Month: May 2018

  U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Wednesday a U.S.-European Union trade deal could still be reached even if the United States imposes tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports. EU and U.S. officials are holding last-minute negotiations two days before U.S. President Donald Trump decides to apply tariffs on Europe. The threat of tariffs has increased prospects of retaliation and a global trade war that could hinder the global economy. “There can be negotiations with or without tariffs in place,” Ross said at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “There are plenty of tariffs the EU …

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Europe’s financial markets are in a swoon, Italy is in political turmoil, a fresh eurozone debt crisis is in the offing and the continent’s euroskeptic populists are predicting gleefully the fast-approaching demise of the European Union. So, what’s new? For the past few years, all of the above could have been written virtually any day of the week, much of it fueled by hyperbole. But the political drama unfolding in Italy is of a different order and shaping up to be a much greater existential threat to the European Union than Britain’s Brexit vote two years ago, analysts say. That …

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UNICEF is warning that hundreds of thousands of severely malnourished children in Mali are at risk of dying, as the security situation in the country worsens. The United Nations reports that attacks by extremists and criminals in northern and central Mali are rising at an alarming rate, with many civilians being deliberately targeted. UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says more than a million children are going hungry because of severe food shortages. “More than 850,000 children under the age of 5 are at risk of global acute malnutrition this year, including 274,000 children facing severe malnutrition and at imminent risk of …

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A man who murdered three people Tuesday in the Belgium city of Liege engaged in an act of terrorism, prosecutors said Wednesday. Benjamin Herman repeatedly stabbed two female officers with a knife from behind before seizing their handguns and shooting them as they laid on the ground. Herman also shot to death a man who was a passenger in a passing car. Police fatally shot Herman after taking at least one woman hostage at a nearby school. Investigators said Herman’s methods were encouraged in online videos produced by the Islamic State militant group. Prosecutors said Herman yelled “Allahu akbar,” an …

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The United States on Wednesday condemned Syria’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions in Georgia and create diplomatic ties, saying it fully backed Georgia’s independence and reiterating its call for Russia to withdraw from the area. “The United States strongly condemns the Syrian regime’s intention to establish diplomatic relations with the Russian-occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “These regions are part of Georgia. The United States’ position on Abkhazia and South Ossetia is unwavering,” the statement said. The U.S. statement came one day after Georgia said it would …

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Italy may hold repeat elections as early as July after the man asked to be prime minister failed to secure support from major political parties for even a stop-gap government, sources said on Tuesday, as markets tumbled on the growing political turmoil. Italy has searched for a new government since inconclusive elections in March, with the president finally designating former International Monetary Fund official Carlo Cottarelli as interim prime minister until a new vote is held between September and early 2019. But sources close to some of Italy’s main parties said there was now a chance that President Sergio Mattarella …

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A Canadian accused of helping Russian intelligence agents break into email accounts as part of a massive 2014 data breach at Yahoo was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. Karim Baratov, who pleaded guilty in November 2017 in San Francisco, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested in Canada in March 2017 at the request of U.S. prosecutors. He later waived his right to fight a request for his extradition to the United States. Lawyers for Baratov in a court filing had …

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A British-based maritime services company has agreed to pay $20 million to resolve allegations it overbilled the U.S. Navy for goods and services provided to American warships at ports around the world, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. Privately held Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Ltd and some of its subsidiaries provided U.S. Navy ships with waste removal, telephone access, ship-to-shore transportation, local security and other services at ports in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the Justice Department said in a statement. A lawsuit charged that between 2005 and 2014 Inchcape knowingly submitted invoices to the Navy overstating the …

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Christians in western Europe are less accepting of immigrants and non-Christians than people without religious affiliations, a study published Tuesday that was based on a 15-country survey found.  The Pew Research Center report revealed that Christians — whether or not they are churchgoers — are more likely than western Europeans who don’t identify with a religion to express negative views of Muslims, Jews and migrants. They also are more inclined to think their country’s culture and values are superior. “On balance, more respondents say immigrants are honest and hardworking than say the opposite,” the study’s authors wrote. “But a clear …

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Exiled opposition politician Mikheil Saakashvili called on European nations Tuesday to impose sanctions on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle, accusing them of violating his human rights. Saakashvili said that Poroshenko, his former ally, breached international law by stripping him of his Ukrainian citizenship and forcibly kicking him out of the country. Speaking in The Hague, Netherlands, Saakashvili and a legal expert said sanctions should be used to push Poroshenko into restoring the opposition leader’s citizenship and to target assets that Saakashvili alleged Ukraine’s leaders obtained illegally. “We are looking for their assets across Europe to impound them, …

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