Category: Євросоюз

The Vatican Museums began requiring visitors Friday to present a so-called Green Pass, a digital certificate proving they have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from COVID-19 using a digital or paper certificate.The Green Pass is an extension of the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate, designed to make travel, as well as entry into certain venues, easier.Early Friday, tourists could be seen waiting to enter the museums to have QR codes scanned. The pass can be downloaded as a smartphone app, and is available in a paper version.The Vatican implemented its rules the same day the surrounding country of Italy implemented …

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Two Belarusian coaches have been stripped of their Tokyo Olympics accreditations over an alleged attempt to force a sprinter to fly home, an incident that drew international condemnation.The International Olympic Committee on Friday said it had removed the accreditations of Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich and they had left the Olympic Village.The body said this week that it was investigating the pair over their role in the case of Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who sought protection at a Tokyo airport to avoid being put on a plane home.She said she feared for her life if forced back to Belarus, which has been …

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A resurgent wildfire burned homes north of Athens, and blazes across southern Greece forced more evacuations Thursday as weather worsened and firefighters in a round-the-clock battle strove to save a former royal palace and the birthplace of the ancient Olympics.In a dramatic scene as flames approached, fire crews went house to house to escort residents out of homes 20 kilometers (12½ miles) north of the capital. The fire threatened the power supply to parts of the capital after damaging the transmission network, officials said, adding that fire crews with more than 700 people were working through the night.Greek and European …

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Russia begins mass military exercises with its Central Asian allies Tajikistan and Uzbekistan near the Tajik border with Afghanistan this week.  The maneuvers come against the backdrop of a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan – and rapid territorial gains by its adversaries in the Afghan Taliban. For VOA from Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.  Camera: Ricardo Marquina-Montanana, Producer: Marcus Harton …

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A Belarusian Olympic sprinter told reporters Thursday she was advised by family members not to return home because she was being criticized by the Belarus media, who reported that she was mentally ill.Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, arrived in Warsaw, Poland, late Wednesday. Polish authorities granted her a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum earlier this week after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.At a news conference, Tsimanouskaya told reporters that after she posted a message on social media earlier this week criticizing how she was being handled by her …

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China has lodged a stern representation with Britain’s BBC about its reporting of the floods in Henan and its statement on how foreign journalists were being treated, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The head of communications for the BBC World Service declined to comment.The broadcaster had said in a statement last month that the Chinese government should take immediate action to stop attacks that endanger foreign journalists.The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China had said journalists from several media outlets covering the floods were harassed online and by local residents. Some journalists received death threats, it said.”The BBC statement is inverting black and white,” …

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Britain’s top military commander, General Nick Carter, said Wednesday that Western powers need to retaliate for a suspected Iranian drone strike on an oil tanker, which killed a British security guard and the ship’s Romanian captain — otherwise Tehran will feel emboldened.Speaking to the BBC, Carter, chief of the British Defense Staff, said if a regime of deterrence is not restored in the Gulf, there will be more attacks and a higher risk of “miscalculation” by Iran. “What we need to be doing, fundamentally, is calling out Iran for its very reckless behavior,” he said.FILE – Britain’s Chief of Defense …

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Greek firefighters on Wednesday grappled with fires razing swathes of forest land on the outskirts of Athens, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate and killing animals from tortoises to horses.The inferno has scorched the slopes of Parnitha, which includes a protected nature reserve, just north of Athens.It started in a wooden ravine and is the most devastating of the approximately 80 wildfires that have broken out across the country in recent days, including on the island of Rhodes, as temperatures topped 45 degrees Celsius, the hottest day recorded in the region in four decades.Flames burn a mountain in Platanos village, …

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A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who said she faced punishment if she returned to her country departed Japan Wednesday on a flight bound for Austria. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was scheduled to land in Vienna Wednesday afternoon. She is then expected to travel on to Poland, where the government has offered her a humanitarian visa. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted Tuesday on Facebook that he had spoken with Tsimanouskaya and that she should be able to live in Poland without obstacles. Polish authorities granted Tsimanouskaya a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum on Monday after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrives at the …

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More than 500 firefighters struggled through the night to contain a large forest fire on the outskirts of Athens, which raced into residential areas Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee. It was the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece over the past 24 hours, amid one of the country’s most intense heatwaves in decades.Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said the fire north of Athens was “very dangerous,” and had been exacerbated by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions thanks to the heat that reached 45 Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area.No severe injuries were reported, and authorities said …

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The United Nations accused the government of Iraq of the widespread torture of detainees held in the country’s detention centers. A U.N. report covers conditions in the centers from July 1, 2019 to April 30, 2021.Torture and ill treatment are prohibited under international law. Iraq ratified the international convention against Torture in 2011 and since has enacted national laws criminalizing torture.The problem is the government has not implemented the procedural safeguards to prevent torture, and so the practice continues throughout the country. That assessment in a report released Tuesday by the U.N. human rights office and the U.N. assistance mission …

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A court in Belarus convicted a journalist of insulting the president in messages in a deleted chat group and sentenced him to 1 1/2 years in prison, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said Monday. The verdict in the case against Siarhei Hardziyevich, 50, comes as part of a massive crackdown that Belarusian authorities have unleashed on independent media and human rights activists. Hardziyevich on Monday was found guilty of insulting the president and slandering police officers, according to the association. The court sentenced him to a prison term and a $1,600 fine. The charges against the journalist from Drahichyn, a city 300 kilometers …

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Wildfires scorching some of Turkey’s most popular destinations have upended a nascent recovery in the country’s tourism sector hobbled for more than a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.Scenes of happy beachgoers flocking to coastal areas turned nightmarish as fires forced mass-evacuations of tourists and locals alike in cities such as Bodrum and Marmaris.Tuesday marked the seventh consecutive day Turkish firefighters battled the blazes, fueled by abnormally high summer temperatures and strong winds. The fires have been blamed for at least eight deaths and forced numerous residents, many of them farmers, to flee. 10,000 Flee Turkey Wildfires; Greece Power Grid Threatened At …

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France hopes to secure more than $350 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon’s crisis-battered population at a donors’ conference it co-hosts with the United Nations Wednesday — marking the year anniversary of Beirut’s deadly port blast. International pressure is growing for Lebanon’s fractious parties to unify and push through reforms.  Roughly 40 representatives of international institutions and heads of state were expected at this video conference, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah.    FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron attends a donor teleconference with other world leaders concerning the situation in Lebanon following the Beirut blast, in Fort …

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The British government’s scientific advisers have raised the prospect of fighting a forever war against the coronavirus saying the eradication of the virus “will be unlikely.” And they warn “there will always be variants.”They hold out the hope that the virus may evolve in such a way that it causes “much less severe disease,” but they caution that is unlikely to happen for some time. Preventive measures and restrictions will be needed in the meantime as there’s a “realistic possibility” that vaccine-resistant variants will emerge.And, chillingly, in a report released last week by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, otherwise …

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Huan Huan, a giant panda on loan to France, gave birth to twin cubs very early Monday, according to the Beauval zoo.  The twins, born around 1 a.m., are Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi’s second and third cubs, after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017. “The two babies are pink. They are perfectly healthy. They look big enough. They are magnificent,” said Rodolphe Delord, president of ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, central France. WATCH: Using Pandas for DiplomacySorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view …

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Every day sees more Afghan refugees reach Turkey after a grueling trek across Iran. As far as they’re concerned their journey is far from over — they want to get to the countries of the European Union — for them the Promised Land. But it is a land that is unwilling to accept them and is making plans to deter them from arriving. Around 2,000 Afghans a day are entering Turkey, and migration experts expect the numbers to surge as the Taliban seizes control of more of Afghanistan. The Taliban is currently besieging three major cities in south and west …

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A record number of migrants has crossed the English Channel from France to the United Kingdom this year in small boats. The British government is seeking to deter the migrants by making irregular migration a criminal offense.The migrants come from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Most are fleeing conflict or poverty.At its narrowest point, the English Channel is 30 kilometers wide. The migrants usually travel in overloaded inflatable dinghies across the busiest shipping lane in the world. British and French intelligence services say the crossings are coordinated by networks of people smugglers, who charge about $3,000 per person.French …

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London’s Heathrow Airport welcomed fully vaccinated travelers arriving from the United States and most parts of the European Union Monday, the first day they could do so without going into quarantine.Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye called lifting quarantine rules “a milestone,” saying it has allowed families to reunite that have been kept apart by the COVID-19 restrictions for as long as 18 months. Video from the airport Monday showed several emotional family reunions.New arrivals must still be tested before boarding their flights and take genetic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 tests within two days of arrival.Holland-Kaye has urged the government …

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A record-breaking heat wave across southeastern Europe has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey as well Greece and Italy and threatened the national power grid in Greece.Firefighters from the European Union arrived in Turkey on Monday where they joined local volunteers in fighting deadly wildfires along its coastline for a sixth day, The fires have been blamed for the deaths of eight people in recent days. There were no reports of additional deaths Monday.Opposition politicians in the country are criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for what they deemed his sluggish and out-of-touch response to the fires.Italian firefighters are using helicopters to …

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