Month: July 2017

Vice President Mike Pence visits three countries in Russia’s neighborhood beginning Monday to signal support for them and NATO while drawing a line against aggression.   Pence’s trip to Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro is viewed as a follow-up to President Donald Trump’s visit to Europe earlier this month. Then, Trump used stops in Poland and Germany to try to pull off a tricky balancing act of improving ties with Moscow while also presenting the U.S. as a check against Russia’s moves in the region.   Pence’s mission will be encouraging those countries to continue to ally with the West and …

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Spain’s high court has rejected an extradition request from Brazil for a lawyer accused of involvement in corruption involving oil company Petrobras. Brazilian prosecutors have accused Rodrigo Tacla Duran of helping to launder money for homebuilders in a scheme between building firms and executives at Brazil’s Petrobas, a police statement in November said. The case against Duran, a dual Brazilian-Spanish citizen, will be processed in Spain, the high court said in a statement. Duran is being investigated for belonging to an organized crime network, bribery and money laundering, the court added. The office of Brazil’s general prosecutor said in a …

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Russia’s new United Nations ambassador took up his post Friday, saying he would do his “utmost” to strengthen relations between Moscow and the organization. “Today the world faces unprecedented threats and challenges,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the official presentation of credentials. “Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will continue contributing constructively to addressing those challenges, together with the international community, and we reaffirm our commitment to promoting peace, development and human rights,” he said. Guterres said Russia is “an important pillar of our multilateral system” and a country that the U.N. wants …

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Macedonian and United States troops have started two weeks of joint military manoeuvers in central Macedonia as part of the Balkan country’s drive to join NATO. About 300 U.S. soldiers with 120 military vehicles and tanks arrived on Friday from neighboring Bulgaria to participate in the “Dragoon Guardian 17” exercise that will run until August 10. They will be joined by some 100 Macedonian soldiers. Macedonia’s defense ministry says the main goal of the exercise is to strengthen military cooperation with the U.S. and to show that the Macedonian army is compatible with NATO standards. Macedonia wants to join NATO …

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Charlie Gard, a British baby who became the subject of a bitter dispute between his parents and doctors over whether he should be taken to the United States for experimental treatment, has died, the Daily Mail newspaper’s website said on Friday. The 11-month-old baby suffered from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, and his parents’ long struggle to save him drew an international outpouring of sympathy.   …

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A man with a knife fatally stabbed one person at a supermarket Friday in the northern German city of Hamburg and wounded four others as he fled, police said. He was then arrested.   The assailant entered the supermarket in the Barmbek district on Friday afternoon and stabbed one person, who died at the scene, police said. As he fled, he wounded another four people.   He was overwhelmed by passers-by and slightly injured in the process, police said. Officers then arrested the man.   Police spokesman Timo Zill said authorities are investigating all options in the attack, which was …

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Improvisation and abrupt policy announcements aren’t exclusive traits of U.S. President Donald Trump — his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, has surprised fellow European leaders all week with foreign policy statements, mostly concerning Libya, that have left some fuming and the Elysee Palace floundering. On Friday, French officials had to walk back Macron’s announcement about setting up “hotspots” in Libya to process asylum-seekers to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. And he told reporters he would do so “with or without” European Union approval, saying he intended to set up the centers this summer. The announcement earned the rebuke …

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Britain’s Prince William is hanging up his flight suit for the last time. The heir to the British throne worked the night shift Thursday at the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where he has been flying medical crews to emergencies for about two years. The 35-year-old Duke of Cambridge is giving up his job to become a full-time royal. “As I hang up my flight suit, I am proud to have served with such an incredible team of people, who save lives across the region every day,” he wrote in an exclusive story in the Eastern Daily Press, a newspaper that …

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Italy is planning to send warships to help Libya’s coast guard combat smugglers who have transported thousands of migrants to Italian shores. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday that the move could be a “turning point” in the migrant crisis that has gripped Europe for months. This year alone, 100,000 migrants from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East have arrived in Italy, a 7 percent rise from the same period last year. More than 2,000 others have died attempting the treacherous voyage. With the foundering of a European Union plan to redistribute thousands of migrants rescued at sea …

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Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is sticking to its flagship plans for “radical” reform of the judiciary, despite seeing two bills vetoed by the president this week, PiS head Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Thursday. Kaczynski, who holds no government post but is widely seen as Poland’s de facto leader, also promised legislation to reduce the concentration of ownership in private media, in the face of what was likely to be “strong resistance.” In his first public comments since President Andrzej Duda’s veto of two bills designed to give the government direct influence over the make-up of the Supreme …

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