Category: Євросоюз

Paris — French prosecutors on Monday said they had dropped an investigation into sexual and moral harassment allegations against former French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet. The preliminary inquiry, opened in January 2023, was closed on Oct. 17 due to insufficient evidence, the Paris public prosecution office said in e-mailed comments. Le Graet, 82, who had led the federation since 2011, resigned in February but denied any wrongdoing. His departure followed a government audit that concluded he no longer had “the necessary legitimacy” to lead French soccer. French papers L’Equipe and Le Monde first reported that the investigation into Le …

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PAIPORTA, Spain — Spain is deploying 7,500 troops to its eastern region hit by devastating floods, the government said on Monday in the face of rising discontent over the response to the catastrophe that has killed at least 217 people. The army sent about 5,000 soldiers over the weekend to help distribute food and water, clean up streets and protect shops and properties from looters. A further 2,500 would join them, Defense Minister Margarita Robles told state-owned radio RNE. A warship carrying 104 marine infantry soldiers as well as trucks with food and water was approaching Valencia port even as a …

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SEOUL, South Korea — The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds talks on Monday with his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul, amid growing concerns in Seoul over the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for its war with Ukraine. Borrell arrived in South Korea after a trip to Japan and visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the diplomat said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday. “My visit today of the Demilitarized Zone – DMZ – between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK is yet another reminder of the need …

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Taipei, Taiwan — A second Taiwanese volunteer fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russia has been killed, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Sunday. The man was a member of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, the ministry said in a statement, expressing condolences to his family, who did not want him publicly identified. The ministry said it was informed of the man’s death Saturday and that Taiwan’s representative office in Poland had verified the information with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. No further details were released about how he died. At the start of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy openly invited foreigners to come to …

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BEIJING —   China has urged France to take on “an active role” to push the European Commission toward a solution acceptable to both the European and Chinese electric vehicle industries, Beijing’s commerce ministry said on Monday, citing its minister. Wang Wentao, in a meeting with French junior trade minister Sophie Primas in Shanghai on Sunday, reiterated the European Union’s investigation into China’s EVs is a major concern and has “seriously hindered” China-EU auto industry cooperation. The EU launched an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of Chinese-made battery EVs last year and in October voted for tariffs on those vehicles. China in …

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Spain’s government reports more than 200 dead and dozens still missing following the deadliest flash floods in that country’s modern history. Locals say they feel abandoned by their government. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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Madrid — Five bodies were found floating in the sea Sunday after the inflatable boat they were travelling in punctured around 90 km (56 miles) off the Spanish island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, Spanish Sea Rescue services told Reuters. A spokesperson said a rescue aircraft sighted two inflatable boats heading toward the archipelago, and that one of them had one of its floats deflated. The aircraft launched two life rafts and was able to rescue 17 people from one vessel and 80 from another, but five bodies were also found. State agency EFE said the rescue services had rescued …

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BELGRADE — Angry protesters on Sunday left red handprints at the entrances of government buildings in the Serbian capital to demand the arrest of officials, two days after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station, killing 14 people and injuring three.  Police formed a cordon outside the seat of the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure in central Belgrade as several thousand people called for ranking government ministers, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, to immediately step down.  “Arrest, arrest!” chanted the crowd. They shouted at police officers outside the building that they are “guarding murderers” and that “your hands are bloody,” …

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Moscow sent 96 drones and a guided air missile into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 66 drones were destroyed during the overnight barrage, along with the missile. A further 27 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed, while one drone flew into Belarusian airspace. No casualties were reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, 500 drones and 30 missiles against Ukraine over the past week. Zelenskyy appealed Sunday on X to Ukraine’s allies to provide “long-range …

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VALENCIA, Spain — A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns on Sunday.  Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated.  Police had to step in with officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens.  “Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” rang out among other insults.  After being forced to seek protection from …

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Berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold meetings with his top two ministers to try to find common ground after they put forward contradictory plans to fix the nation’s ailing economy, a government source told Reuters on Sunday.   A document leaked by Christian Lindner’s finance ministry raised eyebrows in Berlin last week, with its push for tax cuts and fiscal discipline widely interpreted as a challenge to the multibillion-euro investment plan put forward by Economy Minister Robert Habeck just days earlier.   The stand-off is the latest escalation in a row over economic and industrial policy between the FDP, the Greens …

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MOSCOW — Kyiv called on Moscow on Sunday to provide a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready for a swap after Russia accused Ukraine of sabotaging the exchange process.  In requesting the list of Ukrainians from his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram messaging channel: “We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!”   Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022. The last swap took place in mid-October with each side bringing home 95 prisoners.   On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria …

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washington — Mariana Katzarova, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, reported Tuesday on the human rights situation in Russia at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, describing torture as Moscow’s main tool of repression. In an interview with VOA, Katzarova detailed how the Russian government has turned brutality into the new norm and how Russians are persecuted for their anti-war views.  This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.  VOA: You came to Washington with a new report about torture in Russia. The torture system is not something new. Did it get worse during Russia’s full-scale …

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ATHENS, GREECE — Greek anti-terror investigators have arrested a man in connection with a deadly explosion in Athens, police said Saturday, warning of “a new generation of terrorists” at work. Thursday’s blast in an apartment in the capital, which killed a man and seriously injured a woman, is suspected to have been caused by the accidental detonation of a homemade bomb. Police sources told AFP they had identified the dead man from his dismembered remains as a 36-year-old from the port city of Piraeus who had been previously arrested in Germany. His fingerprints were in the international database of Europol, the …

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MOSCOW — A court in Russia’s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former U.S. consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the U.S. government to harm Russia’s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years. Russia’s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply U.S. diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia. The United States on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it “an egregious injustice.” “The allegations against Mr. Shonov are entirely fictitious and without merit,” State …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that lasted into late morning and wounded at least one person, city officials said on Saturday. Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured. “Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics,” Popko wrote on social media. He said all the …

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VALENCIA, SPAIN — Spain will deploy 10,000 more troops and police officers to the eastern Valencia region devastated by floods that have killed 211 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday. Sanchez said in a televised address that he accepted the regional leader’s request for 5,000 more troops and informed him of a further deployment of 5,000 police officers and civil guards.  Meanwhile, rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies as the nation scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens. Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim …

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A 22-year-old Russian man considered a political prisoner by activists has died in a penal colony in Belarus, human rights group Viasna said Friday. The rights group said it confirmed the death of Dmitry Shletgauer, who was recently transferred to a penal colony in Mogilev in eastern Belarus. Viasna said Shletgauer had been at the penal colony for a short time before his death. “Provisionally, this happened on October 11,” the rights group said. “He spent less than a month in the penal colony. The exact cause of death is unknown.” Shletgauer received a 12-year sentence after being convicted of …

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istanbul — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday sued the main opposition leader and Istanbul’s powerful mayor over allegedly slanderous remarks made at a protest rally a day earlier, the Anadolu news agency reported. Filed on Friday, the two separate lawsuits targeted Ozgur Ozel, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, also a top party official. One accused Ozel of “publicly insulting the president” and “clearly committing a crime against the reputation and honor of the office of the presidency.” The second suit alleged Imamoglu had made “unfounded accusations including slander, that violated Erdogan’s rights” …

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When the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on three companies belonging to Denis Postovoy on Wednesday, it was yet another move to break up what U.S. authorities say was an international scheme to violate sanctions. A month earlier, on September 16, law enforcement officials arrested the 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida. He was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia, commit smuggling, commit money laundering and defraud the United States. According to the indictment, Postovoy used an international network of companies to export dual-use microelectronic components from the United States to Russia –– potentially spare parts for …

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