Month: October 2023

Serbian police have arrested six people and seized automatic weapons after a shooting between migrants near the country’s tense border with Hungary killed three people and injured one. Police said late Friday they detained four Afghan and two Turkish nationals suspected of unlawful possession of guns and explosives. It was not immediately clear whether they would be charged with the shooting as well. The suspected clash between groups of migrants happened early Friday in abandoned farming warehouses near the village of Horgos. Police raided the area and seized two automatic rifles and ammunition. They also found 79 migrants and transferred …

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As many as 400,000 people are estimated to have suffered sexual abuse from Spain’s Catholic clergy and lay people, according to an independent commission. At least half of the victims may have been children, said the nearly 800-page report released to the speaker of the Spanish parliament’s lower house Friday and then to reporters. Conducted by Spain’s ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, who said the Church had often minimized or denied people’s reports of abuse, Spain’s first official probe of sex abuse by clergy members or others connected to the Catholic Church in the country was drawn from a survey based on …

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Ukrainian pro-Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tsaryov was shot twice and seriously wounded late Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea where he lives, his family and Russian officials said Friday. Russia’s top investigative body said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempt on his life, the latest incident in a series of attacks since the start of the war on several prominent pro-Moscow figures. Tsaryov was found unconscious and bleeding. A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said he is in intensive care. The former Ukrainian lawmaker was lined up to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv if Russia succeeded in …

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French President Emmanuel Macron said he would help to build a “humanitarian coalition” to offer support to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, following a two-day summit of European Union leaders in Brussels that wrapped up Friday. “We are going to build a humanitarian coalition with several European countries, particularly Cyprus, which will serve as a base for the humanitarian sea corridor,” Macron told reporters. Helicopter carrier France announced on Thursday it was deploying a helicopter carrier to support hospitals in Gaza. Macron reiterated calls for Israel to protect civilian lives as it targets Hamas fighters in Gaza after the …

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The European Union called for “pauses” in the war between Israel and Hamas to allow aid into the Gaza strip, following a summit in Brussels. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the bloc also discussed further aid for Ukraine as Kyiv fights Russia’s invasion. …

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Iceland’s meteorological office reported Friday the Nordic Island nation’s southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula has been experiencing a “seismic swarm” of small earthquakes over the last three days, with at least 5,800 recorded since it began and around 1,000 since midnight Thursday. In a series of reports on its website, the meteorological office — known as the “Met” office — said the vast majority of the quakes have been under magnitude 3, although two in the last three days were over 4. The largest tremor, on Wednesday, measured 4.5 north of the town of Grindavík. While small earthquakes are a daily occurrence …

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The Russian military is executing soldiers who do not follow orders related to the war in Ukraine, the White House said Thursday, in what is believed to be a reflection of low morale among Russian soldiers. “We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told a press conference. “We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire,” Kirby added, calling the practice “barbaric.”  Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply …

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