Month: January 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Israel will not tolerate “distortion of the truth, rewriting history, and denial of the Holocaust.” Netanyahu was speaking out against a proposed law in Poland imposing fines and jail time on anyone who refers to the Nazi genocide of Jews as being a Polish crime, or the Nazi death camps as Polish death camps. Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Polish ambassador Sunday to express its objections. Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial also warned against trying to change history. “Restrictions on statements by scholars and others regarding the Polish people’s direct or indirect complicity …

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Several thousand people braved sub-zero temperatures in cities across Russia to protest what they say is a lack of competition ahead of March presidential elections all but guaranteed to extend Vladimir Putin’s grip on power through 2024. The rallies were part of a nationwide “Voters Strike” called by opposition leader and erstwhile presidential candidate Alexey Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who has been blocked from participating in the elections over legal problems widely seen as manufactured to keep him out of the race. “We demand a real contest. Even many supporters of Putin say ‘why wouldn’t he participate in a competitive …

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Ingvar Kamprad, who founded Sweden’s IKEA furniture brand and transformed it into a worldwide business empire, has died at the age of 91. Kamprad died Saturday of pneumonia in the southern Swedish region of Smaland where he grew up on a farm, and with some modest financial help from his father, starting selling pens, picture frames, typewriters and other goods. It was the start of what became IKEA, now with 403 stores across the globe, 190,000 employees and $47 billion in annual sales. His brand became synonymous with the simplicity of Scandinavian design, modest pricing, flat-pack boxing and do-it-yourself assembly …

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Key Republicans voiced strong support Sunday for special counsel Robert Mueller’s handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but split on whether Congress needs to approve legislation to block President Donald Trump from firing Mueller. Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, breaking with some of their Republican colleagues in Congress, stated in separate Sunday news shows that they support legislation, mostly favored by Democratic lawmakers, to require a judicial review if Trump were to attempt to dismiss Mueller. Two prominent Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives — Kevin …

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Jordan’s king affirmed his support Sunday for establishing a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, highlighting his differences with the Trump administration on a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   Abdullah II spoke at the start of a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who also expressed concern about President Donald Trump’s recognition last month of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.   “I think there are very good reasons to question the theory that unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would contribute to the consolidation of peace in the Middle East,” Steinmeier was quoted as telling the …

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A leading separatist lawmaker says that Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president Carles Puigdemont will request permission from a Spanish judge to attend a parliamentary session to form a new regional government. Josep Rull told Catalunya Radio Sunday that Puigdemont will ask for judicial authorization to attend Tuesday’s investiture debate in Barcelona during the next 24 hours. Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled on Saturday that Puigdemont must be present at the parliament to be chosen as the region’s chief. It also said that he must ask for a judge’s permission to do so. Puigdemont fled Spain after Catalonia’s parliament made an unsuccessful declaration of …

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Hundreds of supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny began a nationwide day of protest against the authorities Sunday, calling on voters to boycott what they said was a rigged presidential election March 18. Beneath bright blue skies, hundreds of young people gathered in the main square of the port of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Speakers called the election, which polls show incumbent Vladimir Putin should easily win, a farce. “I will go to the elections when there’s a choice,” read one placard in Vladivostok, a reference to the fact that Navalny has been barred from running over …

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Spain’s top court said Saturday that Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president must return to the country and be present in the regional parliament to receive the authority to form a new government. The Constitutional Court ruled that a session of Catalonia’s parliament scheduled for Tuesday would be suspended if former leader Carles Puigdemont tries to be re-elected without being physically present in the chamber. The court also said that Puigdemont must seek judicial authorization to attend the session. Catalonia’s separatist lawmakers have been considering voting Puigdemont back in as regional chief without him returning from Belgium, weighing options that included another parliament …

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Russians unhappy with the prospect of six more years under President Vladimir Putin are expected to protest nationwide on Sunday, backing Alexei Navalny’s call for an election boycott amid warnings from authorities that they will be tough on demonstrators deemed to have broken the law. Navalny, an anti-corruption crusader and opposition leader, called for the boycott after being barred from the March 18 presidential election because of a financial-crimes conviction that he and his supporters contend was Kremlin-engineered retribution. He has dismissed the vote as the “reappointment” of Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 1999. With the Kremlin …

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Political leaders in Greece and Macedonia met Saturday to discuss ways to resolve a longstanding dispute over the name of Greece’s northern neighbor. The meetings come days before United Nations envoy Matthew Nimetz will visit the countries to seek a compromise. Nimetz is expected in Greece on Monday and Tuesday before going to Macedonia the following two days. Greece has disputed Macedonia’s right to call itself by a name shared with its own northern province of Macedonia ever since the Republic of Macedonia became independent in 1991. It has blocked Macedonia’s accession to NATO. Greece contends that the use of …

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