Ukraine’s jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko has been on a hunger strike for five days to protest her treatment and demand an end to political repressions, her lawyer said yesterday.
“Yulia Tymoshenko began a hunger strike on Friday,” her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko told AFP after visiting Mrs Tymoshenko in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been jailed since last year on abuse-of-office charges.
“It’s an unlimited hunger strike. She is calling for an end to political repressions in Ukraine,” her lawyer said.
Israel wants one minute’s silence
Israel has asked the International Olympic Committee for a minute’s silence at the opening ceremony for the London games in July to remember its athletes killed at the Munich games in 1972, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
“Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has written officially to the IOC asking that the 2012 games in London open with a minute’s silence remembering the members of the Israeli squad killed at the 1972 games in Munich,” a ministry statement said.
Dutch Premier sees fresh polls
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the Dutch Parliament yesterday he expected fresh polls to be scheduled for September after his government’s collapse over austerity measures.
“I can imagine that we will decide on Friday (at a Cabinet meeting) to hold elections on September 12,” he said after a parliamentary debate, adding: “I don’t see any polls before the summer.”
Earlier in the day he called on Dutch lawmakers to support his package of budget cuts after his far-right ally last Saturday dumped talks aimed at steering Europe’s fifth-largest economy back into eurozone deficit targets.
€300 million for Balkan refugees
A global donor conference yesterday pledged €300 million to build homes for some 74,000 war refugees in four former Yugoslav republics, enabling construction to start in autumn.
The programme is backed by the EU, the US, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
The EU, with over €230 million pledged for the five-year project, is the biggest donor.
Pope’s eighth year as Catholic leader
The Pope began his eighth year yesterday as spiritual leader after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists.
The anniversary of the start of his pontificate, which officially began on April 24, 2005, kicked off with an inaugural Mass at St Peter’s Square.