More migrants on Lesbos relocated
KARA TEPE, Greece -- Police on the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday relocated more than 1,000 more migrants who had been homeless since fires ravaged the country's largest refugee camp last week amid a covid-19 outbreak.
The number of people moved to the new army-built camp on the island reached 6,100, officials said, adding that a total of 187 so far have tested positive for the coronavirus.
More than 12,000 migrants and refugees fled the fires that the Greek government maintains that a small group of Afghan migrants deliberately set last week to protest a virus lockdown at the Moria camp.
Greece is one of the southern European countries that receives the greatest share of refugees and migrants from Africa and the Mideast. The European Union is preparing to issue proposals next week for a major overhaul of the 27-nation bloc's migration policies.
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Police began moving more people into the new camp early Friday.
Government officials said they expected the operation to last through Sunday. Michalis Chrisochoidis, a minister in charge of public order, said the fire-ravaged camp at Moria would be cleared. "Moria is over," he told private Thema radio. "It will be bulldozed. It is something that should not be remembered. It should not remain in the mind or in the soul of anyone."
Russia says U.S., allies stoking tension
MOSCOW -- The Russian military Friday accused the U.S. and its allies of provoking tensions in the Black Sea region with a sharp increase in the number of bomber patrols and intelligence flights.
Col.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian general staff's main operational department, charged that the U.S. and other members of NATO have significantly increased the scope of their military activities in the region.
"The U.S. and its NATO allies will carry the full responsibility for a possible escalation of the situation in the region," he said at a briefing.
Rudskoi pointed at a series of flights by the U.S. B-52 strategic bombers in August and September over the Black and the Azov seas, alleging that the missions were intended to simulate missile strikes at facilities in southern Russia. He said the bombers flew less than 7 miles to the Russian border.
After flying three B-1 heavy bombers over the East Siberian Sea last week, the U.S. military said the ongoing exercises were meant to show the Air Force's "ability to continually execute flying missions and sustain readiness in support of our Allies and partners."
The Russian general noted that the U.S. and its NATO allies also have intensified their intelligence flights near Crimea.
Hasidic Jews on pilgrimage turned back
KYIV, Ukraine -- Thousands of Hasidic Jews, stuck at the Ukrainian border for days because of coronavirus restrictions, have turned back without reaching their destination, the grave of a revered rabbi, officials said Friday.
About 2,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish pilgrims had traveled through Belarus in hope of reaching the Ukrainian city of Uman to visit the grave of Nachman of Breslov, an important Hasidic rabbi who died in 1810.
Thousands of the Hasidic pilgrims visit the city each September for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. It's celebrated Sept. 18-20 this year, and some pilgrims had managed to get to Uman before Ukraine closed its borders in late August amid a surge in covid-19 infections. Thousands of others traveled via Belarus, which hasn't barred foreign visitors from entering.
Authorities in Ukraine and Belarus said Friday that Hasidic pilgrims cleared the no-man's land between the two countries where they camped for several days.
At the same time, Ukraine's border guards agency said Friday that it turned back several Hasidic pilgrims who tried to enter the country from Poland, Hungary and Romania.
Police find stolen 'irreplaceable' books
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Police in Romania have uncovered a trove of "irreplaceable" books, including first editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton that were stolen in a sophisticated 2017 heist from a warehouse in London, police and the European Union's judicial cooperation agency said Friday.
The stash of some 200 rare and valuable books was discovered Wednesday in a concealed space under a house in rural Romania.
London's Met Police said in a statement that the recovered books have a combined value of more than $3.2 million.
The books were stolen in a raid on a warehouse in west London. Burglars cut holes in the roof and rappelled down into the building to avoid motion detectors, loaded the books into 16 large bags and climbed back up the ropes to make their getaway, police said.
A joint investigation involving police from London, Romania and the Carabinieri in Italy, supported by European Union agencies Europol and Eurojust in The Hague, identified 11 similar burglaries across Britain, that netted some 2 million pounds worth of stolen property.
The Met Police said a Romanian organized crime gang was responsible.
