Europe

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A former Ugandan child soldier who became a commander of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army was convicted on Thursday of dozens of crimes, including widespread rape, sexual enslavement, child abductions, torture and murder, including killings of babies.

Dominic Ongwen was found guilty by the International Criminal Court of 61 out of 70 alleged counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. A hearing in mid-April will consider a possible sentence, which could be up to life imprisonment, with a decision expected later this year.

ANTWERP, Belgium (Reuters) - An Iranian diplomat accused of planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled opposition group was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday in the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Assadolah Assadi was found guilty of attempted terrorism after a foiled plot to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) near Paris in June 2018, Belgian prosecution lawyers and civil parties to the prosecution said.

ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former chief of European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi was appointed to form Italy's new government, the office of President Sergio Mattarella said on Wednesday.

"This morning, the president of the Republic has received professor Mario Draghi, to whom he has assigned the task of forming a new government," Secretary-General of the Italian Presidency Ugo Zampetti told a press conference.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- European leaders have shown an openness to the use of COVID-19 vaccines developed by any supplier once they pass the European Union's (EU) tests.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that coronavirus vaccines from Russia and China could be approved for use in the EU if they "show all the data," AFP quoted the bloc's lawmakers as saying.

If Chinese producers "show all the data... then they could get... a conditional market authorization like the other ones," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers at a meeting.

KIEV, February 3. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has assured that he supports freedom of speech but opposes "propaganda financed by the aggressor country." He thus commented on the decision to crack down on three TV channels and their owner, lawmaker Taras Kozak.

"Sanctions is a difficult decision. Ukraine strongly supports Freedom Of Speech," he wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos is in talks with its Chinese colleagues to determine scientific tasks for a lunar base and to discuss technical aspects of the project’s implementation, Deputy Director General for International Cooperation at the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos Sergey Savelyev told TASS.

"At present, work is under way to determine possible scientific tasks of mutual interest in the Moon research. Besides, possible technical implementation of the project is being analyzed," he said.

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 16,474 coronavirus cases in the past day and the total case tally hit 3,901,204, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

The average growth rate reached 0.42%.

The lowest growth rates were registered in the past day in the Tuva Republic (0.03%), the Altai Republic, the Pskov Region (0.1%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan Region, the Chechen Republic and Khakassia (0.2%).

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: The United States always comes up with various excuses for imposing anti-Russian sanctions, and it does not need any specific reasons to do so, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel, commenting on remarks by Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, about slapping sanctions on "those responsible" because of blogger Alexey Navalny’s case.

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/: The sentence on Alexey Navalny’s case is unlikely to significantly affect the political situation in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"The political situation in the country is rather multifaceted. The country prepares for parliamentary elections in September, a lot of different processes take place, new political parties form. This is a very multifaceted process, so, it is unlikely that there will be any significant effect," Peskov said.

TAMPERE (Finland), Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The trial of a suspected warlord accused of atrocities during Liberia’s civil war begins in Finland on Wednesday, the first such case to be partly heard on Liberian soil.

Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean living in Finland since 2008, is accused of murder, aggravated war crimes and aggravated crimes against humanity during the West African country’s internal conflict a generation ago.