Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — Russia’s war in Ukraine, chaos in Haiti and rising violence by criminal groups in Mexico contributed to a 30% spike in the number of journalists killed doing their work in 2022 over the previous year, according to a new report released Friday.

The International Federation of Journalists says that 67 journalists and media staff have been killed around the world so far this year, up from 47 last year.

MOSCOW (AP) — A prominent Russian opposition figure was on Friday sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison after being convicted on charges stemming from his criticism of the Kremlin’s action in Ukraine.

The sentence handed to Ilya Yashin, one of the few Kremlin critics to have stayed in Russia, offered the latest indication of an intensified crackdown on dissent by Russian authorities.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s ruling party leader claims Germany seeks to dominate Europe. He warns that Poles could end up under the “German heel.” He snubs a German offer of anti-missile systems before Poland eventually accepts them — but gets in an anti-German dig along the way.

Ahead of elections next year, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the nationalist conservative ruling party that he leads have been lashing out against Germany while seeking to cast their main competitor as loyal to Berlin.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of NATO expressed worry that the fighting in Ukraine could spin out of control and become a war between Russia and NATO, according to an interview released Friday..

“If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in remarks to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” he said. “We are working on that every day to avoid that.”

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Ukraine’s finance minister says crucial Western financial support is “not charity” but “self-preservation” in the fight to defend democracy as his country deals with growing costs to repair electrical and heating infrastructure wrecked by Russian attacks.

Serhiy Marchenko also told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday from Kyiv that he believes European Union officials will sort out a dispute with Hungary that has blocked a key 18 billion-euro ($18.97 billion) aid package and would cover much of Ukraine’s looming budget gap.

08 Dec 2022; MEMO: Islamic organisations in the Netherlands have criticised a draft decision that would impose censorship on Quran institutes in the country.

The draft resolution was submitted by the Minister of Education, Dennis Wiersma, last month, and would allow the imposition of censorship over educational institutions that are not affiliated with the ministry and are not funded by it, including institutes for memorising the Quran in mosques.

08 Dec 2022; MEMO: A presenter of a children's television show in Germany has been fired for attending a peaceful demonstration against the Israeli Occupation in the West Bank, in the latest case of German authorities' and media's suppression of pro-Palestinian views.

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/: The confession made by German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s in her interview for Die Zeit that the Minsk Agreements were signed in order to buy time for Ukraine to prepare for a military standoff with Russia could be used for an investigation in a tribunal, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/: The confession made by German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s in her interview for Die Zeit that the Minsk Agreements were signed in order to buy time for Ukraine to prepare for a military standoff with Russia could be used for an investigation in a tribunal, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/: The conflict in Ukraine can end at any moment if Kiev shows the political will, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"In this case, we could speculate when all this will end until we are blue in the face," Peskov said, commenting on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s remark that the conflict might end in 2023. "Zelensky knows when it can all end, it can end tomorrow if [Kiev] so wishes," the Russian presidential spokesman noted.