Month: July 2021

A London Metropolitan Police officer pleaded guilty Friday to the murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, whose disappearance and subsequent murder in March sparked grief and outrage regarding violence against women.   Appearing by video link from the Belmarsh high-security prison, 48-year-old Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to murder during a hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court. Couzens, who had confessed to abduction and rape earlier, had worked as a member of the Diplomatic Protection Command. Everard, who worked as a marketing executive, disappeared on the evening of March 3, sometime during a 50-minute walk home from a friend’s house in south …

READ MORE

A Vatican spokesman said Pope Francis is continuing to recover from intestinal surgery performed earlier this week and will deliver his Sunday noon blessing from the hospital.   In a statement, Vatican Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said the 84-year-old pope walked in the corridor of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital Thursday and “resumed his work, alternating it with moments of reading texts.”  He said the pope “celebrated Holy Mass in the chapel of his private apartment” in the hospital, “attended by all those assisting him during his hospitalization.” Bruni said the pope had fully recovered from a slight fever he had …

READ MORE

A Taliban delegation in Moscow said on Friday that the group controlled over 85% of territory in Afghanistan and reassured Russia it would not allow the country to be used as a platform to attack others.   The Taliban’s claim of control of much of the country, disputed by the Afghan government, is impossible to independently verify.   Foreign forces, including the United States, are withdrawing after almost 20 years of fighting, a move that has emboldened Taliban insurgents to try to gain fresh territory in Afghanistan.   That has prompted hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees to flee …

READ MORE

Moldovan voters go to the polls this weekend in a snap parliamentary election that could decide whether the former Soviet republic fully embraces pro-Western reforms or prolongs a political impasse under strong Russian influence.   The landlocked country of 3.5 million — Europe’s poorest, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine — has in recent years lurched from one political crisis to another, dogged by instability and stuck in geopolitical limbo between pro-Western and pro-Russia forces.   Although Moldova signed a deal with the European Union in 2014 on forging closer political and economic ties, rampant corruption and lack of reform have …

READ MORE

During a grueling, weekslong mission in northern Mali, French soldiers were confronted by a familiar threat: Extremists trying to impose the same strict Islamic rule that preceded France’s military intervention here more than eight years ago.Traumatized residents showed scars on their shoulders and backs from whippings they endured after failing to submit to the jihadis’ authority.”We were witness to the presence of the enemy trying to impose Shariah law, banning young children from playing soccer and imposing a dress code,” said Col. Stephane Gouvernet, battalion commander for the recent French mission dubbed Equinoxe.France is preparing to reduce its military presence …

READ MORE

Finance ministers and central bankers from the group of 20 rich countries will meet face to face on Friday for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at a gathering in Venice where corporate tax reform will top the agenda.The G-20 is expected to give its political endorsement to plans for new rules on where and how much companies are taxed which were backed last week by 130 countries at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The deal envisages a global minimum corporate income tax of at least 15%, a level which the OECD estimates could …

READ MORE

Montenegro is weeks away from securing a deal to either swap or refinance with European and U.S. banks nearly $1 billion in debt owed to China, and it hopes to reduce the interest rate on the debt to below 1%, Economy Minister Jakov Milatovic told Reuters.   Montenegro borrowed $944 million from China in 2014 to fund a 41-km (25-mile) stretch of road, which foes of then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic dubbed the “Road to Nowhere,” saying it typified waste under his rule, an accusation he denied.     Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, who came to power in December, is seeking …

READ MORE

A news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at a NATO airbase in Lithuania was interrupted Thursday when fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian jets.   The two leaders were three minutes into a news conference, televised live from the Siauliai airbase in northern Lithuanian, when flight crews responded to an alarm and scrambled their jets. The leaders and the media were led away.     Military officials later confirmed the Spanish jets, based in Lithuania on a NATO mission to police Baltic airspace, were activated after reports two Russian Su-24 combat …

READ MORE

The UK says most of its troops have left Afghanistan.    Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the news Thursday, saying the threat from al-Qaida had lessened.     “All British troops assigned to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan are now returning home,” he said, adding that “most of our personnel have already left.”    He appeared to sidestep questions about whether the troop withdrawal would leave Afghanistan open to another takeover by the Taliban.    “We must be realistic about our ability alone to influence the course of events. It will take combined efforts of many nations, including Afghanistan’s neighbors, to …

READ MORE