Category: Євросоюз

Violence and insecurity have forced more than 28 million children from their homes in 2018, UNICEF said in a news release Thursday. The U.N. children’s fund said it had responded to more than 300 emergencies to help children caught in many of the 40 armed conflicts raging around the world.  UNICEF said children had been tortured, raped, used as human shields or suicide bombers, recruited as child soldiers and subjected to a myriad of other atrocities by armed groups.  While fighting has killed and maimed tens of thousands of children, UNICEF said many more had died from the indirect consequences of …

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The United States will step up research in hypersonic offense and defense weapons, in response to a Russian test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider.  “While the United States has been the world leader in hypersonic system research for many decades, we did not choose to weaponize it,” Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza told VOA. “Those who have decided to weaponize hypersonics are creating a war-fighting asymmetry that we must address.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who oversaw the test Wednesday, said the weapon is impossible to intercept and will ensure Russia’s security for decades to come. He called it …

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A French septuagenarian, armed with a block of foie gras and a couple of bottles of wine, has set sail across the Atlantic in a barrel. Jean-Jacques Savin, 71, set off from El Hierro in Spain’s Canary Islands and hopes to end his 4,500-kilometer journey to the Caribbean in about three months, relying only on ocean currents and trade winds. “The weather is great. I’ve got a swell of one meter and I’m moving at 2 to 3 kilometers an hour. … I’ve got favorable winds forecast until Sunday,” Savin told AFP shortly after he set off.  He described his …

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Istanbul’s new airport will be fully operational on March 3, Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper reported Thursday, after the $12 billion project was twice hit by delays. The airport, which officials say will be one of the world’s busiest, was declared open in October by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but only a handful of flights have been operating from the new site since then. Its full operation was first delayed to January, in a setback for the government which has hailed it as a centerpiece of the construction boom that has driven strong economic growth under Erdogan’s 15-year rule. Citing a letter …

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A Belgian judge has issued an order for the repatriation of half a dozen children and their Belgian mothers from a Kurdish-controlled camp in northeast Syria. The children are all under the age of 6. They and their mothers, Tatiana Wielandt and Bouchra Abouallal, both in their mid-twenties, have been held in the al-Hol camp, one of several housing about 584 jihadi brides and 1,250 children, the offspring of Islamic State fathers, most of them foreign fighters. Like other European countries, Belgium has been reluctant to take back foreign fighters or their captured wives and children. A small number have …

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The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has suggested that Britain’s departure from the European Union will be costly and could have a damaging effect on public safety.   Cressida Dick told the BBC on Thursday that the adjustment to leaving the EU would be more challenging if there’s no deal in place between Britain and the bloc.   She says U.K. police will have to work out access to vital databases and will need new procedures so people can still be quickly arrested and extradited despite Brexit. Dick says that would be “very difficult to do in short-term” if Britain …

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British officials say nine migrants have been detained on a beach in southeastern England after crossing the English Channel in a small inflatable boat. The Home Office said Thursday the group comprises five men, one woman, two boys and a girl.   They were intercepted in the English coastal county of Kent by the local lifeboat station.   Manager Matt Crittenden says the inflatable had a very small 10-horsepower engine.   A further rescue operation was also underway after up to eight people were believed to have been spotted on an inflatable vessel near another English coast.   This latest …

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Russia has successfully conducted its final test of a hypersonic glider capable of carrying nuclear warheads, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Putin, who oversaw the test Wednesday, said the weapon is impossible to intercept and will ensure Russia’s security for decades to come. He called it an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation.” The weapon, dubbed Avangard, detaches itself from a rocket after being launched and glides back to Earth at speeds faster than the speed of sound. On Wednesday, the Avangard was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains. Putin said it hit its …

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European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Thursday there is still a chance that Britain’s parliament will vote in favor of the Brexit agreement in January and that there was no public support for a disorderly Brexit or another referendum.   Prime Minister Theresa May has struck a withdrawal agreement with Brussels but she was forced to postpone a parliamentary vote on it earlier this month after admitting she would lose by a large margin.  Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29.  “It is not entirely unlikely that the British parliament will vote for the divorce agreement in …

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The Russian military on Wednesday criticized an alleged Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital, saying it has endangered civilian flights. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that six Israeli F-16 jets launched a “provocative” raid at the moment when two civilian airliners were preparing to land in Damascus and Beirut, creating a “direct threat” to the aircraft. Lebanon’s acting Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos later on Wednesday confirmed Konashenkov’s account, saying the two airplanes in Lebanese airspace “narrowly” escaped Israeli warplanes, averting a “human catastrophe.” Fenianos didn’t provide details, but said he reported the incident to the prime …

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Four international media organizations have called on the Albanian government to drop two draft laws on state regulation and compulsory registration of online media to fight fake news. In a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Edi Rama and Justice Minister Etilda Gjonaj, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and PEN International asked them to withdraw the legislation, involve journalists and seek for international assistance to draw up new laws. They said that in democratic countries “online media are self-regulated.” In October, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe …

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A strong earthquake caused by Mount Etna’s ongoing eruption led to panic in eastern Sicily early Wednesday. No one was killed, but at least 30 people suffered minor injuries. Italian authorities used helicopters early Wednesday to assess the damage, after the 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck. The island is home to Mount Etna, the volcano which has recently triggered hundreds of tremors, some stronger than others. Homes were damaged, with cracks appearing on building walls and others collapsing entirely. One family whose home collapsed in the town of Fleri said it was a miracle they survived. The local population in these …

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In the Estonian capital of Tallinn, three-day-old Oskar Lunde sleeps soundly in his hospital cot, snuggled into a lime green blanket decorated with red butterflies. Across the room, his father turns on a laptop. “Now we will register our child,” Andrejs Lunde says with gravity as he inserts his ID card into the card reader. His wife, Olga, looks on proudly. And just like that, Oskar is Estonia’s newest citizen. No paper. No fuss. This Baltic nation of 1.3 million people is engaged in an ambitious project to make government administration completely digital to reduce bureaucracy, increase transparency and boost …

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday announced the end of a martial law in the country’s border regions, which was introduced last month after Russia’s seizure of three of Kyiv’s navy vessels in the Sea of Azov. “Today, right now, at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) the martial law ends. This is my principal decision,” Poroshenko said during a live streamed military Cabinet meeting in Kiev. The president said he had reached the decision “based on analysis of all the components of the security situation in the country”. The move to impose martial law came after Poroshenko warned of a build-up …

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President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would deploy its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles next year, saying the move meant his country now had a new type of strategic weapon. Putin was speaking after overseeing what the Kremlin said was a pre-deployment test of the new missile system, called Avangard. “This test, which has just finished, ended with complete success,” Putin told a government meeting. “From next year, 2019, Russia’s armed forces will get the new intercontinental strategic system Avangard … It’s a big moment in the life of the armed forces and in the life of …

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French authorities said eight migrants were picked up from a stalled boat Tuesday while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain, where the government office that oversees immigration reported that almost 30 more were rescued in the waters between southern England and northern France.    The French regional maritime authority, or prefecture, said in a statement that the small rubber boat with a failed engine was spotted Tuesday off the coast of Calais. A police helicopter monitoring the area directed a tugboat to the stranded migrants, the prefecture said.      The maritime authority didn’t provide the passengers’ nationalities.      …

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Less than a day before arriving in Moscow to salvage frayed ties with his Russian counterpart, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he no longer considers Russia a “brotherly nation.” According to a television broadcast by Belsat, a Belarus-focused satellite channel headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, Lukashenko told a Monday Cabinet session that he no longer considered Minsk’s longtime regional ally a fraternal state “because I was informed that Russia is not receptive to it.” News of Lukashenko’s comments, which were prompted by Russia’s refusal to provide financial compensation for changes to recently implemented export fees, filtered into the Kremlin midday Tuesday, …

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Russia on Tuesday expanded its economic sanctions on Ukraine, adding more than 250 people and businesses to a blacklist first announced at the start of November. According to a decree by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, 245 individuals and seven companies, mostly in the energy and defense sectors, were sanctioned by Moscow. Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated since a pro-Western government came to power after the 2014 revolt against a pro-Russian leader, Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine. A total of 567 individuals and 75 Ukranian companies now face Russian economic sanctions, …

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II wove personal reflections into her annual Christmas message, offering the customary wishes for peace and saying she hoped she had attained a measure of wisdom during her 92 years. “Some cultures believe a long life brings wisdom,” Elizabeth said in a pre-recorded message broadcast Tuesday. “I’d like to think so. Perhaps part of that wisdom is to recognize some of life’s baffling paradoxes, such as the way human beings have a huge propensity for good and yet a capacity for evil.” On a lighter note, the queen noted that 2018 was a busy year for her …

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Italy’s Catania airport resumed full operations Tuesday, a day after an ash cloud from Mount Etna’s latest eruption in eastern Sicily forced it to shut down. Before dawn Tuesday, fiery red flaming lava shooting out from the volcano could be seen against the darkness of the night sky. At least 130 tremors have rattled villages on the slopes of the volcanic mountain earlier this week, with the most powerful quake registering a magnitude of 4.3 on Monday. The series of quakes appeared to be diminishing on Tuesday. The volcano’s seismological observatory says a new fissure has opened on a stretch …

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