Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sent to a prison outside Moscow to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that came despite a demand by Europe’s top human rights court for his release.Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev did not immediately name the prison where Navalny was sent. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia.Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous foe, was arrested January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims he has ridiculed.Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Сourt of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful.Large protestsNavalny’s arrest has fueled a wave of protests that have drawn tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny’s life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court’s demand as unlawful and “inadmissible” meddling in Russia’s home affairs.Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny’s jailing.Since Navalny’s arrest, Russian officials and state news media have aggressively tried to discredit him, a change from the previous tactic of largely ignoring him.Possible ‘advocacy of hatred’Some of the criticism has emphasized anti-migrant views expressed years ago as he was rising to prominence.Amnesty International this week stripped Navalny of his designation as a “prisoner of conscience” because of those views. “Navalny had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility,” the organization said in a statement Thursday.The statement denied the move was in response to external pressure, but news reports have suggested Amnesty International was targeted in a coordinated campaign to discredit him.”These were not independently acting activists … these were people who would like to defame Alexey as the most prominent opponent of Mr. Putin,” Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, said in a conference call Thursday.Amnesty International said rescinding the prisoner-of-conscience designation did not change its demand for Navalny to be freed.”There should be no confusion: Nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason, we continue to campaign for his immediate release,” the organization said. 
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After two years of discreet silence about his detention without charges in China, Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran finally spoke up this month. His youngest child was only 5 years old when he traveled to Shanghai in February 2019 on what he expected to be a short business trip, O’Halloran said in an interview with FILE – People hold signs calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 6, 2019.While the case of the “two Michaels” has been widely publicized, O’Halloran’s ordeal was little known until he went public this past week. In the interview, the 45-year-old father of four said his anguish had reached the point that he asked the Chinese judge in charge of his case: “Do you expect that I tell my wife to get on with her life, and for my kids to try and forget about me? Is that what you’re trying to do?” O’Halloran, an executive with the Irish subsidiary of an aviation leasing company, traveled to China to help settle a commercial dispute that resulted in the arrest of his employer on charges of defrauding Chinese investors of some $70 million. While not charged with any crime, O’Halloran has been told he cannot leave China until the money is returned to the investors. The Chinese embassy in Dublin told RTE: “In any country, company representatives have the legal obligation to return the proceeds of crime flowing into the company and related yields to the victims.” The embassy added, “We fully understand Mr. O’Halloran’s family’s anxiety and hope they will advise Mr. O’Halloran to cooperate in a meaningful way with judicial authorities in Shanghai to ensure an early solution to the case.” But O’Halloran argued in his interview that the Chinese legal system is “fundamentally flawed.” “To expect somebody to sign documents in Chinese, to conduct an entire interview in Chinese, without legal representation, is just not correct in my view,” he said. FILE – Winston Lord, then-U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, addresses a press conference in Honolulu, Jan. 25, 1996.The case has attracted the attention of some major China policy experts, including Winston Lord, a former U.S. ambassador to China and assistant secretary of state for East Asia. “I’ve been following the case closely for many months, it’s a very sad, frustrating and cruel case,” Lord said in a phone interview from his home in Manhattan. “This man is a businessman from Ireland, he went to the mainland to try to help the Chinese resolve a case against another Chinese, and he’s been kept in detention — not house arrest, but he can’t leave the country — for two years.”  Lord said China may be hurting its own economic interests by holding O’Halloran. “I already know people who don’t want to be stationed in China, whether it’s pollution, repression, or extreme measures like this,” he said. The detention has also been denounced on the floor of the Irish parliament, where Senator Michael McDowell insisted that “no Chinese citizen would be treated in this way in this country.”Watch: In the #Seanad today I highlighted the ongoing wrongful detention of Richard O’Halloran in China https://t.co/xs8h15ztJ5 via @YouTube— Michael McDowell (@SenatorMcDowell) February 15, 2021″Comparative size of our two countries doesn’t justify wolf diplomacy being deployed against Ireland to try and blackmail this man into doing something unlawful,” he said. McDowell cautioned the Irish government against falling into what he called the three stages of inaction — “the stage which was premature to do anything, the stage which was too sensitive, and the stage which was too late.” 
 
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Months of lockdowns and pandemic restrictions are taking their toll on Europeans, with many chafing at the prolonged limitations on public life. With vaccine distribution now starting to pick up after a sluggish start in most countries, calls are mounting for an easing of restrictions.Britain is first up, with pressure building for easing after a blisteringly fast rollout of its inoculation program that’s already seen one in three adults in the country receive at least one vaccine dose.In a race against a faster-spreading variant of the virus, more than 18 million people in Britain have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, fueling demands for a speedy end to the country’s lockdown, the third since the pandemic emerged.The ruling Conservatives hope the success of the largest mass vaccination program in the country’s history will erase public memories of the missteps and reversals of last year, which saw ill-disguised clashes between the government, lawmakers and medical advisers. There were more than two dozen abrupt U-turns in policy.But a Conservative popularity bounce risks being lost amid squabbling about when and how quickly pandemic restrictions are lifted, according to lawmakers and analysts. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that his government would take a “cautious” approach to easing a national lockdown, with restrictions lifted every few weeks so the impact can be judged.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a vial of Astra Zeneca coronavirus vaccine during a visit to a coronavirus vaccination center in Orpington, England, Feb. 15, 2021.The prime minister told lawmakers this week that England is going to start “reclaiming our freedoms” with the goal of removing all legal limits on people’s social contact set to end by June 21. His road map for relaxing the country’s lockdown will see schools reopen on March 8 and some outdoor restrictions lifted three weeks later.Hugs could be allowed in May, he said.For some, the planned relaxation is too fast; for others, too slow. And Johnson’s party is becoming restive. Influential Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker lamented the slow pace of relaxation, saying it “will be a hammer blow for aviation, for pubs, for restaurants, hotels, gyms and pools, the arts and the establishment.”Nearly 70,000 finesAnd many Britons are straining at the leash with breaches of pandemic restrictions rising steeply since last month. Police have handed out in the past year nearly 70,000 fines to people for breaking lockdown rules, according to government data, but of those, more than a third were issued since January 17 of this year.Elsewhere in Europe, relaxation seems a distant dream, but public impatience is mounting with the slow vaccination campaigns, which are likely to have electoral consequences.In the Czech Republic, where infections are surging, Prime Minister Andrej Babis has been criticized for sending inconsistent signals about when coronavirus measures will be lifted.FILE – A man wearing a face mask to guard against coronavirus transmission walks across the medieval Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, Feb. 25, 2021.The country’s parliament has moved to restrict Babis’ powers to tighten restrictions, and the opposition coalition now has overtaken the ruling party in the opinion polls, suggesting voters are losing faith in the government.Despite the fact that the country’s two-week infection rate is three times the EU average and its death rate of 174 people per million is among the worst in Europe, Babis’ government started to loosen a few pandemic restrictions, only to backtrack as health experts denounced the move.Rastislav Maďar, head of the University of Ostrava’s Institute of Epidemiology, told Politico EU, “Many people are fed up and tired of the political games, and now refuse to respect obligatory lockdown rules.”Some relaxationPartly as a result of public pressure, governments in Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark have all tweaked their restrictions to allow some letup on lockdowns.Starting March 1, high school children in Holland will have at least one day in the classroom. Hairdressers and other so-called contact professions can reopen on March 3. Teenagers and adults up to age 27 can play team sports outside. But a nighttime curfew, which triggered several days of riots when introduced, will remain.Denmark, which has been under a lockdown since December, is lifting some restrictions that will see the retail sector reopen. Older school students are expected to be allowed to return to classrooms in regions with low infection rates.FILE – Carabinieri officers patrol an access road to Bollate, in the outskirts of Milan, Italy, Feb. 18, 2021. Italy’s Lombardy region asked the national government Feb. 25 to send more vaccines north to help stem a surge of new COVID cases.And in Italy, high school students are now returning to class, the first time since October, and bars and restaurants in some regions are being allowed again to serve customers at tables and counters until dusk. But a nationwide nighttime curfew remains and travel among Italy’s 20 regions is restricted.In other European countries, lockdowns and severe restrictions are remaining. Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and France aren’t ready for any serious easing. In Germany, the government is coming under increasing pressure to present the public with a road map out of the coronavirus crisis amid growing anger over the snail-paced vaccination campaign.’We envy you’Only 6% of Germans have received at least one shot so far, compared with about 33% of Britons. That huge disparity prompted Bild Zeitung, a major tabloid newspaper, to splash across its front page Wednesday: “Dear Britons, We envy you!” The paper went on to ask, “When will we be as far as the British are?”The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been rebuffing calls for a major relaxation of lockdown rules, saying there has to be a significant reduction in the incidence rate to under 35 per 100,000 first. It currently stands at about 60 per 100,000.At a Tuesday meeting with lawmakers from her ruling Christian Democratic party, Merkel said she understood “the valid desire for an opening up,” but that could be done safely only in “four stages of opening, without a yo-yo effect.”  
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Sweden’s national weather service, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) Thursday reported a new national high temperature for February — 16.8 degrees Celsius.The SMHI confirmed the record on its Twitter account, attributing the high temperatures to the föhnvind, a warm, dry wind that traditionally comes out of the mountains.Record temperatures were also reported Thursday in Poland where Makow Podhalanski hit 21.7 degrees Celsius, and in Slovakia, where the southwestern city of Hurbanovo reported a high of 20.8 Celsius.Winter Weather Hits Parts of Europe, From Poland to Turkey Temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 Fahrenheit) in some Polish areas overnight, the coldest night in 11 yearsThursday’s records come as western and central Europe is seeing something of a winter heat wave, with records falling earlier in the week in the Czech Republic, Austria, and in Germany, where on Monday, Hamburg hit 21.1 degrees Celsius — the warmest temperature recorded there in any winter month. Some of the records that fell this week had stood for more than a century.The heat wave comes two weeks after western and central Europe saw a frigid blast of winter, with heavy snowfalls in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Washington Post meteorologist Matthew Cappucci says the region has seen the wild swing in temperatures thanks to a seesaw effect in the jet stream that earlier in the month brought freezing air down from the pole, and this week brought warm air from the south, including dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa.
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The World Health Organization said Thursday that one in 10 COVID-19 patients experience persistent ill health 12 weeks after having had the virus and urged health authorities to take their situation seriously.
At a virtual news conference Thursday, WHO’s Europe division released a policy brief that documents how different countries in the region have responded to patients who suffer long-term COVID-19 symptoms.
WHO European director Hans Kluge said so-called “long COVID” can bring symptoms that include severe fatigue, chest pain, heart inflammation, headache, forgetfulness, depression, loss of smell, recurrent fever, diarrhea and ringing in the ears. 
 
The policy brief says available data shows about one in four people with COVID-19 show symptoms about a month after testing positive, while one in 10 experience symptoms after 12 weeks.
Kluge said, “The sufferers of post-COVID conditions need to be heard if we are to understand the long-term consequences and recovery from COVID-19.” He said it is important for policymakers to consider such long-term patients as part of the response to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.  
Kluge added long-term sufferers are a priority for the WHO and should be for every health authority.
Kluge also said there were fewer than one million new COVID-19 cases in Europe for the second consecutive week as transmission continues to slow. He said new cases have declined by almost half since the beginning of the year, which he credited to countries that have implemented new measures to slow transmission.
But Kluge warned that COVID-19 continues to spread at very high rates across Europe, with two variants of concern continuing to displace other variants.
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A Serbian court has sentenced a former mayor to four years in prison for ordering an arson attack on the home of an investigative journalist.In a trial that lasted nearly two years, a court Tuesday found Dragoljub Simonovic guilty of ordering the December 2018 attack on Milan Jovanovic, a reporter for the news website Zig Info. Simonovic, a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), was mayor of Grocka, a municipality near the capital, Belgrade, at the time of the attack.”I hope that this verdict will be the harbinger of more media freedom in Serbia,” Jovanovic told reporters outside the court, adding that he was satisfied with the ruling.Jovanovic and his wife were at home at the time of the attack and had to escape through a window after Molotov cocktails were thrown through a window, according to reports at the time. The journalist suffered smoke inhalation, Milan Jovanovic in front of his burned home, in Belgrade, Serbia, December 2018.Jovanovic said he believed he was targeted for investigating cases of corruption and graft allegedly linked to the mayor.A man accused of carrying out the attack, Aleksandar Marinkovic, was sentenced in absentia by the court.The verdict was a rare case of justice being secured for journalists in a region where press freedoms are withering. Hostile rhetoric, sometimes from politicians, a lack of independence in media regulatory bodies, online attacks on journalists and weak mechanisms to support news associations are among the obstacles for media in the Balkans.Serbia’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has also worsened in the past four years, dropping three places in 2020, according to data compiled by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. (RSF)Significant rulingInternational media rights groups welcomed Tuesday’s court ruling.Milan Jovanovic’s burned vehicle and garage, in Belgrade, Serbia, December 2018. (RFE/RL)The conviction of a mastermind was significant in the fight against impunity in attacks on the press, Pavol Szalai, head of the European Union and Balkans desk at RSF, told VOA Serbian.“The arson attack against the home of Milan Jovanovic is an emblematic case for press freedom not only in Serbia, but also in the whole Balkans,” Szalai said, adding that the region was “plagued by impunity” regarding crimes against the media.“When RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire met the Serbian president in 2019, Aleksandar Vucic committed to healing this disease. Today’s verdict is the beginning of the healing process; it is the beginning of the end of impunity for crimes committed against journalists in Serbia,” Szalai said.Noting that Jovanovic and his wife could have been killed in the attack, the media watchdog representative said that RSF would monitor the appeal hearings closely, adding that it was “crucial” that the verdict be confirmed.“Europe is still traumatized by last year’s acquittal of the alleged mastermind of the assassination of Jan Kuciak in Slovakia. If the perpetrators of the attack against Milan Jovanovic are definitively condemned, it will be an important measure to protect the physical security journalists.” Szalai said.Marian Kocner, a powerful businessman in Slovakia, was acquitted last year of involvement in the 2018 slaying of investigative journalist Kuciak. He denied any role in the killing.Milan Jovanovic’s burned vehicle, in Belgrade, Serbia, December 2018. (RFE/RL)The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed the sentencing.“The verdict is a strong signal from Serbian authorities that acts of violence against journalists will not remain unpunished,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement forwarded to VOA. “Fighting impunity for such acts is an important step toward preventing further attacks, and it is especially welcome in Serbia where threats, intimidation and acts of violence against journalists are not unprecedented.”Journalist safetySerbia is under pressure to improve press freedom and safety for journalists as part of its steps toward joining the European Union. In its 2020 country report, the European Commission said “cases of threats, intimidation and violence against journalists are still a source of serious concern” in Serbia.Szalai, from RSF, said the country needs to address several issues, including securing justice in crimes against the media and ending verbal assaults and threats, including those from state officials.”Perpetrators of crimes committed against journalists must be swiftly condemned, regardless if they are state officials or not,” Szalai said, adding, “The editorial independence of the public media must be granted, and economic and institutional pressures on the private media’s editorial independence must stop.”Szalai said that law enforcement should also investigate evidence of crime and corruption exposed by reporters. “All these changes would not only contribute to improving media freedom, but also accelerate Serbia’s integration to the EU,” he said.This story originated in VOA’s Serbian Service. Some information is from AFP.   
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German customs authorities Wednesday announced the largest seizure of cocaine in European history, more than 23 tons discovered in two raids this month at ports in Hamburg, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium.German customs official Rene Matchke told reporters the 28-year-old owner of a Dutch import company was arrested Wednesday in the Netherlands, where police say both shipments were bound.  German officers had first discovered 16 tons of cocaine hidden in containers from Paraguay at the port of Hamburg February 12, following a tip from a Netherlands-based company. German and Dutch investigations led the officials Sunday to seize another 7.2 tons of cocaine at the port of Antwerp.German and Dutch police confirm the two shipments account for the largest amount of cocaine confiscated in a criminal investigation, and one of the top five in the world.  German customs officials say the investigation is ongoing and that they do not believe the man who was arrested acted alone. They say the drug haul would have been worth billions of dollars.
 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law bills that impose fines for violating a controversial law on “foreign agents” as well as other legislation relating to protests, such as the financing of rallies and disobedience of law enforcement.
 
According to the laws, signed by Putin Feb. 24, releasing information about so-called “foreign agents” and their materials without also indicating their status could lead to fines of up to 2,500 rubles ($34) for individuals and up to 500,000 rubles ($6,720) for entities. The law applies regardless of whether the “foreign agent” in question is a mass media outlet or an individual.
 
The other laws signed by Putin the same day set fines for individuals found guilty of illegally financing a rally at up to 15,000 rubles ($200), while officials and organizations for such actions will be ordered to pay up to 30,000 rubles ($400) and 100,000 rubles ($1,345), respectively. Putin also signed a law that significantly increases fines for disobedience of police and security forces.
 
Russia’s “foreign agent” legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and submit to audits.
 
Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL’s Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, as well as Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
 
At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals, including foreign journalists, on its “foreign agents” list and to impose restrictions on them.
 
Russian officials have said that amending the “foreign agents law” to include mass media in 2017 was a “symmetrical response” to the U.S. requirement that Russia’s state-funded channel RT register under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
 
U.S. officials have said the action is not symmetrical, arguing that the U.S. and Russian laws differ and that Russia uses its “foreign agent” legislation to silence dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas.
 
The Russian state media monitor Roskomnadzor last year adopted rules requiring listed media to mark all written materials with a lengthy notice in large text, all radio materials with an audio statement, and all video materials with a 15-second text declaration.
 
The agency has prepared hundreds of complaints against RFE/RL’s news websites. When they go through the court system, the fines levied could reach nearly $1 million.
 
RFE/RL has called the fines “a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation,” while the U.S. State Department has described them as “intolerable.” Human Rights Watch has described the foreign agent legislation as “restrictive” and intended “to demonize independent groups.”
 
Since early in Putin’s presidency, the Kremlin has steadily tightened the screws on independent media. The country is ranked 149th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders.
 
 
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Police stormed the party offices of Georgian opposition leader Nika Melia and detained him Tuesday, deepening a political crisis that prompted the prime minister to resign last week.
 
Melia’s supporters had barricaded themselves in the offices, using furniture to block the doors. Scores of police surged into the building during the early morning raid, including using firefighting ladders to gain access via the roof.  
 
Seventeen people were hurt in the scuffles between police and activists, the Interfax news agency reported. Some activists were coughing and suffered eye irritation after police sprayed gas towards them from hand-held canisters.
 
Melia, the United National Movement (UNM) party’s chairman in the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people, has been accused of inciting violence at street protests in June 2019, a charge he dismisses as politically motivated.
 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “deeply troubled” by Melia’s arrest, urging the Georgian government to avoid actions that could further escalate tensions. A State Department spokesman added that recent developments in the country were in contravention of its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
 
A new prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, was chosen by parliament late on Monday to replace Giorgi Gakharia, who resigned last week after a court ordered the detention of Melia, a move Gakharia said would cause political turmoil.
 
In a video posted on Facebook late on Tuesday, the new prime minister called for “all the political forces to which our country is dear to start a true dialogue.” 
Hundreds protest
 
Hundreds of people massed outside parliament to protest Melia’s detention and pitched two tents in the capital, Tbilisi. One protester held up a sign calling for a snap election, the government’s resignation and freedom for “political prisoners.” A UNM party member called for a large-scale protest march on Friday, the Rustavi 2 media outlet reported.
 
The Interior Ministry said it had no option but to use coercive measures at Melia’s party offices as activists had ignored numerous warnings not to obstruct their work.
 
“Polarizing rhetoric, force and aggression are not the solution to Georgia’s political differences,” Blinken said in a statement. “We call on all sides to avoid actions that could further escalate tensions and to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve the current political crisis,” he said.
 
The U.S. Embassy earlier expressed regret that its call for restraint and dialogue had been ignored.
 
Britain’s ambassador, Mark Clayton, urged restraint from all sides. The European Union’s ambassador called for efforts to find common ground.
 
“The logic of escalation is getting the upper hand. The political crisis is deepening,” the EU diplomat, Carl Hartzell, wrote on Twitter.
 
Zygimantas Pavilionis, a special envoy from the Lithuanian parliament who returned on Monday from a mediating mission to Georgia, said the authorities had been seeking support from Western diplomats for a crackdown.
 
“They were asking for green light from me, from the EU ambassador, from the American ambassador. I said, no way,” he said. “Now democracy is dying there.”
 
Last week, a court ordered Melia to be detained for allegedly failing to post bail. Gakharia abruptly resigned on Thursday, citing disagreement with his own team over the arrest order. The Interior Ministry initially held off on detaining Melia because of Gakharia’s resignation.
 
The new prime minister, Garibashvili, served as prime minister from 2013 to 2015. His candidacy was put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
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A German court has convicted a former member of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s secret police of accessory to crimes against humanity for facilitating the torture of prisoners.
 
The court in Koblenz sentenced Eyad Al-Gharib to 4 1/2 years in prison.
 
Prosecutors accused him of being part of a unit that arrested protesters and delivered them to a detention center where they were tortured.
 
The conviction marked the first time a court outside of Syria ruled in a case alleging members of Assad’s government committed crimes against humanity.   
 
The court is also holding a trial for a second person who is accused of directly committing crimes against humanity.  That trial is expected to last until late this year.
 
Prosecutors are invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring charges of crimes against humanity in a German court.
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Three men suspected of having supplied the bomb which killed Maltese anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 were arrested on Tuesday, police said. Their arrest came as a man accused of carrying out the killing agreed to a plea deal, accepting his responsibility for the assassination in return for a reduced, 15-year jail term instead of possible life behind bars. A legal source said Vince Muscat had provided police with vital information about the case, which has shone a spotlight on corruption in the European Union’s smallest country. Muscat and two other men were arrested in December 2017 and accused of having planned and executed the murder. Muscat’s alleged accomplices continue to plea not-guilty. The three men seized on Tuesday were named as Jamie Vella and brothers Adrian and Robert Agius. They and their lawyers were not immediately available for comment. A legal source said the three men were suspected of having provided the bomb and the SMS code needed to trigger it. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. Police say the device was detonated remotely by Muscat and his friends as they watched her drive away from her house. FILE – Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was arrested in connection with an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, leaves the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Multimillionaire businessman Yorgen Fenech, who had high-level political connections, is suspected of having masterminded the crime and has been accused of being an accomplice to murder. He has denied wrongdoing. The self-confessed middleman in the plot, Melvin Theuma, turned state evidence in 2019 in return for a pardon. Muscat’s request for a similar deal was denied last month. Instead, he accepted the plea deal, offering information about the Caruana Galizia case and about the unresolved 2015 murder of a local lawyer, which was not believed to be connected. Muscat is not related to Joseph Muscat, the former prime minister who was in office when Caruana Galizia was killed and resigned in December 2019 to “shoulder political responsibility.” Fenech was close friends with the former premier’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, who has denied any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the murder or its perpetrators.  
 
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The European Union has imposed sanctions on four Russian officials following the jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. As Henry Ridgwell reports, supporters of Navalny want the EU to go much further — and sanction close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Camera: Henry Ridgwell 
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Less than a week after a key summit gathering of France and its five regional military partners in the Sahel conflict, fresh casualties in Niger offered a reality check to the high-level discourse on achievements.  Killed in a landmine explosion Sunday were seven election officials — as Nigeriens voted for their next president — adding to a mounting toll that has seen thousands die and more than two million displaced during an eight-year Islamist insurgency in the Sahel.  Today, Paris and its Sahel partners appear at an impasse, with myriad initiatives to eradicate the tenacious and spreading jihadist presence, but no single comprehensive strategy.  Mali and Burkina Faso are exploring options of dialoguing with some jihadi groups, a move France categorically ruled out. Paris is calling for a beefed-up European Union presence to compensate its eventual troop drawdown, but the bigger EU countries have yet to commit.   Meanwhile, both French and Sahel forces face mounting public anger for civilian casualties and a military-heavy approach.”If nothing is done differently, the situation is going to continue to deteriorate,” said Ornella Moderan, Sahel program head for the Institute for Security Studies policy center, who calls for a sea-change in tactics beyond “just chasing the bad guys.”  The stakes are particularly high for French President Emmanuel Macron, who faces reelection next year. For the first time since Paris dispatched troops to Mali in 2013, a recent IFOP poll shows a slim majority of French now want the country’s 5,100-strong military operation to end.  FILE – Servicemen stand by the coffins of three French soldiers who were killed in Mali serving in the country’s Barkhane force, during a tribute ceremony at Thierville-sur-Meuse, France, Jan. 5, 2021.Many in Paris see little payback from fighting happening thousands of miles away. The optics instead are on the returning flag-wrapped coffins. Some 50 French soldiers have died in a mission that has shifted from initially quelling a Tuareg rebellion in Mali’s north, to fighting a broader jihadist insurgency in central Sahel under Operation Barkhane. Wait and see?Indeed, many expected Macron would announce a drawdown of French forces during last week’s G-5 Sahel summit in N’Djamena. Instead, speaking via video link from France, he announced they would stay put for now, to help “decapitate” al-Qaida-linked insurgents.  “We have succeeded in gaining some real successes in the three-border zone,” Macron said, referring to a hotspot region straddling Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. He also noted last year’s killings of key Islamist figures, including al-Qaida’s North African chief Abdelmalek Droukdel. FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he delivers a speech after a meeting via video-conference with leaders of West African G-5 Sahel nations, in Paris, France, Feb. 16, 2021.”I think they’re going to have to wait and see what happens in the next six months,” said Andrew Lebovich, Africa analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations policy center, assessing France’s near-term strategy. “If the security situation doesn’t get any better, it’s going to be hard to draw down forces. But if there do seem to be improvements, it’s likely they’ll at least pull some forces out.” To be sure, the French strategy includes more than “wait and see.” Macron has called for greater input from G-5 members — Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Mali. Chad, for one, recently announced an additional 1,200 troops.  Macron also wants a heavier European presence under the nearly year-old Takuba Task Force, which now gathers more than half-a-dozen, mostly smaller EU members. But the initiative has seen a slow start, and Macron’s ambitions for a 2,000-person force seem unlikely in the near term. Germany for one, recently announced it would not send more soldiers to the region. The EU is also revising its broader Sahel strategy, now more than a decade old and outdated, analysts say.  FILE – A map of French army locations in Sahel is seen as French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech after a meeting via video-conference with leaders of West African G-5 Sahel nations, in Paris, France, Feb. 16, 2021.”It seems to me the plan is to show they’ve been able to Europeanize and internationalize this deployment to an extent, so it’s not seen anymore as just a French operation,” said Lebovich of the European Council.  Another uncertainty is whether the new Biden administration will invest more in the region. In videotaped remarks to the G-5 summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was committed to being a “strong partner,” but he offered no details.  People-centered strategyA number of analysts and activists are calling for a people-centered shift in Sahel strategy, focusing on good governance, delivering basic services and protecting local communities.  The protracted unrest has left enormous humanitarian scars, deepening poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Rights groups accused African counterinsurgency forces of killing hundreds of civilians, while anti-French sentiment has grown.  A French airstrike in central Mali in January has been particularly controversial. Barkhane and Malian officials said it targeted jihadists; local villagers claimed it killed people attending a wedding party.  Operation Barkhane’s presence also has nourished protests in capitals like Bamako and Ouagadougou.   FILE – A man holds a banner against the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and Operation Barkhane, in Bamako, Mali, Aug. 21, 2020.”To have a force that mobilizes so many troops, so much money, so much diplomatic and political energy, and doesn’t intervene on protection issues,” said analyst Moderan, “it makes people wonder why are they there? Whose priorities are they responding to?” Paris appears to be responding to such concerns, at least semantically. French officials have been talking with civil society groups in the region. Speaking at the summit, Macron emphasized development projects and good governance, “once military victory is obtained.”  But critics say this reaching out should be happening sooner, rather than later. The International Crisis Group has called for greater focus on improving governance and supporting local peacemaking efforts, including with some jihadist groups.  The governments of Mali and Burkina Faso appear to be heading in that direction. Bamako this week announced a new platform to begin talks with Islamist militants. Prime Minister Moctar Ouan is calling dialogue “an additional means” of ending the yearslong turmoil.   Earlier this month, too, the Burkinabe government said it was open to talks with militants. A local effort has been under way in the northern town of Djibo.  Not everyone is sold, though.  “One doesn’t discuss with terrorists, one fights,” Macron told Jeune Afrique in an interview last year, although some observers suggest the French position may be softening.  Lebovich, of the European Council, is also skeptical about the success of local peace talks — but believes engaging in the process may at least bring clarity.  “I think there’s an assumption that people are just going to peel these fighters away and integrate them,” he said. “And there isn’t a good plan for that.”
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday he is very optimistic that all COVID-19 restrictions in England could end June 21.
 
Johnson made the comment as he toured a south London school to talk about his hope to open all schools by March 8, part of the “road map” to lifting restrictions and ending the lockdown he outlined Monday.  
 
Johnson told reporters nothing is guaranteed, and his government will continue to follow the guidance at each stage.
 
But he said because “science has given us this way of creating a whole shield around our population, we can really look at that June 21 date with some optimism.
 
Under the plan Johnson unveiled Monday, some businesses stay shuttered until the summer. Johnson said caution was necessary to ensure there was no reversal on a “one-way road to freedom.”  
 
Johnson said they are also carefully reviewing the idea of vaccine “certificates,” where those who have been fully vaccinated could be given documentation that would allow them to enter entertainment venues, nightclubs or events.  
 
He said senior minister Michael Gove would lead a review to thrash out the “scientific, moral, philosophical, ethical” question of vaccine certificates. He said there are complex “ethical issues about what the role is for government in mandating people to have such a thing,” as it could discriminate against people who, for whatever reason, are unable to get vaccinated.
 
Britain, in two months, has already managed to provide an initial vaccine dose to more than a quarter of the population, the fastest rollout of any big country, making it a worldwide test case for governments hoping to return to normal.
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Georgian police raided the main opposition party’s headquarters Tuesday and arrested opposition leader Nika Melia. Authorities accuse Melia, head of the United National Movement party, of organizing “mass violence” during anti-government protests in 2019. Melia says the charges are politically motivated. The U.S. Embassy in Georgia expressed concern about Melia’s detention, saying in a statement Tuesday that Georgia “has moved backward on its path toward becoming a stronger democracy.” “We regret that the call of the United States and other international partners for restraint and dialogue was ignored,” the embassy said. “We are dismayed by the polarizing rhetoric from Georgia’s leadership at a time of crisis. Force and aggression are not the solution to resolving Georgia’s political differences.” The country has seen rounds of protests since parliamentary elections in October that the opposition says were rigged, an allegation the ruling Georgian Dream party denies. Last week, Prime Minister Giorgia Gakharia resigned and said his decision was linked to a disagreement about whether to detain Melia. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans Monday to begin easing coronavirus lockdown measures, crediting the country’s rapid vaccination program for allowing Britain to begin reopening March 8. “Two weeks from today, students and pupils from all schools and further education settings can safely return to face-to-face teaching. From the 8th of March, people will also be able to meet one person from outside their household for outdoor recreation,” Johnson told lawmakers in Westminster. Since early January, Britain has been subject to one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, with schools and universities closed, social mixing banned, and all nonessential shops and services forced to close. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Goats cross a street during COVID-19 lockdowns, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Llandudno, Wales, Britain, Feb. 22, 2021.He announced a review of restrictions on international travel in April and suggested the government was looking into providing so-called “vaccine passports.” As the prime minister announced the changes Monday, a raft of scientific data appeared to bolster hopes that coronavirus vaccines will provide the key to bringing the global pandemic under control. A review of early evidence from Scotland’s vaccination program led by Edinburgh University suggested both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in preventing hospitalization through COVID-19. A single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine led to an 85% drop in the risk of being hospitalized by COVID-19 after four weeks. For the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, there was a 94% decline in the risk of hospital admission.  Even among people over 80 years old, there was an overall 80% fall in hospitalization among those who had received their first dose. Scientists have called the results “spectacular.” “Getting over 80% protection from severe disease is very impressive,” Professor Lawrence Young, an expert in infectious diseases at Britain’s University of Warwick, said in an interview with VOA. “The best that we get usually from the annual flu jab is 60%.” AstraZeneca vaccine The AstraZeneca drug is a key pillar of Britain’s vaccination program and is seen as vital in the global rollout of vaccines, as it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures, eliminating the need for cold-chain transport and storage. However, some European states have cast doubt on its effectiveness. France, Germany and South Korea are among the countries recommending against giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 65. FILE – An employee at the Dunkirk Hospital Center sets up signs to guide patients arriving for the COVID-19 vaccine, in Dunkirk, France, Feb. 17, 2021.There is anecdotal evidence that some patients are refusing the AstraZeneca dose. “I think there’s no reason now for other countries in Europe and beyond to be in any way concerned about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in the elderly population,” said Young. However, early data suggests the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be as effective against the South Africa variant of the coronavirus in preventing mild to moderate disease. Scientists say it may still prevent severe cases. There was further encouraging data Monday from Israel, which has given a first vaccine dose to half its population. Research suggests the Pfizer vaccine not only prevents illness but also stops transmission of the virus, which is seen as vital in bringing the pandemic under control. 
 
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British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says Boeing 777 aircraft with engines like the one that caught fire on a U.S. jet over the weekend will be temporarily banned from Britain.After issues this weekend, Boeing B777s with Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 series engines will be temporarily banned from entering the UK airspace. I will continue to work closely with the @UK_CAA to monitor the situation.— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 22, 2021The announcement Monday comes two days after United Airlines Flight 328 suffered the engine failure shortly after leaving Denver International Airport, in Colorado, en route to Honolulu, Hawaii. Large chunks of debris rained onto the neighboring town of Broomfield, Colorado, falling into yards, fields and onto homes. No injuries were reported on the ground or on the flight, which had about 240 people on board. The pilot was able to return safely to Denver.The aircraft was powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines. United Will Temporarily Stop Flying Some Boeing 777 Planes After Engine FailureThe announcement came after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would require stepped-up inspections of 777 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 series engines after the right engine failure on United Flight 328According to the British Civil Aviation Authority, British airlines do not operate aircraft with such engines. Foreign airlines that do operate such aircraft will not be allowed to enter British airspace for the time being.“After the Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engine incident on a Boeing 777 aircraft, we have suspended this configuration’s use in U.K. airspace,” the CAA said in a statement. “It is not used by any U.K. airlines. It is operated by airlines in the USA, Japan and South Korea where authorities have also stopped its use.”United also announced it is “voluntarily and temporarily” grounding 24 Boeing 777 aircraft. “We will continue to work closely with regulators to determine any additional steps,” the airline said on Twitter.The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said, “The initial examination of the airplane indicated most of the damage was confined to the number 2 engine; the airplane sustained minor damage. The examination and documentation of the airplane is ongoing.” The NTSB also says the cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been taken to its laboratory in Washington for analysis.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, also called for “stepped-up inspections” of Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney engines.
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Can Europe’s former central banker Mario Draghi, and now Italy’s new prime minister, do whatever it takes to save the country? Last week, the former European Central Bank governor Draghi was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister as head of a unity government following the collapse of the previous governing coalition last month.Draghi, who has the backing of all of Italy’s main parties, except for a far-right one, managed to guide Europe through a sovereign debt and bond crisis ten years ago by buying up sovereign debit and reassuring the markets with a pledge to do whatever it took to save the embattled euro.But Draghi, who the Italian press nickname “Super Mario,” will need all his famed political savvy and diplomatic skill to accomplish what his predecessors failed to pull off — shake the country out of a dangerous economic malaise, say analysts.He has entered office in a position of strength: he has the support of a broad coalition that should be able to maneuver legislation through Italy’s notoriously fractious parliament with ease. He has high approval ratings in the opinion polls and he has an estimated $242 billion in grants and loans from the European Commission to spend on post-pandemic economic recovery. Divisions over how to spend that money was the immediate cause of the collapse of the previous squabbling government. Italian stocks soared with Draghi’s arrival into power and Italy’s borrowing costs on the open bond market have fallen with investors much happier to lend to a country with “Super Mario” at the helm. And the 73-year-old Draghi made a well-received emotional appeal in his maiden speech as prime minister last week, saying, “Unity is not an option, unity is a duty. But it is a duty guided by what I am sure unites us all: love for Italy.”His cabinet, too, which features a sprinkling of respected technocrats among the politicians, including Daniele Franco from Italy’s central bank as the new finance minister, has also been praised. Matteo Renzi, a former center-left prime minister who triggered the political crisis that led to Draghi’s appointment, says the cabinet is “of a high level.”But Draghi inherits an economy in collapse.  Italy’s Draghi Urges Unity, Sacrifice in Fighting the Virus Draghi vowed an environmentally conscious and digitally reformed government program in a 50-minute speech before the Senate, which came ahead of a mandatory confidence vote later in the dayTroubles predate COVIDWhen the pandemic struck last year Italy still had not recovered from the 2008 global financial crash. In 2019, economic output grew by an anemic 0.3% over the previous year. Unemployment — especially among the young — has remained stubbornly high, the country’s bureaucracy is hidebound and layers of regulations discourage the opening of new businesses, say analysts and economists. Firing is difficult in Italy, deterring employers from taking on new staff, encouraging them to rely instead on short-term contracted workers, who enjoy few, if any, benefits.But before Draghi can grapple with the economic challenges the country faces, his government still has to suppress the coronavirus pandemic and to get a sluggish inoculation campaign moving much faster. It was exactly a year ago that two of Italy’s most productive and wealthiest regions started to lock down and one of Draghi’s first duties this week was to announce the government needed to extend a ban on people traveling between regions until late March because coronavirus cases in Italy are rising again. The surge in cases is in large part due to the rapid transmission of the more infectious British variant, which is likely to become the dominant strain in the country, say epidemiologists. Despite the jump in cases, frustrated Italians ignored official appeals to stay home and went out Sunday to enjoy the emergence of mild weather with crowds milling in streets and parks and gathering at seafronts in several cities. As of Sunday, Italy had registered 95,718 coronavirus deaths from 2.9 million cases. “I’m worried,” Massimo Galli, a specialist at the Sacco de Milan hospital, told Il Messaggero newspaper. “To be honest, all the data is going in the direction of a rise in new cases,” he said.The longer the pandemic lasts, the more economic damage piles up, making Draghi’s job even more daunting. The question, say analysts, is whether Italians will remain patient, not only with pandemic curbs and restrictions but with “Super Mario.” Marco Valli, an economist at Italy’s Unicredit Bank, says politicians know what reforms are needed to boost productivity and economic growth. “The question is, Will Draghi be able to fast-track the badly needed ones?” he asks.Draghi is not the first technocrat asked to dig Italy out of its economic hole — nor is he the first to be feted on arrival. In 2011, the respected economist and former EU commissioner Mario Monti was picked to head a largely technocratic government as yields on Italian government bonds soared and the country’s borrowing costs sky-rocketed, prompting fears Italy would join Greece in economic collapse. Monti managed to steady the country and introduced reforms, cutting public sector costs and slashing pensions. But his government lasted 18 months and many of the reforms he introduced were subsequently reversed. Draghi has promised to overhaul Italy’s byzantine tax system, to help boost female employment and to reform public administration. And much of his focus, he says, will be on structural reform  and making Italy’s economy much greener and more sustainable — that has earned praise in Brussels. But how long political unity lasts is open to questions, say analysts. An ominous sign came last week when a fifth of the lawmakers of Italy’s hybrid anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which is part of the new governing coalition, withheld approving his appointment.
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European markets were in a slump Monday as impatience appeared to be growing among investors with the slow introduction of new COVID-19 vaccines and the slow pace of economic stimulus legislation in the United States.Britain’s benchmark FTSE index was down 0.7% at midday. The CAC 40 in France was 0.4% lower, and Germany’s DAX index was down 0.6%.  Markets in Australia and Asia ended mostly lower earlier Monday. Australia’s S&P/ASX index dropped 0.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell just over one percent, while Shanghai’s Composite index plunged 1.4%. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.9%, and Mumbai’s Sensex sank 2.2%.  Asian Markets Mixed Amid Uncertainty Over Direction of Global Economy  Gold, oil trading higher, US markets trading lower in futures markets   Japan’s benchmark Nikkei and Taiwan’s TSEC index both closed up 0.4%.In commodities trading, gold wa selling at $1,792.40, up 0.8%. U.S. crude oil was selling at $59.86 per barrel, up just over one percent, and Brent crude was selling at $63.38, up 0.7%.   All three U.S. indices were trending negatively in futures trading ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street.  
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced the military coup in Myanmar and demanded an immediate return to democratic rule.  Guterres condemned Myanmar’s repressive actions in his opening address to the 46th session of the UN Human rights Council. Guterres departed from his lengthy speech on COVID-19 related violations to blast Myanmar’s military for its takeover of the country’s democratically elected government.  “We see the undermining of democracy, the use of brutal force, arbitrary arrests, repression in all its manifestations,” Guterres said. “Restrictions of civic space.  Attacks on civil society.  Serious violations against minorities with no accountability, including what has rightly been called ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population.  The list goes on.”EU to Impose Sanctions on Myanmar   US Secretary of State to join foreign ministers meeting in Brussels via videoconference   Guterres said coups have no place in our modern world.  He praised the Human Rights Council for its recent and timely focus on this critical situation. The council held an emergency session on the Myanmar crisis on February 12 and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all detained people, including the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.Over the coming month, the council will examine the human rights records of Myanmar and many other countries accused of gross violations of human rights.   The council will focus on ways in which COVID-19 has accelerated inequalities, setback progress on poverty reduction and deepened discrimination and racism.Guterres said the pandemic has triggered a vicious circle of violations.  He said unscrupulous leaders are using COVID-19 as a pretext to entrench their power and criminalize fundamental freedoms.  He said the virus has spurred resurgent neo-Nazism and white supremacist movements, as well as racially and ethnically motivated terrorism.”The danger of these hate-driven movements is growing by the day.  Let us call them what they are,” Guterres said. “White supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are more than domestic terror threats.  They are becoming a transnational threat.  These and other groups have exploited the pandemic to boost their ranks through social polarization and political and cultural manipulation.”   UN Chief Guterres warned these extremist movements represented the number one internal security threat in several countries.  He said global coordinated action was needed to defeat this grave and growing danger.He noted similar global coordinated action was needed to defeat the pandemic, which has killed millions of people and ruined many more lives.
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Leaders as far away as Canada and Western Europe are sending navy ships to the contested South China Sea this year as pushback against Beijing, which they feel has gone too far and begun alarming their citizens, analysts in the region say. French Defense Minister Florence Parly said in early February that France had dispatched an attack submarine to the sea this month. A British defense official said last month the U.K.’s flagship aircraft carrier strike group was ready to enter the waterway. A Royal Canadian Navy warship sailed near the sea in January with a passage through the Taiwan Strait on its way to join exercises nearby with Australian, Japanese and U.S. navies.The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) transits the Taiwan Strait, Nov. 12, 2019, in this photo made available by U.S. Navy.These Western countries claim no sovereignty over the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, which lies more than a continent away from their own territorial waters. But they want to support the United States in resisting unilateral expansion by China, which has sparred with former European colonies and alarmed people in Western countries, scholars say. “I think there’s pretty much unanimity in terms of the French, the Dutch, the U.K. and other countries that what we’re seeing from China is an attempt to revise the order so that power, not a rules-based approach to the region, is the way the region will be governed or managed going forward,” said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.  Western countries would resent that management of the sea if it goes against their former colonies or current economic interests in Asia such as access to the sea’s busy cargo shipping lanes, analysts add.  The U.K., for example, is bound by its 1971 Five Power Defense Arrangements to help defend former protectorate Malaysia. Malaysia disputes part of the Chinese claim to about 90% of the South China Sea. The sea stretches from Hong Kong south to the island of Borneo.   British Prime Minister Boris Johnson eventually wants his country to take a stronger role in Asia due to economic and trade links in the region, University of New South Wales Emeritus Professor Carl Thayer said in an e-mailed briefing on Monday. Former French colony Vietnam contests China’s maritime claim including the sea’s Paracel Islands. China controls the Paracel chain today. France still maintains “cultural” and “economic” ties with its former Southeast Asian colonies, Nagy said.FILE – A Vietnamese sinking boat (L) which was rammed and then sunk by Chinese vessels near disputed Paracels Islands, is seen near a Marine Guard ship (R) at Ly Son island of Vietnam’s central Quang Ngai province.A Chinese survey vessel entered into standoffs in April 2020 with Malaysia and Vietnam. All three countries drill aggressively for oil and value the sea’s 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.   French armed forces Minister Florence Parly tweeted on February 9 that the submarine made its voyage to “enrich our knowledge of this area and affirm that international law is the only rule that is valid, regardless of the sea where we sail.”  It further showed “striking proof of the capacity of our French Navy to deploy far away and for a long time in connection with our Australian, American and Japanese strategic partners,” she said.   Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan dispute parts of the sea too. Asian governments prize the waterway for its fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China has taken a lead in the dispute over the past decade by landfilling some of the tiny islets for military infrastructure. Western countries with no claims in the sea have passed ships through as far back as the 1970s as the sovereignty dispute first came into focus. China cites historic usage records to back its activity in the sea despite a 2016 world arbitration court ruling that negated a legal basis for its claims.   Canada, Australia and Western European countries send ships as well to show support for the United States, which has dispatched destroyers to the sea twice this month following regular sailings in 2020, experts believe.  In France’s case, “they just might have notified the U.S. side, and that would be equal to using the submarine passage to indicate indirect support for the United States,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.  Citizens of countries far from Asia would support their missions in the Asian sea because they began paying more attention last year to China as the source of COVID-19, Nagy said. They’re noticing Chinese pressure on India and Taiwan as well as the militarily weaker South China Sea claimants, he said.   Western leaders hope to “create leverage” against China, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.    “One way of reading leverage is to ensure that Beijing takes European values and principles of sustaining free and open transit through international waters seriously,” Chong said.   
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Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to expand a hunting ban throughout a coastal salt lake network amid concerns that migrating flamingos could potentially swallow lethal quantities of lead shotgun pellets.Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos are at risk of ingesting the tiny pellets lying on the lakebed as they feed. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion, but can’t distinguish between pebbles and the lead pellets.”Last year, we had tens of losses of flamingos,” Hellicar said.  Cyprus is a key stop on the migration path for many types of birds flying from Africa to Europe. The Larnaca Salt Lake, a wetlands network of four lakes, typically welcomes as many as 15,000 flamingos from colder climates to the southern coast of the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay through the winter and leave in March. Other waterfowl frequenting the lake include ducks, waders and seagulls.Hunting is banned around most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks in the network’s southern tip.The government’s Game and Fauna Service says in the first two months of last year, 96 flamingos were found dead in the Larnaca Salt Lake wetlands as a result of lead poisoning. Cyprus Veterinary Services official Panayiotis Constantinou, who has conducted autopsies on flamingos, said lead from the pellets poisoned the birds.  The high number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rain two years ago that stirred up the lake sediment and dislodged embedded lead shot.  A sport shooting range near the lake’s northern tip closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities organized a cleanup of lead pellets in the lakebed there.But Hellicar says the cleanup was apparently incomplete. A European Union-funded study is under way to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets remain so they can be removed. Preliminary results of the study showed very high lead levels in the wetland’s southern tip and continued duck hunting there could compound the problem, Hellicar said.  “The problem is pronounced,” he said. “The danger is real for the flamingos and other birds that use the area.”  Cyprus Hunting Federation official Alexandros Loizides disagrees, saying that hunting in a 200-meter northern swath is not a problem because of the limited number of hunters. He said he’s unaware of any flamingo deaths in the area and faults pesticide and fertilizer runoff from nearby farms for creating any pollution problems hurting wildlife.  “I think the effect of hunting there is very small on the specific part of the lake,” Loizides said. “It’d be a shame for hunters to lose the only area where hunting is permitted near wetlands.”  A ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in force in Cyprus for several years. A similar, EU-wide ban took effect last month, but conservationists believe the laws are not being enforced enough.Pantelis Hadjiyerou, head of the Game and Fauna Service, said it’s less important to ban hunting in the area than to persuade hunters to stop using shells with lead pellets.  “It should be drummed into people that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and that only steel pellets are permitted,” Hadjiyerou told The Associated Press.
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Britain’s departure from the European Union, following months of negotiations, has affected trade in many industries; but fishing has been hit particularly hard by the break known as “Brexit.” VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that some in the business fear for their futures due to an EU ban on the export of live shellfish from Britain.
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Britain’s royal family is bracing for a March 7 airing of an American television interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, widely referred to as Harry and Meghan, amid reports that the content is explosive and will make for uncomfortable viewing for the British monarch and senior royals.   The interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey was taped in California, a day before Buckingham Palace announced that the couple have decided not to return to the royal fold. They will continue to live independently in the United States, where they have struck lucrative deals to produce programming for both Netflix and Spotify and launched their own non-profit foundation.   CBS television insiders say the interview will likely widen the gulf between the couple and the royal household. And they warn it will likely go down as the most notorious interview featuring a member of Britain’s storied royal family since Harry’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, gave her side of the story in 1995 about the collapse of her marriage to Prince Charles.  It was during the 1995 interview that Diana explained that her husband had maintained an affair with a previous paramour soon after their wedding. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” she said. She also admitted to having affairs herself because of loneliness and the betrayal.   FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are pictured in this undated handout photo supplied to Reuters, following an announcement that they are expecting their second child.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who is pregnant with their second child, decided a year ago to walk away from their roles as working members of the royal family for a trial period, saying they wanted freedom to pursue their own projects and were aiming to become financially independent, something they have accomplished rapidly.  The pair, who chafed at the strictures of royal life, said they did not desire a complete severing of ties but were hoping for a bespoke half-in-half-out arrangement with Harry maintaining royal patronages and keeping his honorary military titles, including as captain-general of Britain’s Royal Marines. The titles are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, pose for a picture at in London, Britain, June 26, 2018. (John Stillwell/Pool via Reuters)Last week, the couple and Buckingham Palace, which was never happy with the bespoke arrangement, reviewed the trial separation and confirmed Friday that Harry and Meghan won’t be returning to royal duties, a decision that makes final the couple’s split from the royal family.  It was also announced that Harry will be giving up his honorary military titles, which friends of the couple say has infuriated him. The statements about finalizing what has become known as Megxit were official in tone, but they also indicated the couple and Buckingham Palace are far apart and that the rift is likely to grow.  “Some will say the Sussexes have just stamped their feet again after they didn’t get what they wanted,” according to the royal correspondent of Britain’s Sky News, Rhiannon Mills. “Others will criticize the royal firm for being too traditional, too old-fashioned and unwilling to work on a compromise with the couple. One thing it has done, which neither side would want, is ramp up the stories of a rift, which will potentially be stoked further by their interview with Oprah,” she added. According to royal reporters, Harry and Meghan did not inform Buckingham Palace that they were taping a television interview while negotiations between the couple and the royal household were ongoing — an omission that has added to alarm. Britain’s “red-top” tabloid newspapers lost no time pivoting Sunday from the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit to Megxit. “Have they no respect?” screamed the front page of Saturday’s Daily Mail. The paper made much of the fact that the final break between the couple and Buckingham Palace coincided with the ill health of Prince Philip, who was admitted to the hospital last week.  FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry (L) and Meghan (2nd R) follow Prince William (C), and Catherine (R) as they depart Westminster Abbey after attending the annual Commonwealth Service in London, March 9, 2020.The Sun reported that Harry’s brother, Prince William, was left “really sad and genuinely shocked” over his brother Harry and Meghan’s “petulant” response to the queen as they officially quit the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Buckingham Palace lightly dueled in their statements about the meaning of public service. But it is the timing of the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey that is prompting worry in Buckingham Palace with courtiers fearful about what the couple will say and how that will rebound on Britain’s 94-year-old monarch. “We don’t need to hear any more from them now,” a palace official told Britain’s The Sunday Times. Harry is sixth in line to Britain’s throne. FILE – Guardsmen escort the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales draped in the Royal Standard, as the cortege passes through crowds gathered along Whitehall.The collapse of his parents’ marriage became ensnared in a media frenzy with the tabloids adding insult to injury as much as they could. Both Charles and Diana, and their staffs, were drawn in, leaking against each other to try to manipulate the press coverage of their tumultuous separation and bitter divorce, say royal commentators.  And that appears to be happening again with households and staffs briefing against each other.  Some of the couple’s friends are worried that the interview with Oprah Winfrey may end up damaging Harry and Meghan. Royal interviews have often backfired. In 2019, the Duke of York, commonly known as Prince Andrew, gave an interview explaining his friendship with the late pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. He thought the encounter had gone well but it resulted in him having to withdraw from public life.  Diana also later said she “deeply regretted” her 1995 interview. The couple’s bid to define a celebrity role for themselves sits badly with the royal family. Palace insiders fear an unleashed “brand Sussex” could eclipse Prince Charles and Prince William. One of the royal family’s uppermost fears is that Harry and Meghan will become increasingly outspoken now they are unmoored from the royal household risking blowback on the British monarchy, “Royals have to act differently from celebrities in order to ensure the standing and longevity of the institution, which relies on public goodwill to survive,” a palace official told VOA recently.  
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