Month: February 2023

A funeral for a Belarusian military volunteer and activist who died fighting on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine was held Saturday in Kyiv. Eduard Lobau was killed in fierce artillery battles in Vuhledar against Russian troops as part of a small but dynamic regiment of Belarusian dissidents fighting alongside the Ukrainian armed forces. His body will be taken to Warsaw for burial. Russian troops have ramped up attacks in the east of Ukraine, particularly in the industrial towns of Bakhmut and Vuhledar. Moscow has said its main goal is to capture the eastern Donetsk province which it considers a part …

READ MORE

Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home following a prisoner swap, officials on both sides said Saturday. Top Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said in a Telegram post that 116 Ukrainians were freed. He said the released POWs include troops who held out in Mariupol during Moscow’s monthslong siege that reduced the southern port city to ruins, as well as guerrilla fighters from the Kherson region and snipers captured during the ongoing fierce battles for the eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian defense officials, meanwhile, announced that 63 Russian troops had returned from Ukraine following the swap, …

READ MORE

Police stepped up security Saturday as North Macedonia and Bulgaria commemorated a 19th-century revolutionary claimed by both neighbors as a hero at a ceremony expected to be attended by nationalists from the two countries. The two Balkan states have had tense relations since 2020, when European Union member Bulgaria blocked the start of accession talks with North Macedonia over disputes relating to history and language. Police sealed off the area around the Church of Holy Salvation in Skopje, where North Macedonian officials laid wreaths on the 151st anniversary of the birth of Goce Delcev, a revolutionary hailed by both countries …

READ MORE

Italy’s coast guard Friday found eight bodies, including the body of a pregnant woman, on a migrant vessel that was attempting to make the journey across the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Italy. The bodies were unloaded on Italy’s Lampedusa island, the first stop for many migrants on the journey across the sea. Dozens more Africans were aboard the vessel, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency. Survivors of the journey told officials that three other people had died at sea, ANSA reported. They said a women died and fell into the water with her 4-month-old son, who drowned. In addition, …

READ MORE

Paco Rabanne, the Spanish-born designer known for perfumes sold worldwide and for metallic, space-age fashions, has died, the group that owns his fashion house announced Friday.      “The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honor our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88. Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain,” the statement from beauty and fashion company Puig said.    Le Telegramme newspaper quoted the mayor of Vannes, David Robo, as saying that Rabanne died at his home in the Brittany region town of Portsall.    Rabanne’s fashion house …

READ MORE

The Group of Seven industrialized countries agreed Friday on a price cap for refined Russian oil exports.     U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in statement that the agreement follows a similar price cap on crude Russian oil exports set in December and “helps advance our goals of limiting Russia’s key revenue generator in funding its illegal war” in Ukraine.   Officials say the cap is at two levels — $100 per barrel for Russian diesel and other fuels that sell for more than crude, and $45 per barrel for Russian oil products that sell for less than the price of crude, …

READ MORE