Month: March 2024

Євросоюз

Dutch Hostage Standoff Ends; Suspected Arrested

EDE, Netherlands — Dutch police detained a man Saturday after he left a nightclub where four people had been held hostage for hours, bringing a peaceful end to a tense standoff. “We are exceptionally happy that it ended this way — that the victims came out safely and that we were able to arrest this suspect without using violence,” said Marthyne Kunst, head of the regional public prosecutor’s office. There was no immediate word on a motive, but police and prosecutors said they did not believe it was a terrorist incident. Police said the hostage-taker was armed with knives, and a …

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Суспільство

Центр нацспротиву: Росія пропонує жителям окупованих територій виплати за свідчення про «злочини України»

«Агітують писати заяви мешканців Маріуполя, Сєвєродонецька, Лисичанська й інших міст сходу України, які Росія стерла з лиця землі при «звільненні» …

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Євросоюз

How EU Deforestation Laws Are Reordering World of Coffee 

BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam — Le Van Tam is no stranger to how the vagaries of global trade can determine the fortunes of small coffee farmers like him.  He first planted coffee in a patch of land outside Buon Ma Thuot city in Vietnam’s Central Highland region in 1995. For years, his focus was on quantity, not quality. Tam used ample amounts of fertilizer and pesticides to boost his yields, and global prices determined how well he did.  Then, in 2019, he teamed up with Le Dinh Tu of Aeroco Coffee, an organic exporter to Europe and the U.S., and adopted …

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Євросоюз

UK Anti-Terrorism Police Investigate Stabbing of Persian-Language Journalist

london — British counterterrorism detectives are investigating after a journalist working for a Persian-language media organization was stabbed Friday in London amid fears he had been targeted because of his job, police said. Police said the man, in his 30s, was attacked and suffered an injury to his leg in the Friday afternoon incident in Wimbledon, southwest London. Britain’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the victim was prominent Britain-based Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, who hosts a show on the Persian-language television news network Iran International, which is critical of Iran’s government. Police said his injuries were not believed to be …

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Євросоюз

Pugacheva, Queen of Soviet Pop, Likely to Be Labeled ‘Foreign Agent’ in Russia

MOSCOW — Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to label Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent,” the state RIA news agency reported.  Pugacheva, 74, a Soviet and then post-Soviet icon, has criticized the war in Ukraine.  She is one of Russia’s most famous people – known across generations for hits such as the 1982 song “Million Scarlet Roses” and the 1978 film “The Woman who Sings.”  Pugacheva has in the past been feted by both President Vladimir Putin and his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. When Mikhail Gorbachev died in 2022, she praised the last Soviet …

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Євросоюз

World Braces for Islamic State to Build on Moscow Attack

WASHINGTON — What is normally a time of celebration is turning to one of anxiety, as counterterrorism officials are on high alert for the Islamic State terror group to build on its deadly Moscow attack with new plots targeting Easter. Already, some European countries have issued heightened threat alerts while increasing security. Italy, in particular, cites the approach of the Easter holiday as one reason for additional concern. The latest propaganda from Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS, has only served to reinforce such worries. In a statement Thursday marking 10 years since IS first announced its now-defunct caliphate …

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