18 Min Read
ELGA, Russia (Reuters) - No one on the train knew what time it would arrive at its destination. For hour after hour it snaked through the snow-covered forests of far eastern Siberia without passing a single settlement.
FILE PHOTO: A worker examines a Soviet-made rotary dredge with the productivity rate of 5,250 tons of processed coal a hour before operations at the Beryozovsky opencast colliery, owned by the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), near the Siberian town of Sharypovo in Krasnoyarsk region, Russia August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin
In the corridors between carriages, where some of the 100 or so men and three women on board gathered to shiver and smoke, even the door handles had grown a thick coating of ice.
3 Min Read
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Jakub Ricica’s traditional Czech pub ‘Deminka’, located just behind the National Museum and a short stroll from dozens of hotels, is a magnet for the flocks of tourists who descend on Prague every year for the Easter break.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
But for a second year running, the wooden chairs sit atop the tables, the beer mugs are stacked on the bar and the Pilsner taps remain dry ahead of what would normally be one of the biggest money-making weekends of the year.
“Easter is usually the first weekend in Prague where things start to get really busy, and then it just keeps going,” said Ricica, who estimates that tourists generate about 60 percent of the revenue for his pub, which was founded in 1882.
5 Min Read
(Reuters) - A Pennsylvania teenager whose profanity-laced outburst on social media got her banished from her high school’s cheerleading squad is in the spotlight at the U.S. Supreme Court this week, arguing “I shouldn’t have to be afraid to express myself.”
Brandi Levy, a former cheerleader at Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania and a key figure in a major U.S. case about free speech, poses in an undated photograph provided by the American Civil Liberties Union. Danna Singer/Handout via REUTERS
Brandi Levy, who made her Snapchat post away from school and on a weekend, is at the center of a major case testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. The nine justices on Wednesday are set to hear arguments in the Mahanoy Area School District’s appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of Levy that found that the First Amendment bars public school officials from regulating off-campus speech.
2 Min Read
LISBON (Reuters) - Pedro Costa’s eyes sparkled with joy as Portugal on Monday entered the second phase of easing its COVID-19 lockdown, allowing him to at last welcome back loyal customers to his tiny coffee kiosk in the heart of Lisbon.
Workers clean chairs to open a restaurant terrace on the first day of the reopening after a country lockdown, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Lisbon, Portugal, April 5, 2021. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
“This lockdown was more painful but it is positive we are reopening,” said the 30-year-old. “It’s the best day: the restart. It’s time to move forward and I hope we will not need to take a step back.”
3 Min Read
BOTOROAGA, Romania (Reuters) - Maria Coanda, aged 81 with a heart condition, should be at the head of the queue in Romania’s priority COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
But she is still waiting for her first shot in her small southern village of Bujoreni, three months after the start of the scheme. She does not know how to sign up for it online and says her doctor has not been in touch to help her out.
She is one of a group of vulnerable people that officials say are at risk of falling through the cracks as Romania steps up its vaccination plans.