Year: 2021

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says there’s little chance the military organization would ever introduce a system for expelling anyone among its ranks. That’s despite the fact that tensions are quietly simmering between a number of the 30 member countries. Stoltenberg says he doesn’t plan to recommend such a system and that

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that consumer prices across the 19 countries that use the euro currency are rising at a record rate. The European Union’s statistics agency said Tuesday that the eurozone’s annual inflation rate hit 4.9% in November, largely as a result of a huge spike in

PARIS (AP) — A far-right former TV pundit with multiple hate-speech convictions has officially entered the race for France’s presidency. The launch of Eric Zemmour’s candidacy made official a campaign that had been gathering steam for months before it then stumbled of late. Zemmour warned supporters in a video on Tuesday that they’ll likely be

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Several prominent Kuwaiti opposition figures have returned home from a decade of self-exile after getting amnesty from the ruling emir. The long-awaited move celebrated Tuesday is aimed at ending a political paralysis that has burned a hole in public finances. Faisal al-Muslim was the latest to be greeted by screams of

By GEIR MOULSON and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s next chancellor says he will back a proposal to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for everybody next year. But he said Tuesday that lawmakers should be free to vote according to their conscience on the issue. Center-left leader Olaf Scholz is expected to take office

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has barred entry to travelers from 10 African countries, citing the threat from the new omicron coronavirus variant. The move, announced in a Health Ministry statement issued late Monday, came just two weeks after Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers. The Health Ministry said the entry ban

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities have arrested a prominent member of an opposition party over accusations that he engaged in “political and military espionage.” Anadolu Agency said late Monday that a court in Ankara ordered Metin Gurcan, a retired army officer and founding member of the opposition Democracy and Progress

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A former member of the Islamic State group has been convicted by a German court of genocide and committing a war crime over the death of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl he had purchased as a slave and then chained up in the hot sun to die.  The

By LEE KEATH Associated Press KABUL (AP) — Human Rights Watch says that Afghanistan’s Taliban fighters have killed or forcibly “disappeared” more than 100 former police and intelligence officers since taking power in mid-August. A new report from the group points to continuing retaliation against members of the former armed forces, despite an announced amnesty.

By RAF CASERT and CARLA K. JOHNSON Associated Press Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm. It highlights the difficulty in containing the virus