that it barely dents the global male-dominated system.The Inter-Parliamentary Union reports more than one quarter of the world’s parliamentarians are women; however, at the current rate of progress, the IPU says it will take another 50 years to achieve gender parity.Rwanda, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates were the three top-ranked countries in 2020, accounting for 50% or more female members. The IPU attributes much of this success to gender quotas. On average, it notes parliaments with quotas have elected nearly 12% more women to lower chambers and 7.4% more women to upper chambers.IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong said discrimination against women prevents them from becoming parliamentarians. In some cases, he said, governments have laws that prevent women from running for office.“We have in recent years brought to light the phenomenon of violence against women, and there is ample evidence out there that women are now refraining from entering the dangerous terrain of politics on account of harassment, sexism and outright violence, which is something we need to combat,” he said.The IPU report finds progress has been made in all regions of the world. It says the Americas once again tops all other regions with women making up 32.4% of MPs. This, the report says, was despite political upheaval across Latin America. It notes women represented nearly 27% of membership in the U.S. Congress, the highest level in its history.In sub-Saharan Africa, the report finds Mali and Niger have made significant gains in women’s representation, despite grave security risks. It says a few countries in Europe have achieved 30% female representation, while the Middle East and North Africa have lagged with 17%.The worst-performing countries are in the Asia-Pacific region. The IPU says Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea have no female representation. IPU officials call this a matter of great concern.The report shows the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on elections last year, noting that national parliamentary elections were postponed in nearly 20 countries due to restrictions.
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Illegal migrants and refugees in Greece will take a back seat in the nation’s coronavirus vaccination drive, the government in Athens has said, stoking concerns that more than 70,000 asylum-seekers, stuck in squalid living conditions, may become more vulnerable, according to aid workers and the United Nations.In rolling out the vaccine program last month, the center-right government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed to make asylum-seekers eligible for the jab.
 
But Aristotelia Peloni, a government spokesperson, said this past week that thousands of migrants and refugees stuck in some 30 camps across the country or left adrift without proper accommodation, waiting for years to have their asylum requests heard, were not a priority.
 
“There is a provision for [migrant] inoculations to take place in closed areas, but for the time being others have priority, mainly elders … and vulnerable groups that will soon be added into the program regardless of age,” she told a news conference.
 
As of February 1, only the Netherlands and Spain have included migrants into their vaccination programs, according to the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM). Britain also offers free coronavirus testing and vaccinations for undocumented migrants. And Germany, most recently, said migrants would be second in line in its ongoing vaccination drive.
 
People older than age 85 have led Greece’s vaccination campaign, including senior government officials, health workers, police, coast guard personnel and the military. Jabs for those 60 and older have followed in recent weeks in a second and third wave of inoculation against the deadly virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
 
But the government’s “Greeks first” vaccination policy has critics here fearing it echoes strong anti-immigrant sentiment and rhetoric once trumpeted by the leaders of Golden Dawn, one of Europe’s most violent neo-Nazi groups.
 
Humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, are urging the government to clarify its policy regarding migrants.
 
“No one is safe until everyone is safe,” said Peter Kessler, the senior communications officer for the U.N.’s agency in Greece. “Ensuring that refugees and other non-nationals are included in the vaccine rollout and have access to vaccinations is key to protecting everyone and ending the pandemic.”
 
At least 70% of the population worldwide needs immunity to “sustainably slow the transmission of the virus.” And key to ending the pandemic, experts say, is ensuring that refugees are included in the vaccine rollout.
 
Since taking power in 2019, Mitsotakis’s center-right government has adopted a tougher stance on illegal migration, coming under increasing fire by aid organizations and the UNHCR for mistreating migrants and refugees, and by orchestrating covert operations to forcibly evict asylum-seekers.
 
In a report issued last month, aid group Aegean Boat Report documented the cases of 13 men, women and children it says were beaten, robbed and forced onto a life raft by Greek authorities on the island of Lesbos, only hours after illegally entering the country from Turkey.
 
The report said uniformed operatives removed the refugees from a camp on the island, claiming the refugees were being taken for COVID-19 testing.
 
“Instead,” the report said, “they were forced into an isobox, repeatedly beaten with batons, stripped of their possessions and forced into seas on an inflatable raft.”Greece has grappled with accusations of forced migrant returns and abuse since 2015, when about a million refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, arrived in Europe to escape violence at home.
 
Forcing migrants to turn around is a serious breach of international law, violating asylum-seekers’ right to safe passage and protection.
 
Croatia, France, Spain, and Italy — all European Union member states that face similar migration challenges — also have been accused of engaging in unlawful, sometimes violent pushbacks.
 
Officials contacted by VOA on Sunday did not respond to requests for comment. Still, the government in Athens has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming humanitarian groups have been aiding and abetting asylum-seekers in their quest to illegally enter Greece from Turkey and seek passage to the heart of Europe. Athens has also alleged that several of the non-governmental organizations have been working with human smugglers, allegedly facilitating illegal migration to Europe.
 
In February, NGO Mare Liberum said it alone had documented “close to 10,000 people” who were pushed back in 320 cases last year.
 
The group said the alleged pushbacks represented an “unprecedented escalation in human rights violations in the Aegean.”
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A particularly spectacular blast from Italy’s Mount Etna volcano belched out a towering cloud of ash and lava stone Sunday onto Sicilian villages, the latest in a series of explosions since mid-February.Italy’s national geophysics and volcanology institute INGV said the powerful explosion at 2 a.m. local time was the 10th such big blast since February 16, when Europe’s most active volcano started giving off an impressive demonstration of nature’s fire power, coloring the night sky in hues of orange and red.  Increasing tremors rattled the mountain throughout much of the night. Ash and small lava stones rained down on eight villages on Etna’s slopes Sunday morning, while lava flowed from the southeast crater slowly down an uninhabited side, as it has been doing for the last three weeks, the institute said.  The column of ash and lava reached a height of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) on Sunday, according to scientists who monitor volcanic activity with specialized instruments from an observatory at Etna in eastern Sicily.Locals swept ash and lava stones from their front steps and balconies. They have taken to covering cars parked outdoors with carpets, blankets and sheets of cardboard to make cleanup easier after each blast. Winds helped carry the ash eastward, INGV said.No injuries or serious damage have been reported after the recent blasts. Geologically active, Etna occasionally becomes particularly noisy and explosive as it has been lately.By midmorning, Etna’s latest display of activity had slowed somewhat with the lava flow ending, although the volcano was still puffing out a “weak emission of ash” from the southeast crater. A few hours later, the volcanic tremors picked up again, the INGV said in a statement.  The INGV scientists say there is no way of predicting when this current round of particularly robust volcanic activity might subside.
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Swiss citizens narrowly approved a referendum that would prohibit women from wearing full facial coverings in public, a controversial issue that has divided the country during an exceptionally heated campaign. Campaigners, politicians and the media have dubbed it the “burka ban” even though the burka is not worn in Switzerland.  The burka, a full body covering with a mesh screen to see through that is worn in Afghanistan has come to symbolize the oppression of women.    This is one of the messages figuring in a heated campaign leading up to Sunday’s vote.  Campaign posters of a menacing-looking woman wearing a black niqab with only her eyes exposed reading “Stop Radical Islam” and “Stop Extremism” are plastered all over Switzerland.   Critics of the proposed ban call it deeply racist and sexist.  They say it is an attack against the Muslim community and is aimed at stigmatizing and marginalizing this minority group even more.   The right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which supports the ban disagrees.  It claims the burka initiative defends the dignity of women.  However, Swiss parliamentarian Jean-Luc Addor acknowledges the campaign is calling for an end to what supporters see as the Islamization of Switzerland.    “This is something that we find shocking.  It is fundamentally in opposition with various values of our civilization simply because, for us, free people show their faces in all circumstances outside, Addor said.”   The irony of demanding a ban on full-face coverings has not escaped many at a time when Switzerland’s 8.5 million people are obliged to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.    The Swiss federal government opposes the proposal.  Justice Minister Eveline Widmer Schlumpf says accepting the initiative would unnecessarily endanger religious peace in the country.  She says it would violate human rights, which are guaranteed under international conventions.  Furthermore, she says passage of the initiative would tarnish Switzerland’s reputation as a country that values the protection of fundamental rights.   Debates about various symbols of Islam, including burkas and niqabs have been going on for years.  In 2009, Swiss voters approved another Swiss People’s Party initiative to ban the building of minarets in the country.   Many people in Switzerland believe the proposed ban on full face coverings is much ado about nothing.  They note only some 30 women in Switzerland wear the niqab.  About half are Swiss converts to Islam and the other half are tourists who come to this Alpine country for vacation.  
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Pope Francis Sunday visited Christian communities in Iraq’s north, where the Islamic State group carried out its worst devastation, to bring encouragement and solace to those who suffered numerous atrocities and are trying to rebuild their homes and lives. Iraqis are also hoping to rebuild trust and hope for the future.Joyous celebrations welcomed Pope Francis to Iraq’s Christian heartland, first in Mosul where Iraqis shouted, “Viva Baba Francesco, long live Pope Francis, welcome to Nineveh.” Surrounded by the ruins of Islamic State militant destruction, the pope led prayers for the victims of war, saying, “Hope is more powerful than hatred.”    The pope then headed to the town of Qaraqosh, the heartland of Iraq’s once thriving Christian community of 50,000, where only half the population has returned after the jihadists destroyed infrastructure and laid mines in homes. He urged Christians to forgive injustices perpetrated by Muslim extremists against them and rebuild their lives once again.      “So do not lose hope; do not lose faith. Remember that we need to forgive. Have good courage to continue fighting, to continue to seek forgiveness. And I know it is hard, but God can bring peace to this Earth,” he said.      Pope Francis arrives to pray for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square in Mosul, Iraq, March 7, 2021.French Dominican Rev. Olivier Poquillon is helping to oversee the rebuilding of Mosul’s Our Lady of the Hour Church, where Muslims, Christians and other communities “work together, engage together for the common good.”    “It’s really a bottom-up initiative,” he said. “The idea came from the people of Mosul. We saw a young neighbor, he was probably born after the time of the American invasion, so he never knew the peaceful time of Mosul. And he told us, Oh, you are Christians, come back, come back; we need you to live in peace together.”     Hassan Amer, a Muslim, works with Catholic Relief Services in the Nineveh Plains on projects to promote rebuilding devastated communities and interreligious trust. The “Shared Future Program’’ receives funding from USAID.    “We work with communities from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds to common goals and establish and strengthening the relationships. Most importantly, building the broken trust among the communities on Nineveh Plains after years of displacement,” he said.   For the Vatican, the continued presence of Christians in Iraq is vital to keeping alive faith communities that have existed since the time of Christ.   
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Inspectors will check an underwater pipeline for pollution after it caught fire on a frozen river in Russia’s Siberia, federal monitoring service Rostekhnadzor said Sunday.First reports suggest around 700 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (a mixture of propane and butane) could be on site, Rostekhnadzor spokesperson Andrei Vil said on his Telegram account.The pipeline’s owner Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur said the gas leak happened Saturday, causing a short fire on the frozen River Ob in the oil-rich Khanty-Mansiysk region in Western Siberia.It happened 44 kilometers (27 miles) from the nearest residential area and there were no “risks for the population and the environment”, the company added.But Vil said on Telegram that “statements indicating the absence of risk for the environment raise serious doubts” because of the amounts of liquefied petroleum gas on site.The cause of the leak is still being established, said Sibur.A Sibur regional official Alexander Teplyakov said Sunday the incident was under control but that the company would pay for any damage caused by the incident.Teplyakov, quoted in a statement from the local authorities, said 27 people and 12 units of machinery were currently on site.Samples  would be taken from the surface of the water to determine any damage to the environment, he added.Russia frequently suffers environmental disasters, often due to the country’s ageing infrastructure or to negligence.Last month, mining giant Norilsk Nickel was fined close to $2 billion for a fuel spill that leaked tons of diesel into rivers in the Russian Arctic. 
 
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The European Union should shake off its ill will and build a good relationship with Britain as sovereign equals, Britain’s top EU adviser David Frost said on Sunday, promising to stand up for the country’s interests.Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Frost again defended Britain’s unilateral move to smooth post-Brexit trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, over which the EU has promised to launch legal action for breaching the terms of the Brexit deal.Since Britain left the EU last year, relations between the two have soured, with both sides accusing the other of acting in bad faith in relation to part of their trade agreement that covers goods movements to Northern Ireland.Frost, who led Britain’s negotiations to secure a trade deal with the bloc, was appointed as a minister and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s main point man for future ties with the EU earlier this year and looks set to take a firmer approach.”I hope they will shake off any remaining ill will towards us for leaving, and instead build a friendly relationship, between sovereign equals,” he wrote in an opinion piece.”That is what I will be working towards, acting constructively when we can, standing up for our interests when we must – as a sovereign country in full control of our own destiny.”He again defended the British government’s extension of a grace period for checks on some food products imported by retailers to Northern Ireland as being “lawful and consistent with the progressive and good faith implementation” of part of the post-Brexit trade deal called the Northern Ireland protocol.But he added: “Without this threat of disruption, we can continue our discussions with the EU to resolve difficulties arising from the protocol constructively – and we aim to do so.”Northern Ireland’s future was bitterly contested during the Brexit negotiations. London ultimately agreed to leave the British-ruled province aligned to the EU’s single market for goods to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, fearing it could be detrimental to the 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of conflict in the province.This has required checks on some items arriving in Northern Ireland from elsewhere in the United Kingdom, which some businesses say has made it difficult to bring in supplies. To address that issue, the British government extended the grace period for some checks until Oct. 1.The EU disputes that the grace period extension was in line with the agreement, saying London should honor what it signed up to. It has promised to launch legal action, or a so-called “infringement procedure” against Britain. 
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