Turkey is being accused of “weaponizing” water against Syrian Kurds amid the coronavirus epidemic. Ankara is dismissing the accusation, however, as a “smear campaign.”  U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “Turkish authorities’ failure to ensure adequate water supplies to Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria is compromising humanitarian agencies’ ability to prepare and protect vulnerable communities inRead more

Fellow scientists question his findings, but an unlikely mix of supporters — from French yellow vest protesters to U.S. President Donald Trump — are cheering their promise.Last month, French immunology specialist Didier Raoult had no Twitter account. Now, he has more than a quarter-million followers, and counting.   The 68-year-old French physician has emerged as one of France’s most publicized and polarizing figures of theseRead more

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan officially make the transition Tuesday from senior members of Britain’s royal family to — well, it’s unclear. International celebrities, charity patrons, global influencers? The royal schism that the couple triggered in January by announcing that they would step down from official duties, give up public funding, seek financial independenceRead more

Hungary’s parliament granted nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree on Monday to fight the coronavirus, ignoring calls by opponents and rights groups to put a timeframe on the extra powers.   President Janos Ader, an Orban ally, signed the legislation extending a state of emergency after it was approved byRead more

Ukraine’s parliament has voted to lift the ban on the sale of farmland in a move that would allow the country to get $8 billion worth of aid from the International Monetary Fund.  The bill, long pushed by economists to stimulate investment in agriculture, was approved by 259 votes out of 450 late Monday. ItRead more

Russia tightened controls aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus on Monday, with Moscow introducing temporary quarantine measures, and the Kremlin moving to extend the lockdown nationwide. The new restrictions came as President Vladimir Putin discussed the coronavirus, among other issues, with President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Kremlin insisted was atRead more

Spain will delay a planned auction of 5G spectrum due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government said on Monday.   As part of a Europe-wide drive to speed up the roll out of fast Internet and broaden coverage, Spain had been due to free up space in the 700 MHz band of its network byRead more

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the firing of Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy and Health Minister Illya Yemets just weeks into their mandates, but failed to approve new candidates to the posts.At an extraordinary session on March 30, lawmakers also failed to approve the first reading of a revised 2020 state budget that takesRead more

British heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who had tested positive for coronavirus, is out of self-isolation after seven days and is in good health, his spokesman said on Monday. Last week, his Clarence House office revealed that Charles, 71, had been tested after displaying mild symptoms of the virus and had been in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland whereRead more

Britain is on an emergency footing for the first time since World War II. The move means the British government is setting up what it calls strategic coordination centers across the U.K. to distribute supplies to citizens to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.  There are more than 22,000 British confirmed cases of coronavirus – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles are among them. More thanRead more

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have no plans to ask the U.S. government for help with security costs, the couple said in a statement on Sunday in response to a tweet from President Donald Trump that the United States would not pay for their protection.In January, the couple said they would step awayRead more

Football leagues around the world have canceled soccer games for the foreseeable future as one of the measures to slow a rapid COVID-19 spread. But soccer, or football, as it is called in much of the world, continues to be played in Belarus where the number of confirmed infections is still relatively low.The country’s autocraticRead more