Category: Євросоюз

In his first visit to Germany as U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo met Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Before their meeting, Merkel told reporters “among the issues on our agenda today is undoubtedly going to be Iran. How can we make sure Iran does not have any nuclear weapons?” Earlier, speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas after their meeting, Pompeo said Washington would not stand in the way of INSTEX — a system Europeans are developing to protect companies from American sanctions if they deal with Iran — …

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Rescue crews in Budapest Friday are working to raise a sightseeing boat from the bottom of the Danube River, while searching for 21 people still missing after a cruise ship collided with the smaller tour boat late Wednesday. Seven people are confirmed dead and seven have been rescued All but two people on the boat were South Korean tourists. Hungary’s state TV reported that all rescued people have been released from the hospital except one who is being treated for broken ribs. Hungarian police arrested the Ukrainian captain of the Viking cruise ship, identifying him as Yuriy C. Police say …

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A Saudi cargo ship has left the southern French port of Fos-sur-Mer without loading its arms cargo destined for Saudi Arabia, blocked from doing so after pressure from rights campaigners, a French rights group said Thursday.  The incident reported by ACAT, a Christian organization against torture, is the second time this month that a Saudi vessel has been blocked from loading arms in France as pressure mounts on Paris to stop arms sales to the kingdom.  A Saudi ship left France’s northern coast two weeks ago without a cargo of weapons after dockers threatened to block its arrival in the port of Le Havre. That came weeks after an online investigative site …

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Hungarian police have arrested the captain of the cruise ship that collided with a smaller tour boat on the Danube River late Wednesday, causing the boat to sink in just seconds. Seven people are confirmed dead and 21 others missing. All but two people on the boat were South Korean tourists. Police arrested the Ukrainian captain of the Viking cruise ship, identifying him as Yuriy C. Police say he is suspected of “endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths.” Investigators say the Viking ship and the tour boat, Mermaid, were sailing side-by-side on the Danube in central Budapest when both vessels …

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Turkey’s currency surged Thursday on rising speculation a looming crisis could be averted between Ankara and Washington. The revived optimism follows a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Wednesday call came as Washington threatens to impose sanctions on its NATO ally over Ankara’s procurement of the Russian S-400 missile system. Washington says the missiles threaten to compromise NATO defense systems, especially the United States’ latest F-35 fighter jets. In talks with Trump, Erdogan sought to allay such concerns. “The [Turkish] President has reiterated an earlier offer for the formation of a joint working …

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called Thursday for the resumption of stalled Ukraine peace talks, after a meeting with French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian and new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. France and Germany have been prime movers behind what is known as the Minsk peace process, bringing in Ukraine and Russia for talks aimed at ending the war with Moscow-backed rebels in the east of Ukraine. “We are going to take advantage of the moment to relaunch the Minsk peace process … because for the moment we are in an impasse and that is unacceptable,” Maas said. “We …

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Russia and Japan accused each other of military buildups as their foreign and defense ministers met in Tokyo on Thursday for talks that failed to make progress on decades-long island disputes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint news conference after the talks that Russia was concerned about Tokyo’s plan to build a pair of land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense systems, saying they pose a “potential threat to Russia.” The Aegis Ashore systems, planned for deployment in Akita on Japan’s northern coast and in Yamaguchi in the southwest, are part of Japan’s rapidly expanding missile defense system to …

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At least seven people were killed and nearly 20 were missing after a pleasure boat carrying South Korean tourists capsized on the flooding Danube in the Hungarian capital Wednesday, police and ambulance officials said. The boat reportedly collided with another tourist vessel near the Hungarian parliament building, before turning over on the river, which has been flooding, with very strong currents, while a rainstorm enveloped Budapest. South Korea sending aid In Seoul, the foreign ministry said the South Koreans aboard the vessel when it sank were 30 tourists and three tour guides, in addition to the crew of two Hungarians. …

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Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has returned to his adopted homeland of Ukraine a day after its new leader reinstated his citizenship. Saakashvili became a Ukrainian citizen in 2015 after giving up citizenship of his native Georgia, where he faced abuse-of-power charges related to his time as president in 2004-13. He moved to Ukraine and was appointed governor of Odessa region by then-President Petro Poroshenko. The two fell out, and Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, restored Saakashvili’s citizenship, allowing the former lawmaker to return. Saakashvili praised Zelenskiy for a …

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The Norwegian government said Wednesday progress has been made in negotiations between representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Foreign Ministry said the two sides “have demonstrated their willingness to move forward” toward a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis. A second round of talks in recent weeks were held in the capital, Oslo, in an effort to find solutions to the political and economic crises that have gripped the country for months. The Foreign Ministry did not provide more information about the talks but urged both sides to exercise “utmost caution in their comments” …

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France’s domestic intelligence service on Wednesday questioned a journalist who broke the story of a scandal that shook President Emmanuel Macron, the latest in a growing number of reporters to be quizzed in a trend that has disturbed press freedom activists. Ariane Chemin, who works for the daily Le Monde, said she was questioned by the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) for some 45 minutes in the presence of her lawyer after being summoned last week. “I explained that I only did my job as a journalist,” she told AFP after the meeting. She added that she had insisted …

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Serkan Golge, a Turkish-American scientist imprisoned in Turkey for nearly three years, has been released. Morgan Ortagus, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, welcomed the decision but declined to discuss why he was released. However, he told reporters Wednesday it was the “right thing to do.” Golge was on a family visit in southern Turkey when he was arrested in the aftermath of a failed coup, which Turkey blames on U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Golge was convicted in February 2018 for membership in a terror group and sentenced to 7 1/2 years, subsequently reduced to five by the appeals court. His …

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European political leaders met Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the results of the EU elections and possible candidates to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. Overall, the centrist parties have lost some ground while far right and populist, anti-immigration parties, have made gains in major EU nations, such as Britain, Italy and France. But green and liberal parties have seen the biggest growth. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Daredevil visitors to Paris will be able to leap off the second-floor balcony of the Eiffel Tower, albeit for a limited time.  A zipline will allow some of the visitors to travel 800 meters in a minute at speeds of 90 kilometers an hour from the iconic tower to the 18th-century military complex of Ecole Militaire. The zipline was set up by the French mineral water brand Perrier to celebrate the French Open and to coincide with the 130th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower. The free ride will be available to thrill-seekers picked by an online lottery on social media …

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European leaders are in Brussels to choose their preferred candidates for top European Union positions after last week’s parliamentary elections, but already are divided on who should be the next president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation bloc. The term of Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission ends in October. But Germany and France, two of the biggest economic forces on the continent, are at odds on who should replace him, a choice that must be ratified by the 751-member parliament when it assumes power in July. German Chancellor Angela Merkel favors fellow countryman …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reinstated the Ukrainian citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who served as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region in 2015-16. In a decree signed and posted on the presidential website on May 28, Zelenskiy annulled a portion of his predecessor Petro Poroshenko’s July 2017 decree that stripped Saakashvili of his citizenship. Zelenskiy’s decree comes eight days after his inauguration and six days after Saakashvili’s lawyer, Ruslan Chornolutskiy, filed a request seeking restoration of Saakashvili’s citizenship. Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor’s post in 2015 by Poroshenko, an acquaintance from …

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Normally the delivery of twins is a cause for celebration — and when the head of government is one of the parents and the other is an aspiring politician it opens up the possibility for cute photo-opportunities. Not so in Russia under the command of Vladimir Putin, it would seem, where the private life of Russia’s leader is apparently off-limits, say analysts. Rumors have been swirling for days in Moscow that the Russian leader’s reputed 36-year-old girlfriend, former Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva and now a media executive, gave birth to twin boys earlier this month in the …

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On June 6th, heads of state including President Trump will gather at a beach in northern France to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. In this military operation, thousands of American and other allied soldiers lost their lives in the first phase of a final push to liberate France and the continent from Nazi occupation. The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial represents a unique place to pay tribute to the fallen warriors. Nicolas Pinault report. …

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Serbia put its troops on full alert Tuesday after heavily armed Kosovo police entered Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, firing tear gas and arresting about two dozen people. It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering tensions between Serbia and its former province, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008 after a bloody 1998-99 war that ended only with NATO intervention. Ninety percent of population in northern Kosovo are Serbs who don’t want to be part of independent Kosovo. Action by Kosovo special police there is rare and always triggers Serb anger.   Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Kosovo police arrested 23 people, …

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Kasey Turcol has just 75 minutes to explain to her high school students the importance of D-Day — and if this wasn’t the 75th anniversary of the turning point in World War II, she wouldn’t devote that much time to it. D-Day is not part of the required curriculum in North Carolina — or in many other states. Turcol reminds her students at Crossroads FLEX High School in Cary that D-Day was an Allied victory that saved Europe from Nazi tyranny and that the young men who fought and died were barely older than they are. She sprinkles her lesson with details about the …

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