Month: September 2024

Pope Francis cancels meetings due to mild flu, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis canceled his scheduled appointments for Monday due to a mild flu, the Vatican said in a statement. The Vatican said the 87-year-old pontiff made the decision as a precautionary measure in view of his planned four-day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium later this week. It gave no further details. Francis is scheduled to begin the trip, his 46th foreign visit as pope, on Thursday. It comes less than two weeks after he returned from a demanding 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Francis now regularly uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain. …

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Long-forbidden French anti-riot force sent to Martinique as thousands defy bans on protests

Mexico City — France has sent a group of special anti-riot police that’s been banned for 65 years to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, where protesters have gathered despite the government barring demonstrations in parts of the island.  The force arrived this weekend after the local representative of France’s central government in its overseas territory said in a statement that protests were forbidden in the municipalities of Fort-de-France, Le Lamentin, Ducos and Le Robert until Monday. The government also issued a curfew.  The restrictions came after violent protests broke out on the island last week over the high cost of …

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PM Rama says Albania to grant sovereignty to Bektashi Muslims in Tirana

Tirana, Albania — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Sunday his country would transform the Tirana-based Bektashi Muslims, an Islamic Sufi order, into a sovereign state to promote moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Speaking at the United Nations, Rama pointed out that Albania, a tiny Western Balkan country, saved Jewish refugees from the Nazis during World War II and sheltered Afghans after the Taliban came to power three years ago. Albanians are also proud of giving to the world Mother Teresa who “embodied love for humanity,” he said. “She told us that not all of us can do big things, but …

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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy visits Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers

Scranton, Pennsylvania — Under extraordinarily tight security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday visited the Pennsylvania ammunition factory that is producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces. His visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant kicked off a busy week in the United States to shore up support for Ukraine in the war. He will speak at the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday and then travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As Zelenskyy’s …

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Exit poll gives Scholz’s Social Democrats a slight lead over far right in German state vote 

POTSDAM, Germany — An exit poll released after voting ended in a state election in Brandenburg on Sunday showed the Social Democrats with a slight edge over a growing far-right party. The voting took place three weeks after the far-right party made gains in two other states in eastern Germany.   The exit poll by Infratest dimap for public broadcaster ARD projected that the Social Democrats won 31.1% of the votes and the far-right Alternative for Germany won 29.8%. The results are expected later in the evening.   Around 2.1 million people were registered to vote for a new state parliament in Brandenburg, …

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Russian strike on Ukraine’s Kharkiv wounds 21 

Kharkiv, Ukraine — A Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv wounded 21 people including three minors, the regional governor said Sunday.    Oleg Synegubov posted on Telegram that eight of the victims were hospitalized, two in critical condition, after the strike late Saturday, when dozens of people were asleep in the two multistory buildings that were hit.    Russia has repeatedly targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, near the Russian border in the country’s east that counted 1.4 million inhabitants before Moscow launched its war in February 2022.    Rescue workers used torches to search through …

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Germany’s far-right AfD on track for another state election win

berlin — The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is predicted to come first in an election in Brandenburg on Sunday, seeking to build on gains in other eastern states this month and beat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in a traditional stronghold. The AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War II, in Thuringia, on September 1 and just missed first place in Saxony. It is one of several far-right groups in Europe capitalizing on worries over an economic slowdown, immigration and the Ukraine war — concerns that are particularly strong in formerly …

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Hong Kong diaspora media in Britain reports ‘government-backed attacks’

london — The Chaser, a news website run by Hong Kong journalists in Britain, says Google informed the diaspora media outlet that its company email was being targeted by “government-backed attacks.”   China is presumed to be behind the attacks, something Beijing denies. Analysts say the case highlights the growing difficulties Hong Kong journalists face both at home and overseas.  On Tuesday, The Chaser published a report about the incident on its website, including a screenshot of the email from Google about the government-backed attack. The email listed the severity of the attack as high.  According to Google, only 0.1% of …

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