ATHENS — Dozens of migrants found in a wooden boat on the Mediterranean Sea between northern Africa and southern Europe have been transported to the Greek island of Crete, Greece’s coast guard said Monday.

The boat with 74 people on board was found 25 nautical miles (46 kilometers, 29 miles) south of the small Greek island of Gavdos on Sunday night, the coast guard said, adding that a patrol boat transported the 73 men and one woman to Crete.

It was not immediately clear where or when the boat launched or what countries the passengers were from.

Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Gavdos, which lies 27 nautical miles south of Crete, and Crete’s southern coastline have seen an increase in migrant arrivals in recent months. In several cases, the coast guard said they had crossed the Mediterranean from the eastern Libyan port of Tobruk, having paid smuggling gangs up to $5,000 each.

The influx has put pressure on authorities on Gavdos, a summer tourism destination about 29 square kilometers (11 square miles) in area that has just a few dozen residents in the off season.
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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Romania and Bulgaria partially joined Europe’s ID-check-free travel zone Sunday, marking a new step in the two countries’ integration with the European Union.

After years of negotiations to join the Schengen area, there is now free access for travelers arriving by air or sea from both countries. However, land border checks will remain in place due to opposition primarily from Austria which has long blocked their bid over illegal migration concerns.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the change as a “huge success for both countries” and a “historic moment” for what is the world’s largest free travel zone.

The Schengen Area was established in 1985. Before Bulgaria’s and Romania’s admission, it was comprised of 23 of the 27 EU member countries, along with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Around 3.5 million people cross an internal border each day.

Austria vetoed Romania and Bulgaria’s admission into the Schengen zone at the end of 2022 but allowed Croatia full accession. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007 and Croatia in 2013.

Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian Member of the European Parliament, told The Associated Press that it is “an important first step” that will benefit millions of travelers annually.

“Bulgaria and Romania have been fulfilling all criteria for joining the Schengen area for years — we are entitled to join with the terrestrial border as well,” he said, adding that it “will offer additional arguments to the last EU member state that has been vetoing the full accession.”

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu called it a “well-deserved achievement” for Romania that he said will benefit citizens who can travel more easily and will bolster the economy.

“We have a clear and firmly assumed government plan for full accession to the Schengen Area by the end of the year,” he said.

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, has said for more than a decade that Romania and Bulgaria both meet the technical criteria for full accession, which requires unanimous support from their partners. Both countries have agreed to implement random security screening at airports and maritime borders to combat illegal migration and cross-border crime.

“Bulgaria’s full accession to Schengen will happen by the end of 2024,” Kalin Stoyanov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, told reporters Sunday. “We showed and continue to show to illegal migrants that they should not take the road to Europe through Bulgaria.”

The lifting of border control is expected to facilitate operations at Bulgaria’s four international airports, which in 2023 saw nearly 11 million passengers, according to official data.

The airport in the capital, Sofia, serves as the biggest hub for Schengen flights which constitute 70% of all flights, airport representatives said.

While the eased regulations are expected to positively impact the tourism sector, members of the European Parliament have voiced concerns about long queues at the EU’s land borders and the impact it can have on trade in the bloc’s single market, as well as the health and safety of drivers.

Truck drivers are frequently stuck in kilometers-long (miles-long) queues at the borders of both Romania and Bulgaria. The Union of International Carriers in Bulgaria estimates delays cost the sector tens of millions of euros each year.
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London — A U.K.-based journalist for independent Iranian media who was attacked outside his London home, prompting a counterterrorism police probe, is “doing very well,” his news channel said Saturday.  

Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for Persian-language outlet Iran International was in stable condition, the channel’s spokesman Adam Baillie said.  

“He’s doing very well actually. He’s in the hospital recovering from the attack,” Baillie told BBC radio, calling Friday’s attack “a shocking, shocking incident whatever the outcome of (the) investigation reveals.”

London’s Metropolitan Police has said its counterterrorism unit is investigating the stabbing, given previous hostile threats by Iran against perceived opponents in Britain.  

The force said the motive was unclear and officers were keeping “an open mind,” but that “the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organization based in the U.K.” was being considered.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in the U.K., Mehdi Hosseini Matin said Saturday that Tehran “denied any link” to the incident.  

Zeraati, in his 30s, sustained injuries to his leg in the mid-afternoon attack outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London.  

Announcing the incident on social media, Iran International noted it came after Tehran was implicated in a plot to kill two of its television anchors in 2022.  

Baillie said the channel’s journalists and their families and others had been repeatedly targeted and threatened by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

“Along with our colleagues at BBC Persian, Iran International has been under threat, very heavy threats, for the last 18 months since the IRGC said, ‘We’re coming for you,’” he added.

Baillie said the paramilitary security force gets “in touch through proxies” and its tactics include taking in relatives in Iran for questioning and threatening.  

“The scale of that has increased dramatically over the last few months. And the scale and the type of questioning is more aggressive,” he added.

The Met has disrupted what it has called plots in the U.K. to kidnap or even kill British or Britain-based individuals perceived as enemies of Tehran.

An Austrian national was convicted last December of spying for a group that may have been preparing to attack Iran International.  

The Iranian government has declared the outlet a terrorist organization after it reported on protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

She died in 2022 after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.   

The U.K. government last year unveiled a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on U.K. soil.
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Windsor, England — Britain’s King Charles greeted well-wishers in an impromptu walkabout after an Easter church service in Windsor on Sunday, his first appearance at a public royal event since his cancer diagnosis was announced in February. 

A smiling Charles, 75, accompanied by Queen Camilla, shook hands with scores of people gathered outside St George’s Chapel, the resting place of his late mother Queen Elizabeth. 

Charles had postponed all previous public engagements since Buckingham Palace announced he was to undergo treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. The illness was found in tests after he had a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate in January. 

While the king attended church on Sunday, his son Prince William and his family did not. William’s wife Kate said earlier this month she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer was discovered following abdominal surgery in January. 

The king, wearing a dark overcoat, and queen waved to onlookers when they arrived at the chapel by car from their residence at Windsor Castle. 

The queen was wearing a green coat dress and an emerald and diamond brooch that was the late queen’s. 

Some of the onlookers wished Charles good health, while others said “Happy Easter.”  

The king said: “You’re very brave to stand out here in the cold.”  

A woman who spoke to the king said he seemed “very well.” 

Buckingham Palace has not confirmed any future public engagements for the king, but his eagerness to meet people on Sunday will be taken as a positive sign about his health.  

Also attending the annual service were the king’s sister, the Princess Royal, and brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by their spouses. 

The Duke of York, who was removed from royal duties in 2022 due to his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was also present. 

Charles has kept up with the bulk of his non-public state duties such as greeting foreign officials and holding regular meetings with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. 

Last week the king did not attend an annual Maundy Thursday service but issued an audio message which aired at the event in which he expressed his sorrow at not being there and wished the public a Happy Easter. 
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Vatican City — Pope Francis on Sunday celebrated Easter Mass with tens of thousands of Catholics at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City before his traditional blessing, as concerns persist over his health.

The 87-year-old arrived in a wheelchair to preside over the Mass from 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) in cloudy and windy weather, with the events broadcast live around the globe.

Francis will pronounce the “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) blessing at midday where he is expected to bring up the international conflicts raging worldwide.

For Christians, Easter Sunday marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is the culmination of Holy Week, a major part of the Catholic calendar followed by 1.3 billion people.

The pope on Saturday presided over the Easter Vigil at the Vatican in front of some 6,000 people from around the world, a day after his last-minute cancellation at a major Good Friday procession revived questions about his health.

He delivered a 10-minute homily in Italian, speaking without any undue difficulty and condemning “the walls of selfishness and indifference” in the world.

At the end of the 2½-hour service he showed little sign of fatigue, taking time to greet and bless some of the worshippers.

In a brief statement Friday, the Vatican had said that “to preserve his health ahead of tomorrow’s vigil and the Easter Sunday Mass, Pope Francis will this evening follow the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum from the Santa Marta Residence,” where he lives.

Health concerns

The last-minute decision raised questions about how long Francis can continue to lead the Catholic Church.

A Vatican source told AFP on Friday there was “no particular concern” about his health and the decision to pull out had been “simply a measure of caution.”

The Argentinian Jesuit had also canceled his participation in the “Via Crucis” in 2023, but that followed a three-day hospital stay for bronchitis, and was announced well ahead of time. Weeks later, he underwent a hernia operation.

Up until Friday, the pope had attended his various engagements throughout the week, but he recently appeared tired and has sometimes delegated speaking roles to colleagues.

Francis, who never takes holidays, made his last trip in September, to the southern French city of Marseille. In December, he canceled a much-anticipated attendance at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

His next scheduled trip is to Venice on April 28. The Vatican has not yet confirmed a planned trip to Asia and Pacific Ocean nations for this summer.

Francis has previously left the door open to stepping down if he can no longer do the job. That would follow the example of his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step aside.

But in a memoir published this month, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning.” 
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MOSCOW — Russia has conducted a “counter-terrorism operation” in the southern region of Dagestan on Sunday, detaining three people, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said.   

Russia is on high alert following a mass shooting at a concert hall in Moscow on March 22 — the deadliest attack in the country in 20 years with at least 144 killed.   

“Security agencies detained three bandits who were planning a number of terrorist offenses. During the inspection of the places where the criminals were detained, automatic weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device ready for use were found,” the committee said on Sunday.   

Earlier, the committee said that suspected criminals had been blocked by security services in several flats in residential areas of the regional capital Makhachkala and one of the biggest cities in the republic — Kaspiysk.   

There were no civilian casualties and no losses among the law enforcement personnel.   

The “counter-terrorism operation regime” in both Makhachkala and Kaspiysk was lifted at 1200 local time (0900 GMT), according to Makhachkala mayor Yusup Umavov. 
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MOSCOW — Foreign diplomats in Russia laid flowers Saturday at the site of last week’s attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people.

Those in attendance included ambassadors from the United States, EU countries, Africa and Latin America. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said the “around 130 diplomatic missions” taking part included representatives of “unfriendly states.”

Since the attack, thousands of people have brought bunches of flowers, wreaths and other tokens such as teddy bears, creating a makeshift memorial at the Crocus City Hall.

Russian state news agency Tass reported Saturday that the number of people wounded in the attack was 551, quoting figures from the Moscow regional department of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry. Previous figures have been much lower and it did not explain the discrepancy.

The death toll rose to 144 on Friday when a severely injured victim died in a hospital, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Saturday that 134 of the dead had been identified. “Genetic tests are being carried out for other, as yet unidentified, victims,” the committee said in a statement on messaging app Telegram.

An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest on Russian soil in years. The Kremlin, however, has insisted that Ukraine and the West had a role, something Kyiv has vehemently denied.

Nine people were detained by Tajikistan’s state security service in relation to the attack, RIA Novosti said Friday.

In Russia, a total of nine suspects have faced court so far and were remanded in pre-trial detention. The latest hearing took place Friday, with a judge in the Basmanny District Court ruling that suspect Lutfulloi Nazrimad should be held in custody until at least May 22. Russian independent news site Mediazona cited Nazrimad as saying in court that he was born in Tajikistan.

Since the attack, Tajikistan’s Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment has recorded an outflow of migrants workers from Moscow back to Tajikistan.

“There are a lot of calls. These are most likely not so much complaints about harassment, but about our citizens’ fear, panic. Many want to leave. We are now monitoring the situation; more people are coming (to Tajikistan) than leaving,” Deputy Labour Minister Shakhnoza Nodiri told Tass, the news agency said Saturday.

Russian officials previously said that 11 suspects had been arrested, including four who allegedly carried out the attack. Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

Russia’s Investigative Committee additionally said Thursday it had detained another suspect in relation to the raid on Crocus City Hall, on suspicion of being involved in financing the attack. It did not give further details of the suspect’s identity or alleged actions.
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FLORENCE, Italy — Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on the statue’s genitalia,

The Galleria dell’Accademia’s director, Cecilie Hollberg, has positioned herself as David’s defender since her arrival at the museum in 2015, taking swift aim at those profiteering from his image, often in ways she finds “debasing.”

In that way, she is a bit of a David herself against the Goliath of unfettered capitalism with its army of street vendors and souvenir shop operators hawking aprons of the statue’s nude figure, T-shirts of it engaged in obscene gestures, and ubiquitous figurines, often in Pop Art neon.

At Hollberg’s behest, the state’s attorney office in Florence has launched a series of court cases invoking Italy’s landmark cultural heritage code, which protects artistic treasures from disparaging and unauthorized commercial use. The Accademia has won hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) in damages since 2017, Hollberg said.

“There was great joy throughout all the world for this truly unique victory that we managed to achieve, and questions and queries from all over about how we did it, to ask advice on how to move,” she told The Associated Press.

Legal action has followed to protect masterpieces at other museums, not without debate, including Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, Donatello’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

The decisions challenge a widely held practice that intellectual property rights are protected for a specified period before entering the public domain — the artist’s lifetime plus 70 years, according to the Berne Convention signed by more than 180 countries including Italy.

More broadly, the decisions raise the question of whether institutions should be the arbiters of taste, and to what extent freedom of expression is being limited.

“It raises not just legal issues, but also philosophical issues. What does cultural patrimony mean? How much of a stranglehold do you want to give institutions over ideas and images that are in the public domain?” said Thomas C. Danziger, an art market lawyer based in New York.

He pointed to Andy Warhol’s famous series inspired by Leonardo’s Last Supper. “Are you going to prevent artists like Warhol from creating what is a derivative work?” Danziger asked. “Many people would view this as a land grab by the Italian courts to control and monetize artworks in the public domain that were never intended to be charged for.”

Italy’s cultural code is unusual in its scope, essentially extending in perpetuity the author’s copyright to the museum or institution that owns it. The Vatican has similar legislative protections on its masterpieces and seeks remedies through its court system for any unauthorized reproduction, including for commercial use and for damaging the dignity of the work, a spokesperson said.

Elsewhere in Europe, Greece has a similar law, adopted in 2020, which requires a permit to use images of historic sites or artifacts for commercial use, and forbids the use of images that “alter” or “offend” the monuments in any way.

France’s Louvre museum, home to some oft-replicated masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, notes that its collection mostly dates from before 1848, which puts them in the public domain under French law.

Court cases have debated whether Italy’s law violates a 2019 European Union directive stating that any artwork no longer protected by copyright falls into the public domain, meaning that “everybody should be free to make, use and share copies of that work.”

The EU Commission has not addressed the issue, but a spokesperson told the AP that it is currently checking “conformity of the national laws implementing the copyright directive” and would look at whether Italy’s cultural heritage code interferes with its application.

Hollberg won her first case against ticket scalpers using David’s image to sell marked-up entrance packages outside the Accademia’s doors. She also has targeted GQ Italia for imposing a model’s face on David’s body, and luxury fashion brand Longchamp’s cheeky Florence edition of its trademark Le Pliage bag featuring David’s more intimate details.

Longchamp noted the depiction was “not without irony” and said the bag was “an opportunity to express with amused lightness the creative force that has always animated this wonderful city.”

No matter how many lawsuits Hollberg has initiated — she won’t say how many — the proliferation of David likenesses continues.

“I am sorry that there is so much ignorance and so little respect in the use of a work that for centuries has been praised for its beauty, for its purity, for its meanings, its symbols, to make products in bad taste, out of plastic,” Hollberg said.

Based on Hollberg’s success and fortified by improved search engine technology, the private entity that is custodian of Florence’s landmark Cathedral has started going after commercial enterprises using the famed dome for unauthorized, and sometimes denigrating, purposes — including men’s and women’s underwear.

So far, cease-and-desist letters have been enough to win compliance without turning to the courts, adding an extra half a million euros ($541,600) a year to revenues topping 30 million euros ($32 million), Luca Bagnoli, president of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, told the AP.

“We are generally in favor of the freedom of artistic expression,” Bagnoli said. “When it comes to reinterpreted copies, it becomes a little more difficult to understand where artistic freedom ends and our image rights begin.”

Italy’s cultural heritage code in its current form has been on the books since 2004, and while Hollberg’s cases were not the first, they have represented an acceleration, experts said.

The jurisprudence is still being tested. A court in Venice ordered Germany’s Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle maker to stop using the image of Vitruvian Man in the first case to involve a company outside Italy. The ruling implicitly rejected Ravensburger’s argument that the law was incompatible with the EU directive on copyright, lawyers said.

Experts say the aggressive stance could backfire, discouraging the licensing of Italy’s artworks, a source of revenue, while also limiting the reproduction of masterpieces that serve as cultural ambassadors.

“There is a risk for Italy, because you can select a work of art that is not covered by this legislation,” said Vittorio Cerulli Irelli, an intellectual property lawyer at Trevisan & Cuonzo in Rome. “In many instances, it is the same for you to use Leonardo’s painting which is in the U.K. or Leonardo’s painting which is in Italy. You just go for the easiest choice.”
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ROME — Pope Francis presided over the Vatican’s somber Easter Vigil service on Saturday night, delivering a 10-minute homily and baptizing eight people, a day after suddenly skipping the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum as a health precaution.

Francis entered the darkened, silent St. Peter’s Basilica in his wheelchair, took his place in a chair and offered an opening prayer. Sounding somewhat congested and out of breath, he blessed an elaborately decorated Easter candle, the flame of which was then shared with other candles until the whole basilica twinkled.

Over an hour later, Francis delivered a 10-minute homily in a strong voice, clearing his throat occasionally.

The evening service, one of the most solemn and important moments in the Catholic liturgical calendar, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus. The Vatican had said Francis skipped the Good Friday procession to ensure his participation in both the vigil service Saturday night, which usually lasts about two hours, and Easter Sunday Mass a few hours later.

The 87-year-old Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been battling respiratory problems all winter that have made it difficult for him to speak at length. He and the Vatican have said he has had bronchitis, a cold or the flu.

He has canceled some audiences and often asked an aide to read aloud some of his speeches. But the alarm was raised when he ditched his Palm Sunday homily altogether last week at the last minute and then decided suddenly Friday to stay home rather than preside over the Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum reenacting Christ’s crucifixion.

The Vatican said in a brief explanation that the decision was made to “conserve his health.”

The decision appeared to have paid off Saturday night, as Francis was able to recite the prayers of the lengthy vigil service and perform the sacrament of baptism for the eight adults. The baptism is a traditional feature of the Vatican’s Easter Vigil service.

In his homily Francis referred to the stone that the faithful believe was removed from Christ’s tomb after his death. Francis urged Catholics to remove the stones in their lives that “block the door of our hearts, stifling life, extinguishing hope, imprisoning us in the tomb of our fears and regrets.”

“Let us lift our eyes to him and ask that the power of his resurrection may roll away the heavy stones that weigh down our souls,” he said.

Holy Week is trying for a pope under any circumstance, given four days of liturgies, rites, fasting and prayer. But that is especially true for Francis, who canceled a trip to Dubai late last year, just days prior, on doctor’s orders because of his respiratory problems.

In addition to his respiratory problems, Francis had a chunk of his large intestine removed in 2021 and was hospitalized twice last year, including once to remove intestinal scar tissue from previous surgeries to address diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall. He has been using a wheelchair or cane for nearly two years because of bad knee ligaments.

In his recently published memoirs, Life: My Story Through History, Francis said he isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require him to resign and that he still has ” many projects to bring to fruition.”
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ISTANBUL — Turks vote Sunday in nationwide municipal elections focused on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to reclaim control of Istanbul from major rival Ekrem Imamoglu, who aims to reassert the opposition as a political force after bitter election defeats last year.

Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu dealt Erdogan and his AK Party the biggest electoral blow of two decades in power with his win in the 2019 vote. The president struck back in 2023 by securing re-election and a parliament majority with his nationalist allies.

Sunday’s votes could now reinforce Erdogan’s control of NATO-member Turkey, or signal change in the major emerging economy’s divided political landscape. An Imamoglu win is seen fueling expectations of him becoming a future national leader.

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. local time, 0400 GMT, in eastern Turkey, with voting elsewhere starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. Initial results are expected by 10 p.m., 1900 GMT.

Polls suggest a tight race in Istanbul, a city of 16 million people that drives Turkey’s economy, where Imamoglu faces a challenge from AKP candidate Murat Kurum, a former minister.

The results are likely to be shaped in part by economic woes driven by rampant inflation near 70%, and by Kurdish and Islamist voters weighing up the government’s performance and their hopes for political change.

While the main prize for Erdogan is Istanbul, he also seeks to win back the capital Ankara. Both cities were won by the opposition in 2019 after being under the rule of his AKP and Islamist predecessors for the previous 25 years.

Erdogan’s prospects have been helped by the collapse of the opposition alliance that he defeated last year, though Imamoglu still appeals to voters beyond his main opposition Republican People’s Party.

Voters of the main pro-Kurdish party were crucial to Imamoglu’s 2019 success. Their DEM party this time is fielding its own candidate in Istanbul, but many Kurds are expected to put aside party loyalty and vote for him again.

In the mainly Kurdish southeast, DEM is looking to reaffirm its strength after the state unseated pro-Kurdish party mayors following previous elections over alleged ties to militants.

One factor working against Erdogan is a rise in support for the Islamist New Welfare Party due to its hardline stance against Israel over the Gaza conflict and dissatisfaction with the Islamist-rooted AKP’s handling of the economy. 
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight. 

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights. 

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on February 8. Zaluzhnyi was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month. 

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 12 Shahed drones overnight, nine of which were shot down, and fired four missiles into eastern Ukraine. 

Russia unleashed a barrage of 38 missiles, 75 airstrikes and 98 attacks from multiple rocket launchers over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said in social media posts. 

Two people were killed and one wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said Saturday. 

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 people had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22. 

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions. 

Officials in the Poltava region said Saturday there had been “several hits” to an infrastructure facility, without specifying whether it was an energy facility. 

Meanwhile, the toll of Friday’s mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across Ukraine came to light Saturday, with local officials in the Kherson region announcing the death of one civilian. A resident of the Dnipropetrovsk region died in a hospital from shell wounds, according to regional Gov. Serhiy Lisak. 
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ottowa, canada — OTTAWA – Canada has sent about 70 soldiers to Jamaica to train troops from Caribbean nations who are set to take part in a United Nations-authorized mission to Haiti, the Canadian defense ministry said Saturday. 

Kenya announced last year it would lead the force, which is designed to help national police fight powerful gangs in Haiti where spiraling violence has fueled a humanitarian disaster. The initiative has been tied up in Kenyan court challenges ever since, effectively putting the mission on hold. 

The Canadian troops, from the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, will provide training on core peacekeeping skills and combat first aid, the defense ministry said in a statement. French is one of Haiti’s two official languages. 

The troops are scheduled to stay in Jamaica for an initial period of a month and will train about 330 troops from Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas. 

Canada said last month it would give $59.6 1illion to support the deployment of the Kenyan-led mission.
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EDE, Netherlands — Dutch police detained a man Saturday after he left a nightclub where four people had been held hostage for hours, bringing a peaceful end to a tense standoff.

“We are exceptionally happy that it ended this way — that the victims came out safely and that we were able to arrest this suspect without using violence,” said Marthyne Kunst, head of the regional public prosecutor’s office.

There was no immediate word on a motive, but police and prosecutors said they did not believe it was a terrorist incident. Police said the hostage-taker was armed with knives, and a backpack he carried was being examined to establish if it contained explosives.

The hostage-taking in the central Dutch market town of Ede, 85 kilometers (53 miles) southeast of Amsterdam, ended around midday when a man walked out of the Cafe Petticoat club and was ordered by armed police to kneel with his hands on his head. He was then handcuffed before being led into a waiting police car.

Kunst told reporters that the man was known to law enforcement authorities and had previously been convicted of threatening behavior. She gave no further details, citing privacy and the ongoing investigation.

The suspect’s identity was not released. Ede Mayor Rene Verhulst said he was a Dutch citizen.

Authorities also released no details about the four hostages.

Verhulst said that after an emotionally charged morning, “everything is fine. The hostage-taker is arrested by the police, and they are now speaking to him. And the hostages are free, they are very emotional.”

Earlier, three young hostages walked out of the club with their hands above their heads. A fourth person was released shortly before the suspect was arrested. The hostages were all workers at the club.

Heavily armed police and special arrest teams, some wearing masks, had gathered outside the popular club. Some 150 nearby homes were evacuated, and trains did not stop at the town’s station.
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BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam — Le Van Tam is no stranger to how the vagaries of global trade can determine the fortunes of small coffee farmers like him. 

He first planted coffee in a patch of land outside Buon Ma Thuot city in Vietnam’s Central Highland region in 1995. For years, his focus was on quantity, not quality. Tam used ample amounts of fertilizer and pesticides to boost his yields, and global prices determined how well he did. 

Then, in 2019, he teamed up with Le Dinh Tu of Aeroco Coffee, an organic exporter to Europe and the U.S., and adopted more sustainable methods, turning his coffee field into a a sun-dappled forest. The coffee grows side by side with tamarind trees that add nitrogen to the soil and provide support for black pepper vines. Grass helps keep the soil moist, and the mix of plants discourages pest outbreaks. The pepper also adds to Tam’s income. 

“The output hasn’t increased, but the product’s value has,” he said. 

In the 1990s, Tam was among thousands of Vietnamese farmers who planted more than a million hectares of coffee, mostly robusta, to take advantage of high global prices. By 2000, Vietnam had become the second-largest producer of coffee, which provides a tenth of its export income. 

Vietnam is hoping that farmers like Tam will benefit from a potential reordering of how coffee is traded due to more stringent European laws to stop deforestation. 

The European Deforestation Regulation or EUDR will outlaw sales of products like coffee beginning December 30, 2024, if companies can’t prove they are not linked with deforestation. The new rules’ scope is wide: They will apply to cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber and cattle. To sell those products in Europe, big companies will have to show they come from land where forests haven’t been cut since 2020. Smaller companies have until July 2025 to do so. 

Deforestation is the second-biggest source of carbon emissions after fossil fuels. Europe ranked second behind China in the amount of deforestation caused by its imports in 2017, according to a 2021 World Wildlife Fund report. If implemented well, the EUDR could help reduce this, especially if the more stringent standards for tracing where products come from become the “new normal,” Helen Bellfield, a policy director at Global Canopy, told The Associated Press in an interview. 

It’s not fail-safe. Companies can just sell products that don’t meet the new requirements elsewhere, without reducing deforestation. Thousands of small farmers unable to provide the potentially expensive data could be left out. Much depends on how countries and companies react to the new laws, Bellfield said. Countries must help smaller farmers by building national systems that ensure their exports are traceable. Otherwise, companies may just buy from very large farms that can prove they have complied. 

Already, orders for Ethiopian-grown coffee have fallen. And Peru lacks the capacity to provide information needed for coffee and cocoa grown in the Peruvian Amazon. 

This comes atop other challenges, which in Vietnam include worsening droughts and receding groundwater levels. 

“There will be winners and losers,” she said. 

Vietnam can’t afford to lose — Europe is the largest market for its coffee, constituting 40% of its coffee exports. Six weeks after the EUDR was approved, Vietnam’s agriculture ministry started working to prepare coffee growing-provinces for the shift. It has since rolled out a national plan that includes a database of where crops are grown and mechanisms to make this information traceable. 

The Southeast Asian nation has long promoted more sustainable farming methods, viewing laws like the EUDR as an “an inevitable change,” according to an August 2023 agriculture ministry communique. The EUDR could help accelerate such a transformation, according to Agriculture Minister Le Minh Hoang. 

Tam and Tu, his export partner, were quick to adapt. 

Even if the costs are higher, Tu said, they can get better prices for their high-quality coffee. 

“We must choose the highest quality. Otherwise, we will always be laborers,” Tu said, while sipping a cup of his favorite coffee at his company’s coffee-processing factory adjoining Tam’s farm. This is where trucks laden with red coffee cherries, both robusta and arabica, arrive from other farms, where the pulp of the fruit is removed and beans of coffee are laid out on tables to dry in the sun. 

Tu already has certificates from international agencies for sustainability that will enable him to deal with the EUDR. Such certificates typically address the issue of deforestation, although some tweaks may be needed, said David Hadley, program director for regulatory impacts at the nonprofit group Preferred by Nature in Costa Rica. 

Ensuring that Vietnam’s roughly half a million small farmers, who produce about 85% of its coffee, are able to collect and provide data showing their farms did not cause deforestation remains a challenge. Some may struggle to use smartphones to collect geolocation coordinates. Small exporters need to set up systems to prevent other uncertified products from being mixed with coffee that meets EUDR requirements, said Loan Le of International Economics Consulting. 

Farmers also will need documents proving they have complied with national laws for land use, environmental protection and labor, Le said. Moreover, coffee’s long value chain — from producing beans to collecting them and processing them — requires digital systems to ensure records are error-free. 

Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, is better placed, said Bellfield of Global Canopy, since its coffee grows on plantations that far are away from forests and it has a relatively well-organized supply chain. Also, Brazilian-grown coffee is most likely to meet the EUDR requirements, according to a 2024 Brazilian study, because much of it is exported to the EU, Brazil has fewer small farmers, and about a third of its coffee-growing acreage already has some kind of sustainability certification. 

The EUDR has acknowledged concerns for less well prepared suppliers by giving them more time and said the European government will work with impacted countries to “enable the transition” while “paying particular attention” to the needs of small holders and Indigenous communities. A review in 2028 will also look at impacts on smallholders. 

“Despite this we still anticipate it being costly and difficult for small holder farming communities,” she said. 

In Peru, collecting information about hundreds of thousands of small farmers is difficult given the country’s weak institutions and the fact that most farmers lack land titles, according to a study of EUDR impacts by the Amazon Business Alliance, a joint-initiative by USAID, Canada and the nonprofit group Conservation International. 

Ethiopia, where coffee makes up about a third of total export earnings according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report, has been slow to react. The national plan it rolled out in February 2024 fails to resolve the fundamental issue of how to gather required data from millions of small farmers and provide that information to buyers, said Gizat Worku, head of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association. 

“That requires a huge amount of resources,” he said 

Gizat, who like many Ethiopians goes by his first name, said that orders are falling because of doubts about the country’s ability to comply with the EUDR. Some traders are contemplating switching to other markets, like the Middle East or China, where Ethiopian coffee is “booming,” he said. But switching markets isn’t easy. 

“These regulations are going to have a tremendous impact,” Gizat said.
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