Switzerland’s top criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 20 years over his role in repression committed by the west African country’s security forces under its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said. Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence for Ousman Sonko, Gambia’s interior minister from 2006 …
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Huge throngs of protesters blocked streets in the capital of Georgia and milled angrily outside the parliament building after lawmakers on Tuesday approved a “foreign influence” bill that critics call a Russian-style threat to free speech and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union. Soon after the 84-30 vote, a crowd of protesters in front of parliament tried to …
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Chances of restarting formal talks to mend Cyprus’ decades-long ethnic division appeared dimmer Wednesday as the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots told a U.N. envoy that he saw no common ground with Greek Cypriots for a return to negotiations. Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said that he conveyed to the U.N. secretary general’s personal envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, …
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A suspect has been taken into custody Wednesday after Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times, leaving him in a “life-threatening condition.” The shooting happened in Handlova, about 90 miles northeast of the capital of Bratislava. A statement on Fico’s Facebook page says he has “been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition.” He is expected …
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A fire early at a marina in northwestern Croatia early Wednesday destroyed 22 boats and caused huge damage but no injuries. An investigation was underway to determine what caused the fire at the marina in Medulin, a small town on the Istrian peninsula that’s popular with tourists in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea. Photos showed boats in the …
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An unknown number of orcas rammed a sailing yacht in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday morning, causing it to later sink, the latest attack in a trend that has been terrifying sailors in the region for the past four years. The latest incident took place at around 9 a.m. when crew members aboard the 50-foot-long Alboran …
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly defended Hamas on Monday, claiming that more than 1,000 members of the terrorist group from Gaza are being treated at hospitals in his NATO nation. At a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkey, Erdogan took issue with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis having categorized Hamas as a “terrorist organization.” “If you call Hamas a …
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The Georgian parliament on Tuesday approved in the third and final reading a divisive bill that sparked weeks of mass protests, with critics seeing it as a threat to democratic freedoms and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union. The bill requires media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” …
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Two miners were killed and one remains missing after a cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola coal mine in southern Poland early Tuesday in which 12 other miners were hurt, mining authorities said Tuesday. The cave-in happened around 3:30 a.m. some 2,800 feet underground in an area where 15 miners were working, said Rajmund Horst, the deputy head of the company that …
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European Union nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system on Tuesday as campaigning for Europe-wide elections next month gathers pace, with migration expected to be an important issue. EU government ministers approved 10 legislative parts of The New Pact on Migration and Asylum. It lays out rules for the 27 member countries to handle people trying to …
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