Zurich, Switzerland — Police have stepped up security measures at Jewish sites in Zurich following a serious knife attack on an orthodox Jewish man in the Swiss city overnight, local police said Sunday.

Police said they had taken action after a 15-year-old Swiss youth was arrested for inflicting “life-threatening” injuries on the 50-year-old Jewish man in central Zurich on Saturday night.

A Zurich police statement said it was not clear what sparked the attack, but that investigations were “explicitly including the possibility of a crime motivated by antisemitism.”

The extra security was put in place for “specific locations with a Jewish connection,” police said, following discussions with local Jewish organizations. They gave no further details.

Jonathan Kreutner, general secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), told Swiss television that physical attacks on Jewish people in the country were rare.

“A case like this is really a new dimension,” he said.

Concern about the risk of antisemitic behavior in Switzerland has grown since the terror attacks by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent campaign against the Islamist group by the Israeli government in Gaza.

Last month, the SIG raised concern about attitudes to Jewish people after local media reported police had opened an investigation into a sign in Hebrew displayed by a business in Davos which declared Jews were barred from renting ski gear.
…

Germany admits to leaked details of a military meeting outlining future munitions and battle plans for Ukraine. Russia calls Germany its “age-old” rival that is again its “sworn” enemy. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.
…

WARSAW, Poland — German authorities said Saturday they were conducting an investigation after an audio recording in which German military officers purportedly discussed support for Ukraine, including the potential use of Taurus missiles, was published in Russia. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was in Rome on Saturday, called it a “very serious matter” and said that German authorities were working to clarify the matter “very carefully, very intensively and very quickly.” His comments were carried by Germany’s dpa news agency. 

In the 38-minute recording, military officers discuss the question of how the Taurus long-range cruise missiles could be used by Ukraine. A debate has been taking place in Germany over whether to supply the missiles as Ukraine faced setbacks on the battlefield after two years of war, and with military aid from the United States being held up in Congress. 

Earlier this week, Scholz said he remains reluctant to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of Germany becoming directly involved in the war. His hesitancy is a source of friction in his three-party coalition and annoyed Germany’s conservative opposition. 

But in the purported audio recording, German officers discuss the theoretical possibility of the missiles being used in Ukraine. 

Germany’s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether communications within the air force were intercepted by Russia. In a statement carried by dpa, it said: “According to our assessment, a conversation within the air force was intercepted. We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes have been made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media.” 

Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of Russian state-funded TV channel RT, posted the audio on social media. 

“In this (…) recording, high-ranking Bundeswehr officers discuss how they will bomb (attention!) the Crimean bridge,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the conversation took place on February 19. Within the conversation, she said, one of the officers mentioned a planned trip to Ukraine on February 21 to coordinate strikes on Russian targets. 

Germany is now the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States and is further stepping up its support this year. But Scholz has stalled for months on Ukraine’s desire for Taurus missiles, which have a range of up to 500 kilometers (311 miles) and could in theory be used against targets far into Russian territory. 

The chancellor has long emphasized his determination to help Ukraine without escalating the war and drawing in Germany and NATO, stressing that no German soldiers will go to Ukraine. 

“We will not send European soldiers to Ukraine. We don’t want a war between Russia and NATO. And we will do all we can to prevent it,” Scholz told a meeting of the Party of European Socialists in Rome on Saturday. 

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the future deployment of Western troops on the ground in Ukraine was not “ruled out,” a suggestion quickly dismissed by Germany, Poland and other allied countries. 
…

ANTALYA, TURKEY — Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan if Baku shows the same political will and is keen to make progress on normalizing relations with Turkey, a senior Armenian official said on Saturday. 

Yerevan and Baku said in December they wanted to reach a peace deal after decades of being at odds, but no agreement has been signed yet. 

The most divisive issue has long been the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan. Baku’s forces recaptured the mountainous area in September after years of ethnic Armenian control, prompting most of its ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said Armenia had the political will for a normalization of relations with Azerbaijan based on principles previously agreed upon by the two sides. 

“This is an issue of political will and leadership,” he told Reuters in an interview during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. 

He said Yerevan had shown the political will needed, including at talks on Friday between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey, Baku’s main backer. 

“Now, if the Azerbaijani side is really interested in having peace, we just need to agree to put the agreed principles by the leaders [on paper] and sign it,” he said. 

Among outstanding issues is the lack of agreement over their shared border, with each side holding small areas surrounded by the other’s territory. 

Kostanyan said the two sides needed to recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and drew attention to Yerevan’s “Crossroads for Peace” plan for an opening in communication lines in the region to help regional stability. 

There was no immediate comment from Baku in his remarks. 

Turkey-Armenia ties 

NATO member Turkey has deepened political and military ties with Azerbaijan in recent years but has also been working to revive ties with Armenia after decades of animosity after severing diplomatic and commercial ties in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during a war Baku was fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Kostanyan said Armenia wanted a full normalization of ties with Turkey, including the opening of their shared border and establishment of diplomatic relations. 

“The establishment of diplomatic relations is basically communications between two states,” he said. “Of course, reconciliation between two nations can take longer, but we need to have diplomatic relations, which will help us and help our people.” 

He said Yerevan had done the work needed to open borders with Turkey, including infrastructure repairs, and was awaiting on Ankara’s response. 

Turkey and Armenia are at odds primarily over the 1.5 million people Yerevan says were killed in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to modern Turkey. 

Armenia says this constitutes genocide. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but it contests the figures and denies it was systematic. 
…

WASHINGTON — French journalist Antoine Galindo, who was detained for a week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, was released Thursday ahead of his scheduled second appearance in court Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.

Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, told VOA that Galindo, a reporter for Paris-based news site Africa Intelligence, left for France immediately after his release.

“Unfortunately, the local politician whom he was interviewing when he was arrested remained in jail and appeared in court today,” Quintal said.

Galindo was arrested February 22 while interviewing Bate Urgessa, a political officer for the opposition party, the Oromo Liberation Front, and they were both charged with “conspiracy to create chaos.”

Two days later, Galindo was brought before a judge who granted a one-week investigation period for police “to search the journalist’s mobile phone and apprehend other ‘suspects’ who were ‘complicit.’ ”

Sources who attended Friday’s hearing and asked to remain anonymous because of fear for their safety told VOA that police told the court that Galindo was released on bail and asked for an additional five days of investigation.

However, Quintal said, “If he was released on bail, he would not have been allowed out of the country,” adding that French diplomatic efforts may have helped gain Galindo’s early release.

CPJ Africa program coordinator Muthoki Mumo said in a statement, “His unjust detention was a stark reminder of the danger of practicing journalism in today’s Ethiopia.”

“Ethiopian authorities must now release all journalists — eight others, at least — who have suffered months of imprisonment under very difficult conditions,” Mumo said, adding that the government should also allow international journalists to report without fear of retaliation.

Stressing that Galindo’s arrest showed there was no press freedom in Ethiopia under the current government, Quintal sought to use the momentum of his release to draw international attention and advocate for the release of all Ethiopian journalists in prison.

Quintal said, “You can’t have one standard for a foreign journalist and another for a local. The vast majority of journalists in jail in Africa are actually local journalists.”

According to CPJ, Ethiopia is the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa with at least eight journalists behind bars. Four of them were arrested since the declaration of a state of emergency in August 2023, Quintal said, and they were never formally charged.

Galindo, 36, traveled to Addis Ababa to cover an African Union summit and other political news, according to his employer. The publication added he had a journalist visa and the proper accreditation from the government’s Media Authority.
…

Under a heavy police presence, thousands of supporters of Alexey Navalny bid farewell to the prominent Russian opposition leader outside his funeral Friday in Moscow. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
…

washington — Beijing is unlikely to help Washington disrupt military cooperation between North Korea and Russia because China sees that move as undermining itself while bolstering U.S. goals in Europe and Asia, analysts said.

“Given U.S. policy in Asia and Washington’s ongoing effort to contain Chinese power in the region, Beijing has no reason to assist the U.S., even indirectly, on one of its most top foreign policy priorities – a Russian defeat in Ukraine,” said Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities.

“For China, North Korea is not a problem to be solved but rather a card to play in its competition with Washington,” continued DePetris in an email to VOA on Tuesday.

The U.S. has turned to China to help rein in North Korea’s threatening missile activities that have now extended beyond East Asia into Europe, where Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on for the third year.

North Korean missiles have killed and injured civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Donetsk and Kharkiv since December, the Security Service of Ukraine said on February 22.

The following day, the State Department announced that its senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, held talks with China’s special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, Liu Xiaoming.

The two discussed North Korea’s “increasing destabilizing and escalatory behavior and its deepening military cooperation with Russia” on February 21 via videoconferencing, said the U.S. statement.

The U.S. said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 containers of weapons to Russia since September as it announced a sanctions package targeting Moscow on February 23.

The Pak-Xiaoming talks followed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s discussion of North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 16.

In response to last week’s talks, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday via email that “China has no intention to interfere with the cooperation between two sovereign countries” of North Korea and Russia. He called the two nations “China’s friendly neighbors.”

Pengyu continued, “We hope the U.S. will play a positive and constructive role in maintaining peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.”

North Korea seemingly has been accelerating arms transfers to replenish weapons that Russia needs to fight Ukraine since its leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. Kim, in return, was seeking Russia’s technology to enhance his weapons.

Susan Thornton, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center who served as acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the Trump administration, said Beijing might be willing to persuade Moscow to break its ties with Pyongyang once the war in Ukraine is over.

But even then, “China will not be eager to help” if its “relations with the U.S. are still deteriorating,” she said via email on Tuesday.

China views North Korea, which straddles its border, as a buffer zone countering the U.S. and its military bases with 28,500 troops in South Korea. Beijing prefers that Pyongyang maintain stability to continue serving that role.

China has been providing economic aid to sustain heavily sanctioned and isolated North Korea since the 1990s.

Although Beijing is “very uncomfortable” losing leverage over Pyongyang as Moscow now provides alternative sources of food and fuel, that apparent loss is offset by benefits Beijing gains from Moscow’s reliance on China’s economy, said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Project.

Russia has faced heavy sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“China has been an economic life raft for Russia, boosting its energy ties, filling Russian markets with its autos and consumer goods,” said Manning. Beijing will not change its stance on Pyongyang-Moscow ties as it generally continues “to coordinate much of its foreign policy with Russia where it opposes U.S. policy,” he said via email on Wednesday.

However, Michael Swaine, senior research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said, “Working strenuously with Moscow and Pyongyang to oppose the U.S. poses certain risks for Beijing.”

Swaine said via email on Wednesday that “Right now, it wants to maintain workable relations with Washington, not worsen them. Beijing faces serious domestic problems that demand a relatively stable external environment.”
…

A lunar landing more than 50 years in the making is a partial success. Plus, the U.S. says Russia may launch a nuclear weapon into orbit. The Kremlin calls it spin. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
…

OSLO, Norway — One person died and five were injured when a helicopter crash-landed in the ocean off western Norway, police said on Thursday, leading to a temporary halt in transport to and from the country’s offshore oil and gas platforms.

The Sikorsky S-92 aircraft operated by Bristow Norway was on a search and rescue training mission on Wednesday when the accident occurred, officials have said.

The six crew members were all hoisted from the sea by rescue workers, but one was later declared dead in hospital, police said in a statement.

One of the surviving crew members was in a critical condition on Thursday and one was severely injured while the remaining three suffered lighter injuries, the hospital treating them said in an update on social media platform X.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

“We have sent crash inspectors to Stavanger and Bergen to investigate the accident,” Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority head William Bertheussen told Reuters.

The two cities are the busiest hubs for Norway’s extensive oil and gas industry, which produces around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Bristow Group said in a statement it was fully cooperating with authorities responding to the incident and that the company was collecting relevant information.

Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky, which manufactured the helicopter, said on Wednesday that safety was its top priority and that it stood ready to support the investigation.

Energy group Equinor said the helicopter was a search and rescue aircraft normally serving platforms at the company’s Oseberg oil and gas field in the North Sea.

“We have confidence both in the type of helicopter and in the operators,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal told public broadcaster NRK.

Still, Equinor halted all regular helicopter flights to its oil and gas platforms in Norway out of consideration for those affected and to get an overview of the situation.

“The company aims to get the helicopters back to normal operation quickly and is now making the necessary preparations to achieve this safely,” the company said in a statement.
…

…

…

Vatican City — Pope Francis, who has been suffering from the flu, was brought to a hospital in central Rome after the papal audience on Wednesday, arriving at the Gemelli Hospital on Tiber Island in a small white Fiat 500 and leaving again under escort in the same car after a short period. The Vatican had no immediate comment.

The 86-year-old pope was pushed in a wheelchair into the audience hall at the Vatican earlier in the day, appearing weary as he dropped heavily into his seat. In recent weeks he has walked the short distance to his chair, but he has been struggling with mild flu symptoms the past week.

The pope also canceled appointments Saturday and Monday due to the flu, but appeared as usual for the Sunday blessing from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

Last week, Francis coughed repeatedly during Ash Wednesday services that he presided over at a Roman church, and opted not to participate in the traditional procession that inaugurates the church’s Lenten season.

This time of year in 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was starting to hit Italy, Francis also suffered a bad cold that forced him to cancel several days of official audiences and his participation in the Vatican’s annual spiritual retreat. The Vatican had already scrubbed the retreat for this year in favor of personal spiritual exercises.

The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed as a young man because of a respiratory infection, and in 2021 had a chunk of his colon removed because of an intestinal inflammation. He has been using a wheelchair and cane since last year because of strained knee ligaments and a small knee fracture that have made walking and standing difficult.

The Pope used his brief words at the end of Wednesday’s audience to mark the 25th anniversary of the ratification of the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention, expressing his “closeness to the numerous victims of these insidious devices that remind us of the dramatic cruelty of war.”

He also appealed for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and prayed for the victims of attacks in Burkina Faso and Haiti.

At the end of the audience, the pope spent about an hour greeting the faithful from his wheelchair, stopping to talk, bless babies and exchange gifts.
…