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Torture in Syrian military hospital
By Rita Joshi
BERLIN/KARLSRUHE (IDN) — The German Federal Prosecutor's Office announced on July 28 that it has filed charges under the principle of universal jurisdiction against Alaa M, a Syrian doctor who fled to Germany. M is accused in 18 cases of torturing people and subsequently killing one of them, according to ECCHR – European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Does America know what a dangerous game its leaders have been playing? Does it know its history? And do the leaders of Europe, who should be a brake on American determination, go along with Washington because they are almost equally ignorant? The fact is none of the present crop of European and American leaders have had time to study much history.
By Hans-Joachim Allgaier
POTSDAM, Germany (IDN) — A German learning portal that provides free basic digitization knowledge in several languages to Internet users around the world is heading for its one-millionth enrolment. German science patron, Prof. Hasso Plattner, co-founder of the software company SAP and founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, is behind the international project and fully finances the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).
By Catholic News Agency (CNA)*
ROME (IDN) — More than 220,000 people left Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year.
The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019 when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was higher than the 2018 figure of 216,078, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
By Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
SUVA (IDN) — The French government has denied any cover-up over radiation levels in the Pacific following its nuclear testing in the region, as state-backed discussions took place in Paris about the legacy of the explosions, reports France 24.
A two-day meeting called by French President Emmanuel Macron was held following fresh allegations that the testing from 1966 to 1996 caused hidden atmospheric and ground radiation.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Belgium is the latest European country to promise to return artworks plundered from its former Congolese colony, as it seeks to confront its brutal colonial past.
Belgium’s Africa Museum has said up to 2,000 works, including statues, musical instruments and weapons, were acquired illegally during the colonial rule of a swathe of central Africa, mostly the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.
By Aar Jay Persius
BERLIN (IDN) — "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." On June 16, at their meeting in Geneva, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin re-affirmed this fundamental truth, famously coined by their predecessors, Reagan and Gorbachev, at the last peak of the cold war, write the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Germany (Heiko Maas), Spain (Arancha González Laya) and Sweden (Ann Linde) in an article published in the German newspaper Rheinische Post on July 5.
Merkel and Macron Ready to Talk Despite EU Refusal
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — That bar, the Red Star, on the far side of eastern Europe is closed. So why is the Black Star on this side of the street still open, and even extending its drinking hours?
Once the Warsaw Pact closed shop there was no good or honest reason for keeping NATO going. The threat that NATO was created to deter disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed.
By Reinhardt Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) — Together with the United Nations, the European Commission has urged "all parties to the conflict" in Ethiopia’s Tigray region to agree to "a ceasefire immediately to facilitate humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need in Tigray regardless of where they are and to stop violence against civilians".
Leading representatives of the two organizations had a virtual meeting on June 10 to discuss the situation seven months into the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — French President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame acknowledged that France bears partial responsibility for the Rwandan genocide, a historic confession that could mark a watershed moment in the fragile relations between the two countries.
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