News in Brief
PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved. The court said Sarkozy is entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet. This is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption. Sarkozy’s co-defendants — his lawyer and longtime friend Thierry Herzog, 65, and now-retired magistrate Gilbert Azibert, 74 — were also found guilty and given the same sentence as the politician. The court found that Sarkozy and his co-defendants sealed a "pact of corruption,” based on "consistent and serious evidence”.
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KYIV (Reuters) -- Ukrainian medical facilities have thrown away some unused COVID-19 vaccines after doctors failed to show up for their own appointments to be vaccinated, ruling party lawmakers said on Monday. Ukraine has just begun vaccinating its 41 million people against COVID-19 after receiving a first batch of 500,000 doses of Indian-made AstraZeneca shots last week, but faces a battle against vaccine skepticism that predates the pandemic. The government has prioritized giving shots to frontline medical workers but cited statistics showing that 47% of Ukrainians do not want the vaccine. A total of 3,141 shots were administered of Feb. 28, including just 90 shots in the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed. A significant part of the population of Ukraine, like many post-Soviet republics, is traditionally wary of vaccines, fearing side effects from poor quality drugs. Such mistrust allowed a measles outbreak to grow into an epidemic in 2019.
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YEREVAN (Reuters) -- A group of Armenian protesters barged into a government building in the capital chanting for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to quit, ahead of rival street rallies expected later on Monday, the RIA news agency reported. Pashinyan, in power since 2018 in the ex-Soviet republic of less than 3 million people, is facing a crisis after the army last week demanded he step down, prompting him to decry a coup attempt and sack the army’s top general. The president, however, refused to sign off on the general’s removal on Saturday, declaring it unconstitutional. Pashinyan has sent back his decree demanding the general’s dismissal to the president’s office. The country’s Security Council on Monday urged President Armen Sarkissian to approve the sacking, the Interfax news agency reported. RIA reported that Pashinyan also met Sarkissian on Monday.
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LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain on Monday appealed for a mystery individual infected with a highly transmissible Brazilian variant of the novel coronavirus to come forward, more than two weeks after they tested positive but failed to give proper contact details. Britain said six cases had been detected of the "P.1” variant identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, against which current vaccines appear to be less effective. Two were in South Gloucestershire in England and three in Scotland. But a sixth individual in England, one of more than a million people tested on Feb. 12-13, had yet to be identified. "If you’ve had a test on the 12th or 13th of February, (and) haven’t had your results back, please get in touch,” vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi told Times Radio. "We are working with the postal system to try and locate them.”
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany announced that travelers from France’s northeastern Moselle region will face additional restrictions because of the high rate of variant coronavirus cases there. Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said it would add Moselle to the list of "variant of concern” areas that already includes countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal, the United Kingdom and parts of Austria. Travelers from those areas must produce a recent negative coronavirus test before entering Germany. The Moselle region in northeastern France includes the city of Metz and borders the German states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, said France regrets the decision and is in negotiations with Germany to try to lighten the measures for 16,000 inhabitants of Moselle who work across the border.
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TBILISI (Reuters) -- European Council President Charles Michel on Monday called on the Georgian government and opposition to defuse tension in a political crisis that has led to street protests and the resignation of the prime minister last month. Georgian opposition supporters have taken to the streets in recent weeks to demand the release of opposition politician Nika Melia and call for fresh parliamentary elections after a contested vote last year. On Monday, a small group of protesters marched to the residence of former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, where they chanted and blared horns to call for a new parliamentary vote, according to the Sputnik Georgia news outlet. Police last week detained Melia, chairman of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, after storming its offices and clashing with his supporters.
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KYIV (Reuters) -- Ukrainian medical facilities have thrown away some unused COVID-19 vaccines after doctors failed to show up for their own appointments to be vaccinated, ruling party lawmakers said on Monday. Ukraine has just begun vaccinating its 41 million people against COVID-19 after receiving a first batch of 500,000 doses of Indian-made AstraZeneca shots last week, but faces a battle against vaccine skepticism that predates the pandemic. The government has prioritized giving shots to frontline medical workers but cited statistics showing that 47% of Ukrainians do not want the vaccine. A total of 3,141 shots were administered of Feb. 28, including just 90 shots in the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed. A significant part of the population of Ukraine, like many post-Soviet republics, is traditionally wary of vaccines, fearing side effects from poor quality drugs. Such mistrust allowed a measles outbreak to grow into an epidemic in 2019.
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YEREVAN (Reuters) -- A group of Armenian protesters barged into a government building in the capital chanting for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to quit, ahead of rival street rallies expected later on Monday, the RIA news agency reported. Pashinyan, in power since 2018 in the ex-Soviet republic of less than 3 million people, is facing a crisis after the army last week demanded he step down, prompting him to decry a coup attempt and sack the army’s top general. The president, however, refused to sign off on the general’s removal on Saturday, declaring it unconstitutional. Pashinyan has sent back his decree demanding the general’s dismissal to the president’s office. The country’s Security Council on Monday urged President Armen Sarkissian to approve the sacking, the Interfax news agency reported. RIA reported that Pashinyan also met Sarkissian on Monday.
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LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain on Monday appealed for a mystery individual infected with a highly transmissible Brazilian variant of the novel coronavirus to come forward, more than two weeks after they tested positive but failed to give proper contact details. Britain said six cases had been detected of the "P.1” variant identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, against which current vaccines appear to be less effective. Two were in South Gloucestershire in England and three in Scotland. But a sixth individual in England, one of more than a million people tested on Feb. 12-13, had yet to be identified. "If you’ve had a test on the 12th or 13th of February, (and) haven’t had your results back, please get in touch,” vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi told Times Radio. "We are working with the postal system to try and locate them.”
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany announced that travelers from France’s northeastern Moselle region will face additional restrictions because of the high rate of variant coronavirus cases there. Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said it would add Moselle to the list of "variant of concern” areas that already includes countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal, the United Kingdom and parts of Austria. Travelers from those areas must produce a recent negative coronavirus test before entering Germany. The Moselle region in northeastern France includes the city of Metz and borders the German states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, said France regrets the decision and is in negotiations with Germany to try to lighten the measures for 16,000 inhabitants of Moselle who work across the border.
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TBILISI (Reuters) -- European Council President Charles Michel on Monday called on the Georgian government and opposition to defuse tension in a political crisis that has led to street protests and the resignation of the prime minister last month. Georgian opposition supporters have taken to the streets in recent weeks to demand the release of opposition politician Nika Melia and call for fresh parliamentary elections after a contested vote last year. On Monday, a small group of protesters marched to the residence of former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, where they chanted and blared horns to call for a new parliamentary vote, according to the Sputnik Georgia news outlet. Police last week detained Melia, chairman of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, after storming its offices and clashing with his supporters.