Month: January 2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will host the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan for a meeting geared toward bringing peace to Afghanistan. Erdogan spoke Friday at a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is making his first visit to Turkey since he came to power in August. Erdogan said the trilateral meeting would take place in Istanbul after Turkey’s March local election.   Khan told reporters he hoped the meeting would bring “badly needed peace” to Afghanistan. Erdogan, meanwhile, welcomed Pakistan’s decision to hand over schools affiliated with exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen to …

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A suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus has been reported by a Swedish hospital, officials said Friday, adding that the patient has been isolated. Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified, adding a result would be available late Friday. In its statement, Region Uppsala said it was so far “only a matter of suspicion,” adding “other diseases are quite possible.” It did not say where the patient had traveled, but Sweden’s TT news agency said the patient had returned from …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have held telephone consultations centering on Syria. In the Friday call, Putin and Netanyahu “focused on developments in Syria, including in light of the United States’ stated intention to withdraw its troops from that country. They pointed to the need for the final defeat of terrorism and speedy achievement of a political settlement in Syria,” a Kremlin statement said. Netanyahu also offered condolences following an apartment building collapse in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk this week that killed 39 people, the statement said. …

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U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.   The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9 percent, but that reflected a surge in jobseekers- a positive for growth.   Average hourly pay improved 3.2 percent from a year ago.   The health care, food services, construction, and manufacturing sectors were the primary contributors to last month’s hiring.   The strong job gains suggest that the …

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The private data of hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been hacked and posted on Twitter, the government said. Speaking to reporters Friday during the regular briefing in Berlin, spokeswoman Martina Fietz said: “Personal data and documents belonging to hundreds of politicians and public figures were published on the internet,” adding that “the government is taking this incident very seriously.” With regard to Merkel’s office, the initial review has indicated that “no sensitive information or data” had been leaked, Fietz said. The stolen data, including personal addresses, mobile phone numbers, letters, copies of identity documents, and in …

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Two of Britain’s largest international airports are planning to install military-grade anti-drone defense systems to avoid attacks like the one that grounded nearly 1,000 flights at London’s Gatwick Airport over the Christmas holidays. Last month, British authorities sought help from the military after a number of drone sightings over Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, forced it to shut down, disrupting travel plans of tens of thousands of people just before Christmas. British media said the military deployed technology similar to the Israeli-designed Drone Dome system, which can detect and disable a drone by jamming its communication frequencies. Airport security officials worldwide …

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Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey are threatening to resurface following President Donald Trump’s apparent walking back of his commitment to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and end support for a Syrian Kurdish militia.    Washington’s backing of the YPG Kurdish militia in its war against the Islamic State group pushed U.S.-Turkish relations to a breaking point. Ankara links the militia to the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which has been fighting a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.    Trump’s declaration of victory over IS and vow to quickly withdraw about 2,000 American forces based mainly with the YPG ushered in hopes …

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Political pressure is growing on the European Union from some member states to rethink freedom of movement rules and to start introducing restrictions to stem what they see as disruptive migration. The latest challenge doesn’t lie with the refugee crisis and the irritation with non-EU migrants easily moving across the continent and cherry-picking which European state to try to settle in, but the concern that migration between EU countries is further depopulating economically depressed regions and towns, condemning them to a gloomy future of being “left behind” permanently. Last month, the pro-EU former British prime minister, Tony Blair, added his …

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Russia has charged former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan with espionage, according to an Interfax news agency report that has not been independently verified. On Monday, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials said the 48-year-old Whelan had been detained on Dec. 28 “while carrying out an act of espionage,” and a criminal probe has been ordered. The FSB provided no further details, but Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said Whelan faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Whelan is employed as director of global security at BorgWarner, an American automotive parts supplier. Whelan’s family learned of his arrest only …

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