After more than 10 years waiting to be admitted into the Schengen zone, Bulgaria and Romania were once more turned away after two EU countries vetoed their admission.. - Austria's veto - The European Commission has long expressed its wish for a widened Schengen zone.
Iran carried out its first known execution Thursday over the protests that have shaken the regime since September, sparking an international outcry and warnings from rights groups that more hangings are imminent.. At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups warned.
Finland and Sweden joined the United States on Thursday in asking Turkey for its greenlight soon to join NATO, saying they have been fulfilling promises sought by Ankara on militants.. "I'm confident that NATO will formally welcome Finland and Sweden as members soon," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a joint news conference.
A German prince, known for his desire to revive the country's monarchy and rejected by his own family as a "mad old man", has emerged as a central figure in an alleged coup plot.. The prince is "unfortunately a mad old man," the family's current head, Prince Heinrich XIV Reuss, told AFP, adding they had cut ties with him 14 years earlier.
Israeli troops on Thursday killed three Palestinians during a firefight in a West Bank city, and another in a separate incident, Palestinian officials said.. The Israeli army said it had carried out multiple operations across the West Bank overnight Wednesday-Thursday to arrest wanted suspects in cities including Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Canada's Alberta province passed a bill Thursday that allows its government to ignore federal laws it deems harmful -- pointing to, for example, measures to curb its oil industry's emissions.. The so-called Sovereignty Act is the latest volley in a long-festering feud between Alberta and the national government, which in 2018 imposed a carbon tax and other climate measures to curb CO2 pollution.
The US Congress on Thursday passed landmark legislation to protect same-sex marriage under federal law, and President Joe Biden has vowed to quickly sign the measure.. Biden has dubbed marriage equality one of his legislative priorities and has said he will "promptly and proudly" sign the bill into law.
The EU on Thursday approved Croatia as the newest member of the border check-free Schengen zone from next month, but Austria and the Netherlands blocked Romania and Bulgaria from joining.. The outcome was bitter news for Bulgaria and Romania, the EU's two poorest nations ,which have been trying for a decade to join Schengen and whose bids were linked together, unlike Croatia's.
Former Soviet air force pilot Viktor Bout, who was swapped for US basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday, fuelled some of the world's bloodiest conflicts by trafficking weapons across several continents.. Born in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe in 1967 when it was still under Soviet rule, Bout studied languages -- including English, French and Portuguese -- at Moscow's military institute for foreign languages before joining the air force.
Taxi driver Youssef Daher has languished for months in prison without charge, one of scores stuck after Lebanese judges launched an open-ended strike in August to demand better wages in a collapsed economy.. From his jail cell in the northern city of Tripoli, Daher sends daily messages to his lawyer asking him whether judges have ended what is already the longest strike for their profession in Lebanese history.
