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The wife of Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been ordered to stand trial on corruption charges, a court order released on Saturday said. Begona Gomez is ‌accused of using her position as the head of the government's wife to secure work contracts. The case is one of several graft cases facing the PM's center-left minority government. What do we know about the court ruling? The court in Madrid agreed that there was sufficient evidence to bring Gomez's case to trial in front of a jury. Investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado told Gomez to surrender ​her passport, barred her from leaving the country and ordered ​her ‌to report to court twice a month. The court said "instructions shall be issued to all border posts and civilian and military airports" to ensure Gomez remains on hom...

Top Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that they were returning Polish state honors after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland's highest award. The move could further strain ties between the two close strategic partners as Kyiv seeks to rally international support to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine. "This is a gift to the Moscow aggressor, who will certainly use it against both of our countries," Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, wrote on social media, saying that he was returning the Gold Officer's Cross of the Polish Order of Merit.  On Friday, Nawrocki announced that Zelenskyy would be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle — Poland's highest state honor, which had been awarded by former President Andrzej Duda...

A woman was killed and almost 1,700 people had to flee after a massive fire broke out at a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic on Friday, authorities said. The incident occurred at the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach Hotel in Bayahibe, located on the Caribbean nation's southeastern coast. Fire officials tamed the blaze and an investigation is underway to determine its cause. There was no immediate statement from the hotel franchise What do we know about the casualties? An Italian woman — identified as 46-year-old Francesca Valentino — died in the blaze, the DAEH emergency service said in a statement. It added that three people had been taken to medical facilities and six others were receiving treatment on the site. According to authorities, the fire forced some 1,690 tourists to be...

Australia on Saturday confirmed its first mainland case of the deadly H5 strain of bird flu. The disease was detected in a migratory sea bird — a brown skua — in a remote part ‌of ⁠Western Australia, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said at a press briefing in Canberra. The development means that the highly contagious variant of avian influenza is now present on every continent. "We all knew we couldn't be bird flu-free forever," Collins said. What do we know? The bird was found near a beach at the Cape Le Grand National Park, about ​700 ‌kilometers (430 miles) from Western Australia's capital, Perth. The test result was confirmed by the national science agency. "Whilst disappointing, this is not unexpected, given the global spread of the H5 bird flu," Collins said. "I can confir...

German journalist Eva Maria Michelmann, who went missing early this year in Syria while reporting on the remnants of more than a decade of civil war, returned to Germany on Friday, her lawyer said.  "It can be confirmed that Eva M. Michelmann was released this morning and returned to Germany this afternoon," her lawyer Roland Meister told the AFP news agency, also making similar comments to other outlets.  What else do we know about Michelmann's return?  Her brother Antonius Michelmann later told the German dpa news agency that "We went to collect her," as she returned to Germany via Jordan.  He said that she was doing well, given the circumstances.  He said she had been held in solitary confinement for an extended period but did not provide further details. Kurds in northeastern Syri...

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday said he was cutting ties to the EU's foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas, challenging her to address a Euractiv media report claiming that she compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to Apartheid South Africa in a visit to Mexico last month.  The move comes amid strain on EU relations with Israel amid the conflicts that followed the October 7, 2023 attacks and more longstanding points of disagreement like Israeli settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territory.  It also coincides with Kallas, formerly the Estonian prime minister, facing internal pressure and reports of dissatisfaction with her performance from several European governments for other gaffes or perceived mistakes in her role atop the ...

A suspect has been detained in connection with the fatal shooting of a Russian national and subversive artist earlier this week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.  The homicide of an artist who was critical of Russian, Soviet and Chechen leaders comes amid the heightened tensions amid President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  It's one of several killings targeting prominent opposition or dissident figures in NATO countries in recent years, from Poland to Lithuania, or Britain or Berlin.  What did Tusk say about the arrest on Thursday?  Tusk said that police and Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) coordinated in the arrest. He said that the suspect was using a Georgian passport, and that investigations continued trying to find out where the orders for t...

The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on Wednesday approved a package of reforms aimed at opening up more sectors to private investment.  The reform process coincides with increased economic pressure from the US and comes amid regular power outages and other resource shortages on the island.  The country's president and the first secretary of its only legal political party, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first presented the plans late last week.  Cuba faces most severe energy crisis in decadesTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What did the PCC say as it approved the reforms?  The Central Committee of the PCC held an extraordinary plenary session on Wednesday to urgently evaluate the proposals.  The party wrote on social medi...

The European Commission said on Wedensday that it was building on a support program worth some €493 million (roughly $580 million) in humanitarian aid and health security amid the latest Ebola outbreak centered around Ituri province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  This came a day after assembled leaders at the G7 summit in Evian, France appealed for a strong and coordinated international response to the outbreak, praising support efforts from the US, EU and others.  According to the DRC's government late on Tuesday, the outbreak of the comparatively rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebolavirus has led to 837 confirmed cases and 196 deaths — 29 of those cases in a period of 24 hours.  What did the EU say about its assistance program?  The European Commission said that it...