Month: May 2018

Russian military spending fell by a fifth last year, its first decline in nearly two decades, with tighter purse strings likely to affect Moscow’s military activity ahead, a report by defense think tank SIPRI showed Wednesday. Russia has flexed its military muscles during the last few years with its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and deep involvement in the Syrian conflict serving as examples of its more belligerent stance. But while global military spending rose 1 percent to $1.739 billion last year, Russia’s fell 20 percent in real terms to $66.3 billion, the report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed. …

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Britain will be able to impose sanctions on people who commit gross human rights violations under a so-called “Magnitsky amendment” backed by members of parliament on Tuesday. The amendment to a new Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill going through parliament passed without a vote, because it was backed both by the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labor Party. Lawmakers referred to it during their debate as the Magnitsky amendment, in reference to Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested in 2008 after alleging that Russian officials were involved in large-scale tax fraud. He died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after complaining of mistreatment. The amendment is …

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Former government officials and citizens in Armenia expressed reservations about the ruling party’s decision to block a bid by opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan to become prime minister, setting up a standoff between the elite, which has run the state for more than a decade, and thousands of Pashinyan’s supporters camped on the streets. Armenia’s former defense minister, Seyran Ohanyan, told VOA’s Armenian Service he expected to see Pashinyan elected prime minister, which in his opinion would have resolved the unfolding political crisis. Armenia’s parliament voted 45-to-55 against Pashinyan, leaving him eight votes short of the majority needed to capture the …

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Basque separatist group ETA is due to announce its final dissolution this week, ending Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency, a 50-year campaign which killed more than 850 people in Spain. Here is a timeline of major events since the founding of ETA, whose initials stand for Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Country and Freedom), and its gradual weakening. 1959 — Students in Madrid form ETA during dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who suppressed Basque culture, to fight for an independent state in northern Spain and southern France. 1968 — ETA carries out first known killing, shooting Melito Manzanas, secret police chief …

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An Australian court ruled Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell, one of the Vatican’s highest-ranking officials and a close adviser to Pope Francis, must face trial on charges of historical sexual offenses. Pell will be the highest-ranked Catholic official to be tried on such charges during the church’s decades-long sexual abuse scandal involving clergy.  He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty Tuesday.  Magistrate Belinda Wallington dismissed half the charges Pell was facing, including some his lawyer said were the most serious. Pell was released on bail, but is not allowed to leave Australia where he returned last year after Pope …

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U.S. President Donald Trump is extending tariff exemptions on aluminum and steel exports from the European Union, Canada, and Mexico for at least another month. The temporary exemptions of the tariffs already imposed on such nations as China, Japan, and Russia, were to have expired Tuesday. But the White House says it is giving negotiators 30 more days to work out a deal. The European Commission criticized the temporary extension in a statement Tuesday, saying the EU has been willing to discuss the issue and “will not negotiate under threat.” “The U.S. decision prolongs market uncertainty, which is already affecting …

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U.S. President Donald Trump has postponed his decision on whether to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico until June 1. The announcement Monday provides more time to negotiate deals to exempt those countries from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs. The Trump administration announced broad tariffs in early March that went into effect for China, Russia, Japan and many other exporters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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When the United States, Britain and France bombed Syria earlier this month, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis showed support for his Western partners one day before rowing back the next. The military strike turned from “inevitable” to an act described as changing nothing after Babis was rebuked by the far-left Communist party, showing the fine line the billionaire businessman is walking as he tries to form a government. Babis is aiming for a pro-Western administration but political fragmentation in October’s election means he needs the pro-Russian Communist party to either support it or abstain, ending the party’s pariah status since …

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Russia’s Gazprom said on Monday it had completed the sea portion of the first line of the TurkStream offshore gas pipeline across the Black Sea. Gazprom, which plans to complete the pipeline in 2019, said in a statement that 1,161 km, of pipe had been laid since it began construction last year. The second line, designed to ship gas to south European countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Italy, will be laid in the third quarter of 2018, the company said. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said this month that Turkey’s approval for Gazprom’s onshore portion of the TurkStream pipeline’s …

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