News in Brief-(2022-05-21)

France, Germany, Belgium report first monkeypox cases

PARIS, May 20: France, Belgium and Germany on Friday reported their first cases of monkeypox, joining several other European and North American nations in detecting the disease, endemic in parts of Africa. Monkeypox was identified in a 29-year-old man in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, who had not recently returned from a country where the virus is circulating, France's health authorities said Friday. Separately, the German armed forces' microbiology institute said it has confirmed the virus in a patient who developed skin lesions - a symptom of the disease. — Arab News

Russian soldier in Ukraine war crimes trial says he did not want to kill

KYIV, May 20: A 21-year-old Russian soldier told a court on Friday he had not wanted to kill an unarmed civilian and that he sincerely repented, as he delivered his final words at the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's Feb. 24 invasion. Vadim Shishimarin, a tank commander, has pleaded guilty to killing Oleksandr Shelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on Feb. 28. "I sincerely repent. I was nervous at the time, I did not want to kill... that's how it happened," Shishimarin said. Shishimarin is accused of firing several shots with an assault rifle at a civilian's head from a car after being ordered to do so. — Reuters

Australia reports 48-year-low jobless rate before election

SYDNEY, May 20: Australia posted its lowest jobless rate in 48 years Thursday, a potential pre-election boost to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is fighting to stay in power. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.85 per cent in April, the official statistics body said, delivering a dose of good news two days before federal elections. It was the lowest unemployment level since 1974 -- when flared trousers were in fashion and US president Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal. "More Australians are in work now than ever before," said the ruling conservative Liberal-National Party coalition's employment minister, Stuart Robert. — AFP

Nobel Foundation returns ancient gold ring to Greece

ATHENS, May 20: Greece's culture ministry on Friday said the Nobel Foundation in Sweden had returned an ancient gold ring stolen from the island of Rhodes during World War II. The Mycenaean signet ring, marked with a pair of winged sphinxes, was formally returned at a ceremony in Stockholm on Thursday, the ministry said. It had been found in Rhodes during a 1927 excavation at a Mycenaean necropolis by the Italian School of Archaeology, at a time when the island was under Italian control. The ring was stolen during World War II from the local archaeological museum alongside other antiquities that have yet to be recovered, the ministry said in a statement. — AFP