EUROPE

French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years in jail, two of them suspended, for corruption. The 66-year-old was found guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate by offering him a prestigious job in return for information about a separate criminal case against Sarkozy. He is the first…

A Moscow court has jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny for three-and-a-half years for violating the conditions of a suspended sentence. He has been in detention since returning to Russia last month. He had been treated in Germany for a near-fatal nerve agent attack against him in August. Thousands of supporters…

Just over 5000 persons are in detention in Russia for taking part in an un-authorised protest. The protests have been on-going for days to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Among those detained on Sunday was Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who was later released Navalny was jailed…

France is closing its borders to people arriving from outside the European Union starting Sunday to try to stop the spread of new variants of the coronavirus and to avoid a third lockdown. French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the measure after an emergency government health security meeting at the…

The German government agreed on Thursday to ban all travel from high-risk countries, including South Africa, Britain, Portugal and Brazil. The restrictions are due to be signed on Friday and could come into force as early as Saturday, according to Spiegel magazine. Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced this ahead…

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has left out Nigeria from a list of 30 countries that have been banned from entering the United Kingdom over rising COVID-19 cases. Announcing the measure while addressing members of parliament, Johnson said that the tougher new rules would apply to travellers from “red list…

Britain has began vaccinating its population with the COVID-19 shot developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on Monday. Britain, which is rushing to vaccinate its population faster than the United States and the rest of Europe, is the first country to roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot though Russia and China…