Month: March 2018

Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and around France in a mass show of anger against anti-Semitism and intolerance following the slaying of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor.  The wide avenue leading out of Place de la Nation in Paris was a sea of people Wednesday evening. Young and old, rabbis and schoolchildren walked shoulder to shoulder. Some brandished angry banners: “I am Jewish,” read one, “but I’m neither rich, nor a banker, nor do I have a hooked nose.” Protester Alain Beit is happy about the big turnout — it’s about time, he said. “I’m Jewish and …

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The Ecuadorean government said Wednesday that it had cut off Julian Assange’s ability to communicate outside its embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder has lived for more than five years. The government said it stopped Assange from communicating with the outside world to prevent him from meddling in other countries’ affairs.  The move came two days after Assange questioned, on Twitter, Britain’s accusation that Russia was behind the March 4 poisoning of a Russian former double agent in Salisbury, England. Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador’s embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes, which he has …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May has praised the “very strong response” by the United States, which ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats after Moscow was blamed for a nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy in Britain. A Downing street statement says May spoke to President Donald Trump by phone, telling him that Britain welcomes the U.S. response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British town of Salisbury earlier this month. The White House said “both leaders agreed on the importance of dismantling Russia’s spy networks in the United Kingdom and the United …

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Israel and Iran, with two of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, appear on a collision course that some experts fear could ignite a regional war that might ultimately drag in the United States and Russia. The tensions are centered in Israel’s northern neighbor Syria, where both Russia and Iran have been emboldened by their success in shoring up the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The war has occasionally spilled across Israel’s borders, causing alarm in the Jewish state. “If a Hezbollah missile or mortar shell hits a kindergarten or a school bus — a terror attack that causes …

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Two dozen countries including the United States and many European Union states, as well as NATO, have announced they are expelling a total of more than 150 Russian diplomats, in a show of solidarity with Britain over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England. A look at those that have announced the measures, and the number of Russians they have ordered to leave: UNITED STATES: 60 Russian diplomats expelled; Russian consulate in Seattle ordered closed. BRITAIN: 23 Russian diplomats expelled. UKRAINE: 13 Russian diplomats expelled. NATO: Seven Russian diplomats expelled. CANADA: Four Russians expelled; 3 applications …

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Current and former U.S. and British intelligence officers say the West’s collective banishment this week of 115 Russian “diplomats” will be far less damaging to Russian espionage operations than British Prime Minister Theresa May and American officials have argued. And they warn tit-for-tat expulsions the Kremlin is expected to order shortly will have much greater impact on Western intelligence missions in Russia. They say the Cold War-era picture drawn by author John le Carré in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” with Russian espionage in the West depending mainly on spies based out of embassies under diplomatic cover, is anachronistic. “Western expulsions …

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Romanian lawmakers expressed support for reunification with neighboring Moldova in a symbolic vote Tuesday intended to highlight close historic ties, but the speaker of Moldova’s own parliament said his country cherished its independence. Romania’s parliament was holding a special session to mark the 100th anniversary of Moldova’s joining the then-kingdom of Romania after World War I. Moldova was then annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and became an independent state in 1991. The small, landlocked country is politically divided between supporters of closer ties with Moscow and those who want Moldova eventually to follow Romania, its much larger southern …

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Europe’s bailout fund on Tuesday approved a 6.7 billion-euro ($8.32 billion) loan installment to Greece as part of its third international rescue program, with payment of the first 5.7 billion euros expected this week. The European Stability Mechanism said the approval came after the Greek government completed a series of required reforms. The funds will be used to service public debt and clear domestic arrears. “Today’s decision … acknowledges the hard work by the Greek government and Greek people in completing an extensive set of reforms,” said ESM head Klaus Regling. The reforms were in tax policy, privatizations and the …

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Elias, the new language teacher at a Finnish primary school, has endless patience for repetition, never makes a pupil feel embarrassed for asking a question, and can even do the “Gangnam Style” dance. Elias is also a robot. The language-teaching machine comprises a humanoid robot and mobile application, one of four robots in a pilot program at primary schools in the southern city of Tampere. The robot is able to understand and speak 23 languages and is equipped with software that allows it to understand students’ requirements and helps it to encourage learning. In this trial, however, it communicates in …

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Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia heightened a day after a senior Serb politician was arrested and expelled in northern Kosovo, with Russia wading into the dispute and the European Union trying to avert further friction Tuesday. Kosovo Serbs set up a roadblock in the divided town of Mitrovica to monitor access into Serb-dominated territory, and Serb politicians walked away from Kosovo’s government and threatened to form their own local administrations throughout Kosovo where minority Serbs live. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini made an urgent trip to Belgrade for talks with Serbia’s president in a bid to prevent a …

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Calls are growing to reinstate France’s state of emergency and crack down further against suspected Muslim extremists after last week’s terror attack that left four dead in southern France — and as the country prepares to bury the victims. President Emmanuel Macron will be presiding over a national ceremony Wednesday in Paris to honor Arnaud Beltram — the policeman killed after trading places with a hostage during last week’s terrorist attack in southern France. The nation will come together again on Thursday to mark the burial of Beltram and the three others gunned down by 25-year-old French-Moroccan radical Redouane Lakdim …

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