Month: December 2022

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is lucid, conscious and stable but his condition remains serious, the Vatican said Thursday, a day after it revealed that the 95-year-old’s health had deteriorated recently.  A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis asked for continued prayers “to accompany him in these difficult hours.”  On Wednesday, Francis revealed …

The Bulgarian foreign ministry on Thursday summoned Russia’s ambassador to explain why Moscow has placed a Bulgarian journalist working for an international investigative website on a list of wanted persons. Christo Grozev, the leading Bellingcat researcher on Russia, who carried out investigations into the poisonings of opposition politician Alexey Navalny and former Russian spy Sergei …

Kosovo reopened the country’s main border crossing with Serbia on Thursday after a nearby barricade that led to its closure was removed, while Serbia’s president said more than a dozen other Serb roadblocks in northern Kosovo also would be dismantled.  Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbs would start removing their barricades on Thursday. The move …

Recent Russian-Belarusian military exercises have raised fears of a second invasion of Ukraine from the north. While Ukrainians see Belarus as an aggressor, some observers and members of the Belarusian opposition say that not all Belarusians side with Russia. In fact, some Belarusians decided to prove their allegiance to Ukraine by joining its army. Myroslava …

Russia attacked Ukraine with a barrage of missiles Thursday, including ones that targeted the capital, Kyiv, as well as the city of Kharkiv. Ukrainian presidential aide Miykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russia launched at least 120 missiles “to destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.” The attack prompted air raid sirens across the country, and …

Bernard Phelan, a French Irish tour operator who has been detained in Iran for the past three months, was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” his sister said Wednesday. Phelan’s family spoke with The Irish Times about the diplomatic dispute he is involved in. According to the Times, Phelan, 64, was arrested by …

A Turkish appellate court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a leading critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose jailing has added to tensions in Ankara’s uneasy ties with the West. Paris-born activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole in April on the charge of trying …

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced late December that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is expanding its influence, recruiting convicts and receiving arms from North Korea. Garri Knyagnitsky has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. …

The United States, NATO and European Union urged maximum restraint in the north of Kosovo, as authorities closed a third border crossing on Wednesday as tensions escalated with local Serbs over its 2008 independence. For more than 20 years, Kosovo has been a source of tension between the West, which backed its independence, and Russia, …

NASA is exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft can potentially offer an alternative ride home for some crew members of the International Space Station after a Russian capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbital lab. NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an …

Italy is making coronavirus tests for visitors from China mandatory following an explosion in cases in China, the health minister said Wednesday. “I have ordered mandatory COVID-19 antigenic swabs, and related virus sequencing, for all passengers coming from China and transiting through Italy,” minister Orazio Schillaci said. The measure was “essential to ensure the surveillance …

  Pope Francis said Wednesday that former Pope Benedict is “very sick.”   Speaking during his general audience, the pope asked for special prayers for Benedict.     “I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a deterioration due to advancing age,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.  “The situation at the moment …

Ukraine said Russia attacks Wednesday included missiles fired at civilian targets in the southern city of Kherson. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported 33 missiles fired at Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured after Russian forces withdrew last month. Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military also reported fighting Wednesday around the …