Tag Archives: Europe

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s main opposition party retained its control over key cities and made huge gains elsewhere in Sunday’s local elections, in a major upset to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had set his sights on retaking control of those urban areas. With more than 90% of ballot boxes counted, incumbent Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, of the Republican …

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Observances were held in Poland on Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the “Great Escape,” an ingenious act of defiance during World War II in which 76 prisoners of war tunneled out of a German prisoner-of-war camp into a snowy forest. British soldiers carried photos of pilots murdered on Hitler’s orders at a ceremony that …

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union was embroiled in a legal standoff on Thursday between its legislature and its executive Commission over the release of billions in frozen funds to the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a time when his consent was essential for a deal to open EU membership talks with Ukraine. Parliamentarians from several groups …

BEIJING (AP) — In Beijing and Kyiv, the divide between China and Europe over the war in Ukraine was on display this week. As a Chinese envoy crisscrossed Europe for talks on ending the war, his boss, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, trumpeted a sharp rise in China-Russia trade — which the West sees as providing an economic lifeline to Moscow …

Uncrewed, remote-controlled boats have been around since the end of World War II. Late last century, technological innovations broadened their potential uses. Lethal, advanced sea drones developed and deployed by Ukraine in its war with Russia have opened a new chapter in that story. Ukraine claims it is the first country to set up a specific unit dedicated to producing …

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss police say the 15-year-old suspect in the stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich over the weekend had appeared in a video expressing solidarity with the banned Islamic State group, and called himself a “soldier” in its self-described caliphate. Zurich cantonal police security chief Mario Fehr told reporters Monday that authorities were investigating whether the …

PRAGUE (AP) — The lower house of Parliament in the Czech Republic on Wednesday rejected same-sex marriage while affirming existing unions called partnerships for gay couples. The new legislation, passed in a 123-36 vote, also doesn’t allow same-sex couples to adopt children aside from those of their partner. The legislation still needs approval from the Senate and President Petr Pavel, …

LONDON (AP) — Kate Winslet is running things — on and off the set of her new TV show, “The Regime.” In the HBO show premiering Sunday, she plays Elena Vernham — also known as The Chancellor, the ruler of a fictional country in Europe, possibly near Poland. Winslet, who is also an executive producer on the show, says she’s …

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian space officials on Wednesday acknowledged a continuing air leak from the Russian segment of the International Space Station, but said it poses no danger to its crew. The Roscosmos state corporation said that specialists were monitoring the leak and the crew “regularly conducts work to locate and fix possible spots of the leak.” “There is no …

PRAGUE (AP) — Four Central European countries are deeply divided over the Russian war against Ukraine and how to resolve the conflict, the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said on Tuesday. The four post-communist countries form an informal grouping of European Union and NATO members known as the Visegrad Four. While the Czech Republic and …