5 Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

[rpannier]

1. Erdogan: Turkey has restarted drilling in East Mediterranean amid tensions with Greece

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece had not kept its promises regarding such activities in the region.

NATO members Turkey and Greece have long been at loggerheads over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources and tensions flared up last month, prompting Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to hold talks with the country's leaders to ease tensions.

“We have started drilling work again,” Mr Erdogan told reporters after participating in Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia mosque. “We don't feel obliged to talk with those who do not have rights in maritime jurisdiction zones.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-drill-oil-mediterranean-greece-mitsotakis-a9659666.html


2. Scuffles with police in Poland as protesters try to block arrest of LGBT activist

Protesters in Poland scuffled with police as they tried to stop the arrest of a gay rights activist on Friday in the city of Warsaw.

The activist, is known officially in court as Michal SZ, but identifies as a woman called Margo. She is suspected of causing criminal damage to the Pro-Right to Life Foundation van with homophobic slogans in June.

The activist is also accused of pushing a volunteer from the group which owned the van.

A court order the campaigner to be held for two months in preventative detention.

https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/07/scuffles-with-police-in-poland-as-protesters-try-to-block-arrest-of-lgbt-activist


3. Anti-Government Protesters In Bulgaria Restore Blockades Removed By Police

Anti-government protesters in Bulgaria have restored their traffic blockades in downtown Sofia, less than a day after they were removed by police.

Some 5,000 protesters gathered in the capital for a 30th consecutive evening on August 7, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's conservative government over corruption.

The protesters had occupied three major crossroads in downtown Sofia since July 29 and August 1 as part of the biggest protest wave in years in the EU's poorest country. Blockades had also been set up in Plovdiv and the Black Sea port of Varna, severely disrupting traffic.

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However, demonstrators in Sofia set up fresh tent camps at three major crossroads overnight, buttressing them with cordons of large garbage containers, park benches, and concrete street flowerpots.

https://www.rferl.org/a/anti-government-protesters-in-bulgaria-restore-blockades-removed-by-police/30772937.html

4. Kazakhstan Allows Transit Of Uzbek, Kyrgyz Workers Stranded In Russia

NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan has allowed the transit of thousands of Uzbek and Kyrgyz migrant workers who've been stranded in Russia for months along the border with Kazakhstan due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

The decision by Kazakhstan's government to allow the migrant workers to cross through the country to return to their homelands was made after clashes near the border between the migrants and Russian police.

Kazakh Foreign Ministry's spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov said on August 5 that 2,435 Kyrgyz citizens had been allowed to pass through Kazakhstan from Russia's adjacent Samara region aboard 40 buses. He said 2,200 Uzbek citizens also were allowed to cross through Kazakhstan on trains.

https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-allows-transit-of-uzbek-kyrgyz-workers-stranded-in-russia/30767694.html


5. Eleven people killed in Czech Republic apartment building fire

At least 11 people have been killed in a fire in an apartment building in the northeastern Czech Republic, police and firefighters said Saturday.

Police said the fire hit the 11th floor of the 13-story building in the afternoon in the town of Bohumin.

Firefighters spokesman Lukas Popp told local media that six people, three adults and three children, were killed in an eleventh-floor apartment.

The other five died after they were trying to escape from the building ``in panic'' by jumping from its windows on the 12th floor, Interior Minister Jan Hamacek told Czech public radio.

https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/08/eleven-people-killed-in-czech-republic-apartment-building-fire