STRASBOURG: The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday upheld a Belgian ban on wearing the full-face niqab veil in public.
The court ruled that the restriction sought to guarantee social cohesion, the “protection of the rights and freedoms of others” and that it was “necessary in a democratic society,” a statement said.
Belgian banned the wearing of the full-face veil under a June 2011 law. It prohibits appearing in public “with a face masked or hidden, in whole or in part, in such a way as to be unidentifiable.”
Violations can result in fines and up to seven days in jail.
France was the first European country to ban the niqab in April 2011.
The European Court of Human Rights had already ruled on a challenge to the French law in 2014 when it also rejected arguments that the restriction breached religious freedom and individual human rights.
The Belgian case was brought by two Muslim women, Samia Belcacemi, a Belgian national, and Yamina Oussar, a Moroccan.
Both women said they chose of their own free will to wear the niqab and claimed their rights had been infringed and the law was discriminatory.
After Belgium introduced the ban, Belcacemi continued wearing the veil for a while but stopped because of social pressure and fears she would be fined.
Oussar told the court that she had decided to stay at home, the statement from the court said.
Top Europe court upholds ban on full-face veil in Belgium
Top Europe court upholds ban on full-face veil in Belgium
Germany sees Ukraine truce efforts as deadlocked, while China says the talks are encouraging
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday that the latest version of the mineral deal remained under discussion
KYIV: Germany’s chief diplomat on Tuesday described US President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure a truce in the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine as deadlocked, while China’s foreign minister said that it was encouraging that the talks between Washington and Moscow on finding a settlement are continuing.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, arriving in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, said that “due to the deadlock” between the US and Russia on forging a ceasefire deal, European allies’ continued support for Ukraine in the war is “absolutely crucial.”
Trump on Sunday scolded Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressing frustration at the continued fighting in a war that he had pledged to swiftly stop.
Trump insisted progress was being made in the negotiations, but said that he would consider imposing further sanctions to put pressure on Moscow and accused Zelensky of trying to back out of a deal with the US on access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday that the latest version of the mineral deal remained under discussion and that Ukraine had conducted its first round of consultations on that version.
Putin has effectively refused a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, despite Trump’s prodding. Also, a partial ceasefire in the Black Sea that could allow safer shipments has fallen foul of conditions imposed by Kremlin negotiators.
“We consider the models and solutions proposed by the Americans quite seriously, but we can’t just accept all of them as they are,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
Moscow is holding out on a deal to ease shipping in the Black Sea in order to “stall efforts toward a general ceasefire and extract additional concessions from the West,” according to an assessment Monday by the Institute for the Washington-based Study of War think tank.
Trump has signaled that he could consider new oil sanctions on Russia — a development Ukraine would view favorably.
“I believe we have reached the point where stronger sanctions are needed, because I believe the Russians are breaking the promises they made to America,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with Baerbock in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“For us, decisive action is crucial. Words are not enough,” Zelensky added. “We are the ones who suffer.”
Putin previously has ruled out a temporary break in hostilities, saying that it would only benefit Ukraine and its Western allies by letting them replenish their arsenals. He has insisted that Moscow wants a comprehensive agreement that would ensure a lasting settlement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Tuesday that a breakthrough in negotiations isn’t imminent.
“The issues that we are discussing in connection with the Ukrainian settlement are quite complex and they require a lot of additional efforts,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
New drone attacks on energy facilities
Meanwhile, deadly attacks by both Russia and Ukraine have continued, and they are gearing up for spring campaigns in their war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.
Overnight, Russia fired no Shahed drones at Ukraine for the first time in more than five months, according to authorities.
But Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, detected no change in Russian strategy.
“For now, this means nothing,” he said on Telegram.
Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of launching new drone attacks on energy facilities in Russia’s Belgorod region and in the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Zelensky accused Russia of failing to uphold its commitment to a ceasefire targeting the energy infrastructure.
“I’ve asked our side to pass information through various institutions about Russia’s breaches of the agreement not to strike energy facilities,” he said, adding that the reports have been sent almost daily. “We’re sharing this information with the United States, and we see that America is beginning to understand it.”
Ukraine’s European backers say they will keep supporting Kyiv’s efforts to defeat Russia’s invasion. Zelensky said a closed-door meeting with military officials from several partner countries will take place Friday to further discuss the possible deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine as a part of future security guarantees.
“It will be the first in-depth meeting... based on proposals prepared by the Ukrainian side,” he said.
‘A fair, long-term, binding peace’
Putin is getting military help from North Korea and Iran.
China, too, has given diplomatic support to Russia and has provided economic help through trade in energy and consumer goods.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a visit to Moscow, was quoted as saying Tuesday that “certain results have been achieved” in Washington’s attempt to stop the war as US-Russia relations have improved under Trump.
Beijing supports the goal of “a fair, long-term, binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties involved,” he said in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
At the start of his meeting with Putin, Wang said they would discuss future relations. “The China-Russia relationship will not stand still, but will only become more and more extensive,” he said.
Last US soldier who went missing in Lithuania found dead
- Hundreds of local and foreign troops and others including engineers and divers had been involved in the operation
- The army did not specify where exactly the soldier was found
VILNIUS: The last of the four American soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week was on Tuesday also found dead, the US Army said, without providing additional details.
The three other soldiers were found dead on Monday after rescuers recovered their M88 Hercules armored vehicle from a swamp. Hundreds of local and foreign troops and others including engineers and divers had been involved in the operation.
Lithuanian authorities received a report last Tuesday that the soldiers went missing during a military drill at a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.
“The fourth US Army Soldier... was found deceased near Pabrade, Lithuania the afternoon of April 1,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement.
“The Soldier’s identity is being withheld pending confirmation of notification of next of kin,” it added.
The army did not specify where exactly the soldier was found.
Hundreds of people gathered at the US embassy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Tuesday evening to pay their respects to the four soldiers, who had been in Lithuania for two months.
Carrying US flags, people laid flowers, lit candles and held a minute of silence for the soldiers.
Lithuania’s defense ministry expressed “deep sorrow” over the death.
“We extend our condolences to the families of all four soldiers lost in this tragic accident and thank all those involved in the search efforts,” it added on social network X.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth thanked the “brave servicemembers who enabled this difficult recovery and to our Lithuanian hosts.”
“The recovery was conducted with urgency, resolve and deep respect for the fallen,” he said on X.
“We will never forget these soldiers — and our prayers are with their families.”
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.
Mali, Burkina, Niger foreign ministers due in Moscow for talks
- Sahelian countries are led by juntas who seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia
- Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and its successor Africa Corps are helping the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) battle extremists
ABIDJAN: The foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are due in Moscow this week for the first talks between their countries’ newly created confederation and Russia, they said in a statement.
The three Sahelian countries are led by juntas who seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have since turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.
They quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France, and have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), originally set up as a defense pact in 2023 but which now seeks closer integration.
The three foreign ministers will be in the Russian capital on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of their counterpart Sergei Lavrov to “take part in the first session of AES-Russia consultations,” the ministers said in a statement posted on Facebook by the Malian foreign ministry, which holds the presidency of the confederation.
“This meeting is part of the shared desire of the heads of state of the AES confederation and the Russian Federation to extend their partnership and their political dialogue at the confederal level and to place them at the heart of their diplomatic, development and defense agenda,” they said.
Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and its successor Africa Corps are helping the AES countries battle extremists, whose attacks have killed tens of thousands of people in the three countries.
Moscow has also concluded defense agreements with Mali, Burkina and Niger and has supplied military equipment.
It also cooperates with the AES on energy and mining.
King Charles back to work after ‘minor bump’ in cancer treatment
- Officials regarded the short hospital stay of a few hours as a “minor bump” in his medical journey
- Other engagements later in the week will include the king’s weekly meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer
LONDON: King Charles III on Tuesday carried out his first public engagement since a short spell in hospital last week for side effects from his cancer treatment.
Charles, 76, on Thursday postponed all his appointments for the rest of the day and for Friday on doctors’ advice after suffering some temporary symptoms, Buckingham Palace said.
Officials regarded the short hospital stay of a few hours as a “minor bump” in his medical journey.
In the first of his engagements for this week, Charles was all smiles as he handed out honors at Windsor Castle west of London to leading figures including reigning world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson who was recognized with an Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to athletics.
Johnson-Thompson said afterwards the monarch “seemed in good spirits. You know it’s long, all day, because so many people are getting honored today.
“So he seems in really good spirits and I’m happy to see that he’s fit and well.”
Gardner and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh, who received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), also praised Charles’s “boundless energy.”
Other engagements later in the week will include the king’s weekly meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
A small number of appointments, however, had been rescheduled ahead of a state visit that Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will make to Italy next week.
Charles announced he had been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in February last year.
He returned to work within two-and-a-half months and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, including making several foreign trips which took him as far as Australia and Samoa.
Just six weeks after Charles’s cancer announcement came the news that his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had also been diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy.
Catherine, who is married to heir to Charles’s eldest son Prince William, said in January that she was now in remission
Britain says anyone carrying out activity with Russian authorities now needs to register
- Russian political parties that are controlled by the Russian government will also need to declare what they are doing
- The program is a key tool for the “detection and disruption of harmful activity against our country”
LONDON: Britain’s government is placing Russia on the top tier of a government security program aimed at protecting the UK from malign foreign influence, the security minister said Tuesday.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told lawmakers that anyone or any company “carrying out activity as part of any arrangement” with Russian authorities — including government agencies, armed forces, intelligence services and the parliament — will need to register with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme from July 1 or face five years in prison.
Russian political parties that are controlled by the Russian government will also need to declare what they are doing before they can carry out activity in the UK directly.
Britain’s government said the program is a key tool for the “detection and disruption of harmful activity against our country.”
Jarvis cited hostile Russian acts in recent years including the use of the deadly nerve agent Novichok to poison a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in 2018, the targeting of British members of Parliament through cyberattacks and other espionage tactics.
“And clearly Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has highlighted its intent to undermine European and global security,” he added.
Iran was the first country to be listed under the program earlier this month. Lawmakers have questioned for months why China isn’t included.
“There is no question, in my mind, China should be in that enhanced tier,” said Chris Philp of the opposition Labour Party. “We know China engages in industrial-scale espionage, seeking to steal technology from government, universities and from industries. They repress Chinese citizens here and have sought to infiltrate our political system.”
Jarvis did not directly respond, only saying that his government is taking a “long-term and strategic approach” to managing its relationship with China.
