Criminal groups have sought to gain footholds in lawful businesses that will be first in line to get EU aid to offset losses in the pandemic-induced economic crisis.

Labor rights groups have come out against the policy, dubbed "jabs for jobs," arguing that mandatory vaccines would not stop the spread of the virus but could lead to discrimination on socio-economic and ethnic grounds.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff says he is “very skeptical” about prospects of people traveling at Easter but expects the situation will have changed by late May.

British students, backed by a robust coronavirus testing program, are gearing up to return to school Monday after a two-month closure, in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson says is a plan to get the country "moving closer to a sense of normality."

Europe recorded 1 million new COVID-19 cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline, WHO said Thursday.

Analysis

From the genocide of Iraq's Yazidis to Syrian state-sponsored torture and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, the German legal system is increasingly a place to seek justice for crimes committed far outside Germany's borders.

A contingent of Green Berets arrived this week in Serbia, where U.S. military commanders are looking to strengthen ties even as Belgrade deepens its connections with rivals China and Russia.

Thousands of items sold in commissaries and exchange stores at U.S. military bases in Europe could soon be missing from shelves because of previously unenforced European Union rules on food imports, military and industry officials said.

The German Ministry of Defense on Twitter early Friday announced its plan to send a frigate through the contentious sea for the first time since 2002.

The differences in vaccine availability between services and locations have left many people overseas uncertain about when they’ll get their turn.

The first-ever deployment of B-1 Lancer bombers to Norway is allowing U.S. airmen to train in Arctic conditions and NATO ally Norway to test its defenses, particularly against its eastern neighbor, Russia, military officials from both countries said Friday.

Medical-grade masks will be required across Germany starting Monday, but different states have different rules and military officials haven’t said if the new requirements will apply on U.S. bases.

For car enthusiasts, or for those seeking a unique experience, the BMW Welt complex near the Olympic Park in Munich is an absolute must, once it reopens.

Maj. Gen. Michael Langley said his decision to stick with the Marine Corps was based on trust won more than 30 years ago.

An army helicopter crashed in eastern Turkey on Thursday, killing 11 military personnel on board and injuring two others, the Defense Ministry said. News reports said a high-ranking officer was among the victims.

Germany is extending its coronavirus shutdown by three weeks until March 28, but easing some restrictions to allow nonessential stores and other businesses to reopen in areas with relatively low infection rates.

Faced with a shortages of doses during the early stages of the vaccine campaign that started in late December, the EU anounced the export control system for COVID-19 vaccines in late January, in a bid to force companies to respect their contractual obligations to the bloc first.

Long lines formed outside barbershops on U.S. military bases in Germany Monday as a handful of businesses were allowed to reopen, despite an uptick in the number of new coronavirus infections in the country.

Although European security is still the 173rd Airborne Brigade's primary mission, officials expect it to have a growing role in Africa.

The most recent equipment included two Mark IV patrol boats, tactical gear, radars and other equipment to improve command and control capabilities, medical treatment and combat evacuation.

Germany, which has been accused by President Donald Trump of not spending enough on defense, spent only 1.57% of gross domestic product on its military, a NATO report said.

Germany's nearly four-month-long lockdown has entailed no restrictions on the language's propensity for multi-syllabic, often tongue-twisting words. Germans have coined more than 1,200 of them to describe the rules and realities of life in the time of the coronavirus.

Greece will introduce an increase in military service for conscripts serving in the army from nine to 12 months, starting in May, as part of a program to boost the armed forces amid tension with regional rival Turkey.

A sudden, mid-flight change of weather conditions is thought to be the cause a helicopter crash which killed 11 military personnel in eastern Turkey, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

A voice shouts "Red Alert!" from the end of the corridor. An ambulance has just delivered the latest resident of an elderly care home in the Spanish capital. He's in a critical condition and time is of the essence. A well-practiced choreography immediately goes into motion.

Police in the French city of Marseille detained a man Friday who was wielding a knife outside a Jewish school and kosher market.

Like other countries in the European Union, Germany's national vaccine campaign lags far behind that of Israel, Britain and the United States. Now there are growing calls in this country of 83 million to ditch the rulebook, or at least rewrite it a bit.

After the deadly earthquake came the sinkholes. While the appearance of sinkholes is not unusual following strong seismic activity, residents have been baffled by their number — about 100 have been spotted over the past two months.

Lithuania on Friday refused to extradite to Belarus opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, with the Baltic nation's foreign minister saying "hell will freeze over first."

Lithuania's State Security Department said the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in Lithuania, a NATO member that is Russia's neighbor and a former Soviet republic, decreased Russian intelligence operations against the country in 2020 and shifted the Kremlin's efforts to cyber-espionage.

As more and more people are inoculated against the novel coronavirus, arguments are flaring over whether government-issued proof of vaccination should serve as permission for a range of coveted activities — mingling with friends, going to concerts, getting on airplanes or crossing borders.

Out-of-work French culture and tourism workers are occupying an iconic theater on Paris' Left Bank to demand more government support after a year of pandemic that has devastated their incomes and put their livelihoods on indefinite hold.

For decades, Bergamo and other picturesque cities in the Po River Valley in northern Italy have suffered some of the worst air quality in Europe. Now, scientists are investigating whether one longstanding health crisis has played a role in making a new one worse.

The Army has announced new assignments for 58 general officers, including nearly two dozen involving overseas posts.

German states where U.S. forces are based plan to ease their coronavirus lockdowns with limited store openings, shopping by appointment and reopened outdoor venues next week.

Watch a video the Navy says shows a Sukhoi Su-24 fighter-bomber screeching past a U.S. destroyer while it was operating in international waters.

A sailor whose remains were found Sunday off the coast of Sicily was a collegiate athlete and one of the last flight engineers trained for the Navy’s P-3C Orion patrol plane.

The Air Force’s first overseas-based F-35A squadron will be nicknamed the “Valkyries,” for the mythological Norse women who chose who would live or die in battle, the 48th Fighter Wing said Tuesday.

A powerful aftershock with magnitude 5.9 caused additional damage in central Greece Thursday, a day after an earthquake damaged hundreds of homes in the same area.

Foreign workers are leaving Britain at the fastest pace since World War II, presenting a challenge to an economy already roiled by Brexit and the coronavirus.

Members of the armed forces and federal employees have 12 months instead of four to pay back Social Security taxes that haven't been collected since September, officials said this week.

Armenia's prime minister scored a political point Tuesday in his spat with the top military brass, advancing his motion to fire the country's top military officer.

More than 1,000 Marines and sailors have arrived in Setermoen, Norway for Arctic warfare training, Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa said Friday.

A first look at the potential effect of stretching limited COVID-19 vaccine supplies has found that just one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 60% to 70% effective at preventing symptomatic disease in people age 70 and older.

“Stronger Together” is the new command slogan, replacing the nearly 7-year-old guiding mantra of “Strong Europe,” the Army said.

New coronavirus infections in the Kaiserslautern area have plunged below the rate at which the government has said shops and small businesses can reopen, data posted by Germany’s public health agency showed Tuesday.

President Emmanuel Macron has met with four grandchildren of an Algerian independence fighter to tell them that Ali Boumendjel had been tortured and killed by French soldiers in 1957.

The Air Force is deploying bombers and airmen to a base in Norway for the first time, underscoring the growing importance of the Arctic region to U.S. defense strategy.

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday launched an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, turning the tribunal’s focus toward Israeli military actions and settlement construction on lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

A U.S. soldier who was fined 500 euros and had his electronics confiscated after shooting aerial pictures of the 2019 Oktoberfest in Munich has lost his appeal to have his drone returned to him, court officials said Monday.

Some 4,700 troops from nine allied and partner nations were scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Army’s largest training area in Europe Monday for an exercise seeking to test the readiness of U.S. troops to fight potential Russian aggression.

Tech. Sgt. Michael Morris, an airman based in Italy, died Tuesday.

europe quick trips

With coronavirus infections still high in Germany, and U.S. and German authorities continuing to advise against unnecessary travel, I needed somewhere local to visit to get me out of the house.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy got the AstraZeneca vaccine as he visited the military near the area of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death.

Last week, parliament's commissioner for the military said the number of reported far-right incidents in the Bundeswehr climbed to 477 last year from 363 in 2019.

Shamima Begum was one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria in 2015. She resurfaced at a refugee camp in Syria and told reporters she wanted to come home, but was denied the chance after former Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship.

The commandos for hire who landed in Benghazi in June 2019 had arranged to procure every weapon and tool – including drones, inflatable speedboats, night-vision goggles, a mobile command center, gear for jamming enemy communications and AH-1F Cobra helicopters – needed for an assault on Libya's government.

An airman who died last month while in coronavirus quarantine was remembered Friday at Aviano Air Base in Italy for his fatherly sense of humor, his loyalty, his off-duty “shenanigans” and on-duty mentorship to others.

The addition of five Alliance Ground Surveillance aircraft based at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily has been a decade in the making for the U.S.-led alliance.

The treaty that allows U.S. forces to operate in Germany protects them from having to pay German income taxes, the Federal Finance Ministry said this week.

Marine Corps experiments show lightweight vehicles mounted with long-range weapons can take out enemy tanks at a distance 15 to 20 times greater than a Marine tank could, Lt. Gen. Eric Smith said this week.

The Army’s 1st Combat Aviation Brigade will deploy to Europe in April to support training operations in at least four allied countries, the service announced Monday.

The destroyer USS Porter began its transit into the Black Sea on Thursday in support of NATO efforts, joining two other Navy vessels.

The chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in the ruins of a settlement north of Pompeii, parked in the portico of a stable where the remains of three horses previously were discovered.

A World War II-era plane flew Saturday over the funeral service of Captain Tom Moore, in honor of the veteran who single-handedly raised millions of pounds for Britain's health workers by walking laps in his backyard.

The consolidation of U.S. Army Europe and Africa headquarters is a “very big advance” that will enable troops to move more rapidly between continents in times of crisis, the general in charge of Army missions on the two continents said Tuesday.

They called themselves the “Black Rattlers” and the French dubbed them “Men of Bronze,” but the Army now officially recognizes a historic Harlem unit by what the enemy called them in World War I — the “Hellfighters.”

The German government is preparing the way for the country's troops in Afghanistan — the second-biggest contingent in a NATO force — to stay in place until next year if needed.

A U.S. Air Force base in Germany has slashed the time and cost of a common chore after thousands of M4 rifles failed an inspection — but the Army says the cleaning method they used may do “too good a job.”

The change in unaccompanied tour lengths applies to both enlisted service members and officers on their first permanent duty assignment at nearly two dozen bases and locations.

U.S. military commands, which impose their own coronavirus restrictions, have said that service members and civilians working for the military in Germany must follow whichever rules are stricter — the German authorities’ or the military's.

The sanctions are the first against Russia by the Biden administration, which has pledged to confront President Vladimir Putin for alleged attacks on Russian opposition figures and hacking abroad.

The suit concerns 2013 attacks in Douma and the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. It is the second such effort in Europe in recent months seeking accountability in chemical attacks.

Unprecedented operation enforces a tight new restriction that bans people from traveling to other counties unless they go to work or have to take care of relatives.

The Robert Koch Institute said it would add Moselle to the list of "variant of concern" areas that already includes countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Ukraine is moving forward with plans to build two new naval bases in the Black Sea region, an area of tension with Russia that may see greater U.S. military and NATO involvement this year.

An international media rights group has filed a complaint with German prosecutors against Saudi Arabia's crown prince and four other top officials accusing them of crimes against humanity over allegations they were involved in the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Pilot error caused $21 million in damage to a cargo plane, the Air Force said.

Soldiers from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade took part Thursday in the first live hoist drill to be held in about five years at Hohenfels, Germany.

About 1,000 U.S. Marines left in limbo in Norway after Arctic drills were canceled because of coronavirus concerns will now be staying on until spring, the Corps said Thursday.

A leading rights group on Thursday accused Libyan authorities of failing to bring suspected war criminals to justice for their alleged role in crimes against humanity since 2011.

The Turkish government accused Greece's military Tuesday of harassing a Turkish research vessel in the Aegean Sea and said Turkey's military had responded to the alleged intimidation.

Documents provide precise details for the first time of the Soviet military response to a 1983 NATO exercise.

Millions of pilgrims have made their way over the centuries up the hill from Vicenza to the Sanctuary of Saint Mary of Mount Berico, sometimes on their hands and knees.

German police are asking residents of Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart, including members of the U.S. military community, to help them find the killers of a woman whose body was found in an alley near Kaiserslautern’s shopping mall in December.

The Pentagon, along with State and Treasury departments, have put the U.S. Embassy in Berlin in charge of leading efforts to resolve the issue.

A young American on trial in Rome for the slaying of an Italian police officer has told the court that he stabbed the victim because he feared he was being strangled by a thug.

Right to repair bills have been introduced in several U.S. state legislatures, attracting bipartisan support, though as yet there is no nationwide measure in force.

Two top United Nations human rights experts urged an international probe into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and called Monday for his immediate release from prison.

Etna's latest eruption captivating the world's attention has caused neither injuries nor evacuation. But each time it roars back into dramatic action, it wows onlookers and awes geologists.