Month: July 2021

The Transportation Department issued a final order Tuesday that blocks most travel between the United States and Belarus, underscoring Washington’s concern about the recent forced landing of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident Belarussian journalist.The order, which was requested by the State Department, bars airlines from selling tickets for travel between the two countries, …

Celebrity crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, known for his work in exposing the Dutch underworld, was shot and seriously wounded on a street in Amsterdam, police said Tuesday. “Peter R. de Vries was shot down in Lange Leidsedwarsstraat,” police said in a statement, referring to a street near one of the city’s largest public squares, …

With infection rates falling and vaccination numbers rising, Turkey has lifted nearly all COVID restrictions and is seeking a return to normalcy after several months of lockdown measures. Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul.    …

Russian authorities say the country is facing a surge in new coronavirus infections.  And, as Charles Maynes reports from Moscow, that has prompted a renewed effort to convince a skeptical public that the time to get vaccinated is now.Camera: Ricardo Marquina      Video editor: Rob Raffaele …

Belgium’s Africa Museum, once a celebration of the country’s colonial rule, will begin a multi-year process of returning stolen art to Democratic Republic of Congo, the Belgian government said on Tuesday.   From the late 19th century to 1960, thousands of art works including wooden statues, elephant ivory masks, manuscripts and musical instruments were likely …

Russia reported a record 737 deaths from coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours on Tuesday, pushing the national death toll to 139,316.   The country confirmed 23,378 new COVID-19 cases, including 5,498 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,658,672.   The federal statistics agency has kept a separate …

Since Britain voted five years ago to break with the European Union, there has been an exodus from the country of EU workers, which has gathered pace since the pandemic struck, according to British government figures.   Many among the more than one million EU citizens who have left went to Germany and the Netherlands, …

Pope Francis ate breakfast, read the newspapers and took a walk Tuesday as he continued recovering from intestinal surgery, the Vatican said. A statement from the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said tests performed following the pontiff’s Sunday surgery to remove half of his colon yielded “good” and normal results. “His Holiness Pope Francis rested well …

A plane with 28 people on board went missing in the Russian Far East region of Kamchatka on Tuesday, local officials said.An Antonov An-26 plane with 22 passengers and six crew members, flying from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the town of Palana, missed a scheduled communication, local emergency officials said. The plane also disappeared …

France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law that forces foreign producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles of Champagne, and called for the halting of exports of the bubbly drink to Russia. The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine …