Month: November 2017

Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle will be married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in May next year, Kensington palace said Tuesday. “Her Majesty The Queen has granted permission for the wedding to take place in the chapel. The Royal Family will pay for the wedding,” the palace said in a statement, adding that further details about the wedding would be released “in due course”. The couple officially announced their engagement a day earlier, posing for photographs on the grounds of Kensington Palace hours after the announcement. The two were engaged in London earlier this month, …

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The engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dominated newspaper front pages and morning news shows in Britain on Tuesday, as royal-watchers awaited details of the couple’s spring wedding and royal relatives offered congratulations. The grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and the American actress have announced they will marry in 2018. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says they have chosen a church wedding, and the palace is expected to reveal details of the venue later Tuesday. Markle’s future sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge, who is married to Prince William, said she was “absolutely thrilled.”   “It’s such exciting news,” Kate …

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The world economy is growing faster than it has in seven years and more and more people are working — but the high growth isn’t expected to last long, and wages remain stubbornly stagnant.   That’s according to forecasts Tuesday from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which urged governments to do more to ensure longer-term growth and better living standards across the board.   The group, which recommends policies for leading economies, predicts sustained growth in the U.S. this year and next and a sharper-than-expected increase in the countries that use the euro currency.   For 2019, however, the …

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French President Emmanuel Macron met with university students in Burkina Faso Tuesday, as he kicked off a three-day trip to West Africa. He is the first French president in three decades to visit Burkina Faso. President Emmanuel Macron spent three hours on Tuesday at the University of Ouagadougou, discussing migration, climate change and terrorism with a room full of students. In his remarks, the French president said he would pursue equal partnership with African nations, breaking with the more paternalistic relationship of old, a relationship between France and its former colonies known as the “francafrique.” Many in Ouagadougou welcome the …

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel will focus on expanding business ties and trying to regulate migration with Africa during an EU-Africa summit in Abidjan this week, as she comes under pressure at home to make progress faster on both fronts. Merkel is taking a break from her more than month-long drive to form a new government to attend the summit, keen to demonstrate Germany’s continued ability to act on the foreign policy front, and to underscore her commitment to Africa. She will join with French President Emmanuel Macron at the summit to focus on education, investment in youth and economic development …

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The U.S. State Department on Monday expressed concern about planned legislation it said could weaken Romania’s fight against corruption. The proposals threaten “the progress Romania has made in recent years to build strong judicial institutions shielded from political interference,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The statement urged Parliament “to reject proposals that weaken the rule of law and endanger the fight against corruption.” Justice Minister Florin Iordache, however, told public broadcaster TVR that the proposals wouldn’t damage the independence of the justice system. He said lawmakers would take into account U.S. concerns. Romanian magistrates, the general …

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Polish police issued a public appeal for witnesses Monday after unknown attackers smashed windows at a Muslim cultural center in the capital Warsaw, while prosecutors opened a probe into a far-right protest in the south of the country over the weekend. About a dozen windows were shattered overnight at the Muslim center, which opened in 2015 and includes a mosque, a meeting center, a shop and a restaurant. No one was hurt.   “I am 100 percent sure this was a racist, anti-Muslim attack,” Muslim community leader imam Youssef Chadid told a news conference.   He blamed it on “not …

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President Bashar al-Assad’s government has not confirmed its participation in peace talks with the Syrian opposition scheduled for this week in Geneva, the U.N. special envoy for Syria said Monday. Staffan de Mistura told the U.N. Security Council the Assad government said it would not be sending representatives to Geneva on Monday. But de Mistura held out hope saying, “We know and indeed expect that the government will be on its way shortly, particularly in light of President Assad’s commitment to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin when they met in Sochi.” Putin hosted Assad last week for a meeting, during which …

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French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Burkina Faso late Monday – the first stop of a three-day Africa tour aimed to reinvigorate what observers see as France’s fading influence on the continent. Lisa Bryant has more on Macron’s trip that also takes him to Ivory Coast for an EU-Africa summit and to English-speaking Ghana. Security, jobs, the environment and migration are among key themes of President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to the three West African countries – with an overall focus on youth. On Tuesday morning, he’s expected to outline his Africa policy in a much- anticipated speech before 800 students …

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Ramzan Kadyrov, the outspoken leader of Russia’s Chechnya republic, said he was ready to step down, leaving it for the Kremlin to choose his successor. Kadyrov, a 41-year-old father of 12 whose interests vary from thoroughbred horses to wrestling and boxing, has been accused by human rights bodies of arbitrary arrests and torture of opponents, zero tolerance of sexual minorities and tough political declarations that have embarrassed the Kremlin. A former Islamist rebel who had led Chechnya since 2007, he was endorsed by President Vladimir Putin in March last year to carry on in the job, while being warned that …

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Thousands have protested in Romania’s capital and other major cities Sunday against planned changes to the justice system they say will allow high-level corruption to go unpunished and a tax overhaul that could lead to lower wages.   Protesters briefly scuffled with mounted police in Bucharest, and they blew whistles and called the ruling Social Democratic Party “the red plague,” in reference to its Communist Party roots and one of the party’s colors.   Thousands took to the streets in the cities of Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov, Sibiu and Constanta to vent their anger at the left-wing government. In Bucharest, …

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Leaders of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party agreed on Sunday to pursue a “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats (SPD) to break the political deadlock in Europe’s biggest economy. Merkel, whose fourth term was plunged into doubt a week ago when three-way coalition talks with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens collapsed, was handed a political lifeline by the SPD on Friday. Under intense pressure to preserve stability and avoid new elections, the SPD reversed its position and agreed to talk to Merkel, raising the prospect of a new grand coalition, which has ruled for the past four …

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