Month: December 2017

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj was removed from an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia, lifting an obstacle to him traveling outside the country, the justice minister said on Friday. Early this year Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovar guerilla leader who in September took over as prime minister, was arrested in France on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia. He was released after a French court rejected Belgrade’s extradition request. Despite many attempts by Pristina, Belgrade refused to remove his name from the Interpol red notice. “Today I was informed that Interpol has removed 18 people from Kosovo that are …

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A former Croatian general who died after swallowing a liquid at a war crimes hearing in the Netherlands had cyanide in his system, Dutch prosecutors said after an autopsy was performed Friday. Preliminary results from a toxicological test revealed “a concentration of potassium cyanide” in Slobodan Praljak’s blood, the Hague Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. The cyanide caused heart failure, which investigators “pointed out” as Praljak’s “suspected cause of death,” according to the prosecutor’s statement. On Wednesday, Praljak, 72, drank from a small bottle that he said contained poison seconds after an appeals judge at the U.N.’s International …

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been greeted by hundreds of well-wishers on their first official royal visit since announcing their engagement. Webvideo by Jon Spier. …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reacting angrily after testimony in a New York trial implicated him in an alleged multi-million-dollar scam to evade U.S.-imposed sanctions against Iran. His reaction is adding to concerns Ankara is on a collision course with U.S. courts that could have financial and political repercussions. “We have trade and energy ties with Iran. We did not breach the sanctions (on Iran). Whatever the verdict is, we did the right things,” Erdogan was reported to have said to his ruling party executives Thursday. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy head of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank, is on trial, …

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German police have destroyed a suspected improvised explosive device in Potsdam, a small city on the outskirts of the nation’s capital, Berlin. A local report said the suspicious package was delivered Friday to a pharmacy near a Christmas market. Police were called and the area was evacuated. Brandenburg state police said they inspected the package and confirmed that it was a possible IED that was successfully defused. Reports said the package contained nails and some kind of powder. Brandenburg state Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter told reporters the powder will be analyzed. He said it is not clear whether the package …

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Russian lawmakers are expected to discuss a bill that could ban all representatives of U.S. media from entering the lower house of parliament in Moscow. Olga Savastyanova, a member of the lower house, the State Duma, told Russian media Friday that the action was retaliation after journalists for Russian state-funded TV channel RT were barred from reporting inside the U.S. Capitol building. “It’s a ban on journalists who represent American media, all American media, visiting the State Duma,” the RIA news agency quoted Savastyanova as saying about the proposed ban in Moscow. The move is the latest in a series …

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Federal prosecutors in Atlanta say a Russian cybercriminal has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison. The U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release Friday that 33-year-old Roman Seleznev was sentenced for his role in a $50 million cyber fraud ring and for defrauding banks of $9 million through a hacking scheme. Prosecutors say U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones sentenced Seleznev on a racketeering charge out of Nevada and a conspiracy to commit bank fraud charge in Georgia. He pleaded guilty in September. Jones gave him 14 years on each count. The sentences are to be served …

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Turkish officials are working overtime to discredit testimony at a New York trial implicating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme designed to help Iran skirt international sanctions. The officials have described the proceedings as a “mockery” and “theater” aimed at overthrowing the Turkish government, even suggesting that Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is “pulling the strings” behind the prosecution. U.S. officials and prosecutors strongly deny the allegations. However, the trial has exacerbated the United States and Turkey’s strained relations, which have been deteriorating since a Turkish …

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Germany’s president brought together Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, Martin Schulz, on Thursday night with the aim of breaking the impasse over the formation of a new government. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the party leaders together after talks between Merkel’s conservative bloc and two smaller parties to form a previously untried coalition collapsed. Schulz, Merkel and her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer agreed to meet at Germany’s presidential palace to explore the possibility of forming a so-called grand coalition like the one that makes up the outgoing government. Schultz had initially refused to consider another …

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