Month: December 2021

The United States recorded more than 512,000 daily new coronavirus cases Tuesday – the single highest one-day number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data released by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center The one-day record coincides with a New York Times database showing the seven-day average of cases in the U.S. rose above 267,000 …

A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor has indicted nine Bosnian Serbs for the killing of around 100 Muslim Bosniaks, including seven entire families, early in the 1992-95 war, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.  Twenty-six years after the end of its devastating war between Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks in which …

In his Nobel speech, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov described journalism as the “antidote to tyranny.”  The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and his staff face frequent threats because of the independent paper’s investigative, hard-hitting coverage. Several of its journalists and contributors have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on human rights abuses in Chechnya. A …

In a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for Prince Andrew say a lawsuit by an American who claims he sexually abused her when she was 17 might have to be thrown out because she no longer lives in the United States.  Attorneys Andrew Brettler and Melissa Lerner said they recently discovered that Virginia Giuffre has lived …

The U.S. State Department called Tuesday for Russia to release Paul Whelan, who was detained by Russian authorities three years ago.  Whelan, 51, was in Russia as a tourist and was arrested at a Moscow hotel. He was convicted of espionage charges and is currently serving a 16-year sentence of hard labor at a prison …

Mali’s military government has denied hiring Russian mercenaries from the controversial Wagner Group, which has been sanctioned by the European Union for rights abuses. France and 15 other Western nations last week condemned what they said was Russia’s deployment of Wagner fighters to Mali. Mali’s transitional government says it is only engaged with official Russian …

Prominent historians and human rights activists were shocked by a Russian Supreme Court ruling Tuesday to close Memorial International, which chronicled historical abuses of the former Soviet Union and identified victims of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s purges.    The human rights group, which has long drawn the ire of Russian officials, was found guilty …

With the arrival of winter in Europe and energy prices soaring, tensions are running high over the provision of gas from Russia — especially through the Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs through Poland and Belarus.  But the Yamal pipeline is just one part of a complex gas infrastructure network shaped not only by energy needs but also …

Russia’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Memorial, the country’s most prominent human rights organizations, must shut down.  Prosecutors had accused Memorial of failing to properly mark its publications under its designation as a foreign agent.They also said the group denigrated the former Soviet Union and rehabilitated “Nazi criminals.”  Memorial rejected the accusations as being politically …

As Europe rang in the New Year 20 years ago, 12 of its nations said goodbye to their deutschmarks, French francs, liras and pesetas as they welcomed the euro single currency.  On January 1, 2002, euro notes and coins became a reality for some 300 million people from Athens to Dublin, three years after the …

The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border.  A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12 and a meeting on January 13 with Russia, the United …

The English Premier League (EPL) is postponing several football (soccer) games as a record number of players have tested positive for COVID-19.  According to the league, more than 100 players and staff tested positive over the past week, leading to the postponement of 15 games.  “The League can today confirm that between Monday 20 December …