Category: Світ

Dutch authorities said Tuesday that five experienced surfers drowned when they went out in stormy weather off the coast of The Hague.      In a statement, the Dutch lifeguard service KNRM said the surfers were part of a group that entered the sea late Monday and likely could not deal with the combination of …

In an effort to try to prevent importing new cases of the coronavirus, Spain is requiring people arriving from abroad to go into quarantine for two weeks. The country has started to emerge from a seven-week, strict lockdown after an explosion of cases made it one of the world’s COVID-19 hot spots. A health ministry order published Tuesday …

The United States, Britain and Russia are preparing to return their people to work despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday the country is conducting about 300,000 coronavirus tests a day and will soon pass a total of 10 million tests conducted, which he said was more than any other country.   A senior administration official told reporters that a new antigen test, approved by a company called Quidel, …

British media are reporting that the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has issued a wanted notice for a U.S. woman who is accused of killing a British teenager during a car crash last year.  A so-called “Red Notice” was issued for Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a U.S. diplomat, meaning she could provisionally be arrested if she leaves the United States. Such notices are usually …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to assure the public Monday that the government is taking “baby steps” toward leading the country out of the lockdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson answered the public and media questions during a daily briefing after critics called his new approach to COVID-19 vague and potentially dangerous. The United Kingdom has nearly 225,000 confirmed …

Britain has issued guidance for wearing face coverings in public on Monday as part of a large plan to slowly reopen the country’s economy.Boris Johnson’s government released the 50-page “Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy” document on Monday, detailing guidance for how to make homemade face coverings as well as where …

Thousands of Swiss children returned to school on Monday, many excited to be reunited with their classmates after a nearly two-month break due to the new coronavirus, although some parents had misgivings.   Children at Geneva’s La Tour School had to adapt to new rituals, with parents dropping them off at a distance. Classrooms were …

Plastic barriers and millions of masks appeared Monday on the streets of Europe’s newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school and Greece and Spain further eased restrictions. All faced a delicate balance of trying to restart battered economies without fueling a second wave of coronavirus …

Eighty health care workers from Romania arrived in Vienna, Austria, Monday on a chartered train.The workers, mostly female, have been hired to care for elderly people who require around the clock attention.Austrian EU minister Karoline Edstadler said the negotiations to bring the workers to Austria were not easy and the logistics were time-consuming but the …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson emphasized that Britain is not ending the lockdown but only modifying tough measures that had been imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.   In a televised address Sunday from his official London residence, Johnson announced three tentative steps toward reopening of the country. In Step 1, which starts Monday, …

The head of Poland’s electoral commission said on Sunday that the parliament speaker had 14 days to declare the date of a new presidential election in place of a Sunday vote that while never officially canceled did not take place due to the coronavirus.The declaration appeared to draw a line under a tumultuous debate in …

South Korea warned Sunday of the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 infections. “It’s not over until it’s over,” President Moon Jae-in told the nation Sunday as it reported new coronavirus infections at a one-month high. The spike in cases comes as South Korea had begun easing some pandemic restrictions, including reopening bars and nightclubs. A man …

A kidnapped Italian aid worker who had been held in an al-Shabab-controlled area of Somalia has been freed. Silvia Romano arrived in Rome on Sunday after being freed outside Mogadishu on Saturday. She spent overnight in a safe location in Mogadishu before being flown home. Security officials told VOA Somali that Romano was recovered from a forest near the town of Afgoye, 30 …

U.N. agencies are warning migrants and refugees crossing the central Mediterranean Sea risk losing their lives if European nations continue to prevent search and rescue vessels from saving those in distress. The U.N. human rights office expresses alarm at recent reports of rescue boats failing to assist migrants in trouble on the central Mediterranean Sea, considered …

The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a white supremacist group based in St. Petersburg, is increasingly expanding its outreach beyond Russia through the establishment of transnational networks with like-minded neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, experts on the group warn.RIM adheres to an ultranationalist ideology and aims to bring Russia’s tsarist rule back. The group is known …

The Serbian government Saturday protested to the European Union after one of the bloc’s educational websites described inventor and electricity trailblazer Nikola Tesla as a “famous Croatian.”Tesla was an ethnic Serb born under the former Austrian Empire in what is now Croatia.He spent most of his life in Western Europe and the United States, but …

Russia on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, a day after its erstwhile Western allies in the fight against Nazi Germany.It was the continuation of a tradition dating to the era of Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, who dismissed the Nazi surrender to the Western allies signed …

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep Britain under a coronavirus lockdown until at least next month — to the frustration of some in his Cabinet, who behind the scenes are arguing that Downing Street now needs to prioritize the economy, which is heading for its worst recession in 300 years.Cabinet ministers and some senior Conservatives …

Greece’s government is gradually easing lockdown restrictions, and after 42 days of strict stay-at-home rules, young Greeks are spilling onto the streets. Authorities are striking back, imposing stiff fines and new lockdowns in an effort to prevent a possible resurgence of the coronavirus.In the Athens suburb of Agia Parasksevi earlier this week, more than 400 …

The European Union said Friday that its envoy to China made a mistake by allowing the country’s foreign ministry to censor an opinion piece by EU ambassadors without first informing headquarters or member states, amid concern that the bloc might be bowing to political pressure from Beijing. The op-ed by the EU’s 27 ambassadors was …

France will slowly begin unwinding a two-month lockdown next week, but not for its restaurants. A new poll finds the coronavirus pandemic may put nearly one-third of French restaurants out of business – a tragic development if it happens for France, known worldwide for its fine cuisine. From the Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison, Lisa Bryant …

In Serbia, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital, Belgrade, late Thursday to demonstrate against the country’s president, Aleksandar Vucic.Protesters from the “Citizens’ Resistance” movement accuse Vucic of curbing democratic freedoms.”We are here because we are angry at our government, because of everything they did to us during the past two months, …

Croatia’s defense minister has resigned after an air force training plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a military airbase in the southwest of the country.Both crew members were killed in Thursday’s crash. A similar accident three months ago, when a helicopter crashed, also killed two pilots.Damir Krsticevic announced his resignation, saying “we have to be …

For the first time since achieving independence in 1991, Ukraine has ranked among the top 100 countries in the world for press freedom, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.But observers and journalists on the ground in Kyiv paint a more nuanced picture of the former Soviet state’s media landscape.Although Ukraine climbed six spots in RSF’s …

Municipalities and hospitals in northern Italy are bracing for a slew of lawsuits from families of coronavirus victims demanding compensation for alleged treatment errors, negligence and misinformation. Businesses disrupted by coronavirus lockdowns imposed by national and local governments are also mulling filing legal claims for alleged failures to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Hundreds of relatives of coronavirus …

France’s leader on Thursday called for closer cooperation with Russia as the world struggles against the coronavirus, recalling the joint Allied effort to defeat Nazi Germany that ended 75 years ago.In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Emmanuel Macron expressed “the recognition of the French people” as both countries prepare to celebrate the …