BERLIN — Parts of northern and central Europe continued to grapple with flooding on Thursday after heavy rain. A barrier near the German city of Magdeburg was opened for the first time in a decade to ease pressure from the Elbe River, and some animals were removed from their enclosures at a safari park in northern Germany. 

This week’s floods have prompted evacuations of dozens or hundreds of people in parts of northern and central Germany, but largely dry weather was forecast on Thursday. Still, water levels on some rivers caused concern, and they have continued to rise in parts of Lower Saxony state in the northwest. 

The Elbe was nearly 4 meters (13 feet) above its normal level in Dresden, German news agency dpa reported. Downstream, the Pretziener Wehr, a flood barrier built in the 1870s on a branch of the river and renovated in 2010, was opened for the first time since large-scale floods in 2013. 

The aim was to divert about a third of the river’s water into a 21-kilometer (13-mile) channel that bypasses the town of Schoenebeck and Saxony-Anhalt’s state capital, Magdeburg. 

In Lower Saxony, the Serengeti-Park on the swollen Meisse River in the town of Hodenhagen faced flooding that began to affect some animal enclosures. Lemurs, prairie dogs and meerkats were moved to other parts of the grounds. Temporary dikes were put up to protect other enclosures. 

To the south in Germany’s Thuringia region, several hundred inhabitants of the village of Windehausen who evacuated earlier this week were cleared to return home after power was restored. 

In the neighboring Netherlands, the Rhine peaked far above normal levels early Thursday at Lobith village on the German border but was expected to drop significantly over the next week, authorities said. Other branches of the Rhine around the low-lying country were expected to peak Thursday as the high waters move toward the sea. 

Emergency workers in the Dutch town of Deventer, forecast to be the hardest hit, heaped sandbags along the Ijssel River and closed roads to prepare for flooding. Several flood plains were underwater in the eastern Netherlands as rivers surged in recent days. 

In Hungary, the Danube spilled over its banks in Budapest and was expected to peak in the capital on Thursday. Heavy rain has compounded the effects of melting snow. 

While some smaller rivers in western Hungary have started to recede, water levels on the Danube are predicted to fall slowly, with the peak downstream in southern Hungary coming only on New Year’s Eve on Sunday. 
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TALLINN, ESTONIA — Belarus’ authoritarian president on Thursday attended a government-organized meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying international outrage over his country’s involvement in Moscow’s deportation of Ukrainian children. 

Speaking at the event marking the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holiday, President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to “embrace these children, bring them to our home, keep them warm and make their childhood happier.” 

Belarusian officials did not say how many Ukrainian children were brought into the country. 

A recent study by Yale University has found that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children ages 6 to 17 were taken to Belarus from four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces. The Belarusian opposition has urged the International Criminal Court to hold Lukashenko and his officials accountable for their involvement in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children. 

Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister turned opposition activist who has presented the ICC with evidence of Lukashenko’s alleged involvement in the unlawful deportation of the children, said the arrival of a new group from Russia-occupied territories “underlines the need for the ICC to investigate those crimes.” 

“Lukashenko, his family members and associates together with the Kremlin have organized a system of transfer of Ukrainian children, including orphans, from the occupied territories to Belarus, and this channel is still working,” Latushka told The Associated Press. 

In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of the war crimes of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Moscow has rejected the allegations. 

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said in televised remarks Thursday that the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Belarus helped Moscow cover up the information about the unlawful deportation of children. 

Earlier this month, the International Red Cross suspended the organization’s Belarusian chapter after its chief, Dzmitry Shautsou, stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus. 

Shautsou called the move “absolutely politicized,” claiming that Ukrainian children who visited Belarus for “health improvement” returned home safely. 

Belarus has been Moscow’s closest ally since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, when Lukashenko allowed the Kremlin to use his country’s territory to invade Ukraine. Russia has also deployed some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
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ANKARA, Turkey — A chain-reaction crash Thursday involving seven vehicles on a motorway in northwest Turkey killed at least 10 people and injured 57 others, officials said.

The pileup occurred in dense fog and low visibility on the Northern Marmara Highway in Sakarya province, some 150 kilometers from Istanbul.

An investigation has been launched into the accident but Gov. Yasar Karadeniz of Sakarya said it likely occurred when a vehicle hit a truck in poor visibility, triggering other crashes at the rear.

At least three intercity buses were involved in the crash.

Authorities believe some passengers died when they left their vehicles and were struck by another vehicle, Karadeniz told reporters at the scene.

Seven of the injured were in serious condition, the governor said.

Police and emergency personnel were seen clearing the wreckage at the scene.
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MOSCOW — A rapper who attended a celebrity party with only a sock to hide his modesty has been jailed for 15 days, the sponsors of some of Russia’s best-known entertainers have torn up their contracts, and President Vladimir Putin is reported to be unamused.

An “almost naked” party at a Moscow nightclub held at a time when Russia is engaged in a war with Ukraine and the authorities are pushing an increasingly conservative social agenda, has provoked an unusually swift and powerful backlash.

A video clip of Putin’s spokesperson listening to an explanation from one of the stars who attended has been circulating online, and Baza, a news outlet known for its contacts with the security services, has reported that troops fighting in Ukraine were among the first to complain after seeing the footage and that photographs of the event reached an unimpressed Putin.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, on Wednesday asked reporters to forgive him for not publicly commenting on the burgeoning scandal, saying: “Let you and I be the only ones in the country who aren’t discussing this topic.”

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that the event had “stained” those who took part, but that they now had a chance to work on themselves, according to the Ura.ru news outlet.

The fierce backlash from the authorities, pro-Kremlin lawmakers and bloggers, state media, and Orthodox Church groups has been dominating the headlines for days, displacing stories about rising egg prices and inflation.

The party, in Moscow’s Mutabor nightclub on December 21, was organized by blogger Anastasia (Nastya) Ivleeva and was attended by well-known singers in various states of undress who have been staples on state TV entertainment programs for years.

Ivleeva, who has since become one of Russia’s most recognized names and who attended wearing jewelry worth $251,000 at a time when some Russians are struggling to get by, has issued two public apology videos.

In the second tearful one, released on December 27, she said she regretted her actions and deserved everything she got but hoped she could be given “a second chance.”

Her name has since disappeared as one of the public faces of major Russian mobile phone operator MTS, the tax authorities have opened an investigation that carries a potential five-year jail term, and a Moscow court has accepted a lawsuit from a group of individuals demanding she pay out $10.9 million for “moral suffering.”

If successful, they want the money to go to a state fund that supports Ukraine war veterans.

‘Cynical’

“To hold such events at a time when our guys are dying in the (Ukrainian) special military operation and many children are losing their fathers is cynical,” said Yekaterina Mizulina, director of Russia’s League for a Safe Internet, a body founded with the authorities’ support.

“Our soldiers on the front line are definitely not fighting for this.”

Many of the party’s famous participants have recorded apologies, including journalist Ksenia Sobchak, whose late father, Anatoly, used to be Putin’s friend and boss.

The scandal comes at a time when Putin, who is expected to comfortably win another six-year term at a March election, has doubled down on social conservatism, urging families to have eight or more children, and after Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that LGBT activists should be designated as “extremists.”

Nikolai Vasilyev, a rapper known as Vacio who attended wearing only a sock to cover his penis, was jailed by a Moscow court for 15 days and fined 200,000 rubles ($2,182) for propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relations.”

Other more famous names have had concerts and lucrative state TV airtime cancelled, contracts with sponsors revoked, and, in at least one case, are reportedly being cut out of a new film.

The scandal has angered those who support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

One woman who said her nephew had lost both legs in combat wrote in a post to the League for a Safe Internet that the stars should pay for prosthetic legs for her relative and others to make amends.

“That would be a better apology,” the unidentified woman wrote.  
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WARSAW — Poland’s government is getting close to ending a blockade by truckers of several border crossings with Ukraine, the prime minister said on Wednesday. 

Polish drivers have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine since November 6, demanding the European Union reinstate a system whereby Ukrainian companies need permits to operate in the bloc and the same for European truckers to enter Ukraine. 

Farmers suspended a protest at one border crossing on Sunday, but truckers have continued to block three others. 

“We are close to the belief that our actions can bring results, both the talks in Kyiv and Brussels,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference. “I do not think that we will achieve the maximum that the truckers want, but it seems that what can be achieved will allow us to relieve emotions and relieve blockades on the border.” 

The permit system for Ukrainian drivers was lifted after the EU and Kyiv signed an agreement on June 29, 2022, four months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Tusk said that the current regulations concerning permits would be in force until June and that it was unlikely that they could be changed before then. However, he said other solutions could be found at the “operational level.” 

He said that he would discuss the issue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an upcoming visit to Kyiv.  

“I will do everything possible to make the life and fate of Polish truckers easier,” Tusk said. 

Poland’s deputy infrastructure minister said on Friday after a meeting in Kyiv that he hoped truckers’ protests on the border with Ukraine could be resolved before the end of the year. 
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kyiv, ukraine — Ukraine’s government faces the prospect of delaying pensions and salaries for public servants if crucial Western financial aid is not approved soon, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told the Financial Times on Wednesday.

Kyiv has poured all its revenue into defense since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, relying on foreign support to cover everything from pensions to social payments.

But key funding packages, including $55.54 billion from the European Union, have been blocked in Brussels and Washington.

“The support of partners is extremely critical,” Svyrydenko told the newspaper. “We need it urgently.”

She said 500,000 civil servants, 1.4 million teachers and 10 million pensioners could experience payment delays.

Svyrydenko told the Financial Times that she hoped the EU funding would be approved in February and delivered in March.
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PARIS — The Eiffel Tower was closed on Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of its creator’s death, due to a strike, the company that oversees the tower, Societe d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), said on the website of Paris’ most famous landmark. 

“A symbolic action on a symbolic date,” said the CGT union in a statement, adding that staff members wanted to call out the current financial management of SETE.  

They said they feared poor decisions could lead to a cash shortage, due in part to a lack of visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to expensive repairs needed on the historical building. 

The statement added that if the city did not revise its management, the tower could be closed during Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

The wrought-iron 324-meter high tower, built by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century, is among the most visited tourist sites in the world, welcoming about six million visitors each year. 
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WASHINGTON — For a generation of Albanians, there is no more precious memory than that of a rally attended by some 300,000 people on June 22, 1991, to hear the visiting U.S. secretary of state, James Baker, congratulate them on emerging from decades of communist rule.

But what came over the loudspeakers was not the voice of Baker but that of his translator, Elez Biberaj, who retires this week after a 43-year career at the Voice of America during which he served as an Albanian-language broadcaster, service chief, Eurasia Division director and for six months as the agency’s acting director.

“Of course, the voice they heard very well was one they were very familiar with, Elez Biberaj’s voice, who had broadcast on VOA’s Albanian Service,” said Chris Hill, the current U.S. ambassador to Serbia, at a retirement party for Biberaj this month.

“I remember … the great things you have done for the United States, the great things you have done for our relationship with all the countries of the language services’ broadcasts,” Hill said.

Ervin Bushati, Albania’s ambassador to the United States, shared his own memories of the historic appearance by Secretary Baker in Tirana’s Skenderbeg Square.

“I was a kid in that big square. I walked away from school without my family knowing it, and it was the biggest place I had ever seen. And listening to your voice, which was the sound of light, because the Voice of America was the light during our darkest times during the communist regime,” Bushati recalled.

“People were glued to the radio listening to your voice in short waves, with weird sounds on and on coming, and there was the sound of history. Because to us, history, apart from what we learned during the communist regime, history was in the VOA sound,” Busahti continued.

“Elez is an icon of Albania, he is an institution to us. I am very proud to be here and to say that [it was] this voice, this sound, which brought light to us.”

Biberaj joined VOA’s Albanian Service as an international radio broadcaster in 1980, and from 1982 worked in the Press Division of the former U.S. Information Agency as a senior writer/editor, specializing in Soviet and East European affairs.

He returned to VOA as Albanian service chief in 1986 and for the next 18 years helped transform the service into one of VOA’s most successful broadcasting units. For more than a decade, he served in a dual capacity as chief of the Albanian Service and director of European Division writers and researchers.

He was named the Eurasia Division’s managing editor in 2004, was appointed acting division director the following year, and director in 2006. Under his leadership, the division built audience and influence throughout eastern Europe, sending highly professional journalism content to more than 100 affiliate news outlets across Russia, Ukraine, the South Caucasus and Balkans.

Over his career at VOA, Biberaj earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication to the agency and its mission, and to the highest principles of journalism.

Biberaj “has made an enduring impact, creating a dynamic and adaptive work environment and a results-oriented, forward-looking culture. That’s part of his legacy,” said Eurasia Division Internet Managing Editor Alen Mlatisuma, who worked with Biberaj for the past 15 years.

“Elez not only encouraged us to think creatively and stay ahead of the curve but also fostered an environment where voicing opinions and contributing to a culture of innovation was not just accepted but actively encouraged,” Mlatisuma said. “This commitment to embracing diverse perspectives became a cornerstone of Elez’s leadership philosophy.”

Biberaj “was all about continuous learning and self-improvement,” said Irina Van Dusen, chief of VOA’s Russian Service, who worked with Biberaj since joining VOA 20 years ago.

“Everyone who works for him quotes him at work and at home — we need to move the needle, think outside of the box, stay ahead of the curve. … He always had our back and told us to remember the mission. We will carry his legacy as best we can, while he will for sure be rooting for us from the sidelines.”

Biberaj enthusiastically returned the loyalty and appreciation of his staff, speaking frequently of his love for VOA, his commitment to its mission and his appreciation for the talent and dedication of the Eurasia Division staff.

“It has been the highest honor of my life to have worked for the Voice of America,” said Biberaj at his retirement party, where he recalled listening to VOA as a child in Albania.

“As with many of my colleagues here, my family came to this country from a repressive, communist society, where most basic human rights were denied, and the government made every effort to extinguish the flames of freedom. …

“What a thrill for me to have had the opportunity to play a tiny role in advancing VOA’s mission in the service of truth and dissemination of America’s democratic values.”

Biberaj’s commitment to those values was tested in 2020 when a new chief executive of VOA’s parent agency, USAGM, announced a repeal of the so-called “firewall” that had long secured VOA’s editorial independence and protected it from political interference.

In his capacity as acting director of VOA at the time, Biberaj put his own career at risk with a message to the staff that heartened the agency’s journalists.

“It is my position that the repeal does not allow government officials to tamper with or otherwise distort VOA content,” he wrote. “The importance of the firewall remains at the heart of VOA’s operations.”

Also present at Biberaj’s retirement party was current USAGM chief executive Amanda Bennett, who commended him for his service during that period.

“We all hopefully have learned and will continue to learn what it looks like to be brave and principled in the face of pressure and opposition because Voice of America is the symbol of that,” she said.

In his own parting words, Biberaj pointed to the new challenges facing the forces of democracy and freedom in Eastern Europe and his vision for VOA in addressing them.

“Our mission has never been more critical than it is now,” he said. “I am confident that with such exceptionally talented journalists, VOA is well positioned to serve its strategic audiences with unique, relevant, value-added content and, simultaneously, disseminate America’s democratic values and promote U.S. national interests worldwide.”
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KHERSON, UKRAINE — Their first battle plan was outdated the moment the dam crumbled. So the Ukrainian special forces officers spent six months adapting their fight to secure a crossing to the other side of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine.

But it wasn’t enough just to cross the river. They needed backup to hold it. And for that, they needed proof that it could be done. For one of the officers, nicknamed Skif, that meant a Ukrainian flag — and a photo op.

Skif, Ukrainian shorthand for the nomadic Scythian people who founded an empire on what is now Crimea, moves like the camouflaged amphibian that he is: calculating, deliberate, until the time to strike.

He is a Center 73 officer, one of Ukraine’s most elite units of special forces.

Their mission on the more dynamic of the two main fronts in the six-month counteroffensive reflects many of the problems of Ukraine’s broader effort. It’s been one of the few counteroffensive successes for the Ukrainian army.

By late May, the Center 73 men were in place along the river’s edge, some almost within view of the Kakhovka Dam. They were within range of the Russian forces who had controlled the dam and land across the Dnipro since the first days after the February 2022 full-scale invasion. And both sides knew Ukraine’s looming counteroffensive had its sights on control of the river as the key to reclaim the occupied south.

In the operation’s opening days, on June 6, an explosion destroyed the dam, sending a wall of reservoir water downstream and washing out the Ukrainian army positions. An AP investigation found evidence Russia was responsible.

“We were ready to cross. And then the dam blew up,” Skif said.

The water rose 20 meters (66 feet), submerging Skif’s supply lines, the Russian positions and everything else in its path. The race was on: Whose forces could seize the islands when the waters receded, and with them, full control of the Dnipro?

AP joined one of the clandestine units several times over six months along the Dnipro. The frogmen are nocturnal. They transform themselves from nondescript civilians into elite fighters, some in wetsuits and some in boats. In the morning, when their operations end, they’re back to anonymity.

Ukraine created the special services operations in response to Russia’s lightning-fast annexation of Crimea in 2014, a precursor to the widescale invasion of Ukraine eight years later.

“We realized that we were much smaller in terms of number than our enemy,” said Oleksandr Kindratenko, a press officer for Special Operations Forces. “The emphasis was placed on quality. These were supposed to be small groups performing operational or strategic tasks.”

He said they were trained and equipped in part by Europeans, including those from NATO countries, but their own recent battle experience means they are now as much teachers as students.

Skif knew he first had to plan and persuade the generals that if his men could secure a bridgehead, it would be worthwhile to send troops. And that would mean high-risk river missions.

But a lucky thing happened in early autumn. A Russian officer who claimed he’d been opposed to the war since its beginning was sent to the front in Kherson. It was, he later said, every bit as bad as he’d feared.

He contacted Ukrainian intelligence and said he had 11 comrades who felt similarly. The group surrendered together, and Skif ended up taking custody of the Russian officer and his men.

The surrendered Russians told him exactly what he needed to know about their unit on the little island they were now tasked with taking, just outside the village of Krynky.

He was sure he could take the island and more with 20 experienced men. But not without the promise of sufficient backup so Ukrainian regular forces could hold the territory. Fine, his commander said. He’d get the backup — if he returned with footage of his unit in the village hoisting the Ukrainian flag.

And that’s how, in mid-October, a Ukrainian drone carrying the national blue and yellow flag came to fly above Krynky at just the moment Skif and his men made their way to the occupied village across the river. They got their photo op, sent it to the military headquarters and established the bridgehead.

Multiple Ukrainian brigades were sent to hold the position and have been there ever since, including those men from Center 73 still in shape to fight.

But nighttime temperatures are dipping well below freezing, and Ukrainian forces are vastly underequipped compared with the Russians nearby. Holding and advancing in winter is much harder on soldiers’ bodies and their morale.

In recent weeks, Russia has sent waves of glide bombs — essentially enormous munitions retrofitted with gliding apparatus to allow them to be launched from dozens of kilometers away, as well as swarms of grenade-launching drones and Chinese all-terrain vehicles, according to the Institute for the Study of War and the Hudson Institute, two American think tanks analyzing open-source footage from the area.

But Ukrainian forces and Center 73 keep fighting.

“My phone book is a little graveyard,” Skif said one evening, coordinating over the radio with his men on another boat mission. “This is our work. No one knows about it, no one talks about it, and we do it with little reward except to benefit our country.”
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A year of bitter battles in Ukraine has left neither the Russian nor Ukrainian side victorious and the front lines virtually at a stalemate. As war fatigue plagues Ukrainian forces and their Western supporters, observers say they foresee a drawn-out war of attrition. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Ukraine’s southern front lines and the capital, Kyiv. Camera: Yan Boechat.
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Ankara, Turkey — The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee resumed deliberations Tuesday on Sweden’s bid to join NATO, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan linked the Nordic country’s admission to U.S. approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 fighter jets.

Turkey, a NATO member, lifted its objection to Sweden joining the trans-Atlantic alliance in July but the ratification process has since stalled in parliament. Turkey accuses Sweden of not taking its security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers to be security threats.

This month, Erdogan threw up another obstacle by saying openly that Turkey would only ratify Sweden’s NATO membership bid if the U.S. Congress approved Ankara’s request to buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and kits to modernize its existing fleet. The Turkish leader also called on the two legislatures to act “simultaneously” and said Canada and other NATO allies must lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey.

The White House has backed the Turkish F-16 request but there is strong opposition in Congress to military sales to Turkey.

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee had begun discussing Sweden’s membership in NATO last month. The meeting however, was adjourned after legislators from Erdogan’s ruling party submitted a motion for a postponement on grounds that some issues needed more clarification and that negotiations with Sweden had not “matured” enough.

If approved by the committee, Sweden’s bid would then need to be approved by the full assembly.

Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland joined the alliance in April, becoming NATO’s 31st member, after Turkey’s parliament ratified the Nordic country’s bid.

NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have been holding out. Hungary has stalled Sweden’s bid, alleging that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary’s democracy.

The delays have frustrated other NATO allies who were swift to accept Sweden and Finland into the alliance.
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VATRY, FRANCE — A charter plane that was grounded in France for a human trafficking investigation arrived in India with 276 Indians aboard early Tuesday, authorities said.

The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside the Vatry Airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal.

The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, and that 25 others requested asylum in France.

Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers, it said.

The passengers grounded in France had included a 21-month-old child and several unaccompanied minors.

The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The judge named them as ‘’assisted witnesses” to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped.

The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying human trafficking victims.

Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on whether the passengers’ ultimate destination could have been the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border this year.

French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organized criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor’s office said.

It did not specify Monday whether human trafficking — which the U.N. defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit” — is still suspected.

The Vatry airport was requisitioned by police for days. Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside.

Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps.

Some lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested authorities’ handling of the situation and the passengers’ rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip.

The Indian Embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home. French authorities worked through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning on formalities to allow passengers to leave France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press.

Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days.

Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers didn’t want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking.

The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.

Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey.

 
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