Tag: Europe

Europe
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Muhsin

Asker BattalionA 24-year-old Crimean Tatar was sentenced by a court in Russian-annexed Crimea to 10-and-a-half years' imprisonment for supposed involvement in a volunteer force patrolling the border of Crimea and mainland Ukraine to help enforce a blockade. Video evidence introduced in the trial only showed the suspect from behind. Nonetheless, Fevzi Sahandzhy was convicted of being a member of the Asker Battalion—also known as the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion, in honor of the martyred president of the short-lived independent Crimean Republic of 1918. The Battalion began participating in the blockade of Crimea in 2015 to press demands for the release of political prisoners and restoration of freedom of speech and assembly on the peninsula. (Photo: Human Rights in Ukraine)

Europe
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mosque93

KLAThe Parliament of Kosovo approved a package of bills that will allow Kosovo to form a military and defense ministry. All three bills—one establishing a Defense Ministry, one that converts the limited Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) into a professional army, and another that regulates service in the forces—garnered convincing majority votes in Kosovo's 120-seat legislature, with 101, 98 and 96 yes-votes respectively. Notably absent for the vote, however, were the Parliament’s ethnic Serb MPs. Serbia will seek an urgent session of the UN Security Council over Kosovo’s decision, holding that the adoption of these laws amounts to a violation of the Kosovar Constitution. (Photo of Kosova Liberation Army via IBNA)

Europe

France under attack for Roma deportations

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance joined critics of French mass deportations of Roma and demolition of their encampments. The commission accused France of “stigmatizing migrants.”

Europe

Police disperse right-wing extremist march in Slovakia

Police intervened against a march by the far-right Slovak Brotherhood in front of the castle in Bratislava, amid a controversy about fascist symbols in a new statue of Prince Svatopluk on the castle grounds.

Europe

Srebrenica: 15 years later, still no justice

World leaders commemorated the 1995 Srebrenica massacre July 11, and genocide convictions have been handed down—but the accused massacre mastermind Ratko Mladic remains at large.

Europe

May Day rocks Athens as general strike builds

Police clashed in Athens May 1 with thousands of protesters marching against new austerity measures the Greek government is to adopt. A general strike is called for May 5.

Europe

Deadly suicide blasts hit Moscow metro

Russian authorities say they suspect a North Caucasus militant group in the coordinated suicide blasts that left at least 35 dead on the Moscow metro.

Europe

Arson attack on Roma families in Hungary —again

In the latest in a wave of attacks on Roma families, assailants threw petrol bombs into four homes in Siófok, Hungary. The attack follows a nearly identical one days earlier in the Czech Republic.