Category: Євросоюз

Three members of an Iranian opposition group were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of having praised those behind a Sept. 22 terror attack in Iran that killed at least 25 people. Police spokesman Bjoerke Kierkegaard said that would violate Danish laws and they could face fines or up to two years in prison. Kierkegaard said all three are members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz that Tehran has blamed for the deadly attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz. However, ASMLA has condemned the violence and says it was not involved. The men were held on preliminary …

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The United States is rallying Southeast Asian countries to continue a maximum pressure campaign against North Korea, until the Korean Peninsula achieves complete denuclearization.   Ahead of the annual ASEAN summit that begins November 11 in Singapore, Washington is urging the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) not to ease United Nations sanctions, and instead continue to deny the revenue streams that North Korea has enjoyed around the region. “The United States continues to work with governments around the world, including the countries of ASEAN, to ensure all nations are fully implementing U.N. sanctions obligations,” a State Department spokesperson …

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World leaders have been reacting to the U.S. midterm election results, as America’s partners and rivals try to decipher what the Democratic Party’s new majority in the House of Representatives could mean for the future of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda over the coming years. Democrats say their victory in the House marks a new day in America. However, that doesn’t mean a new dawn for American foreign policy, says analyst Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations and director of the U.S. Center at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “The main play that Donald Trump now …

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Balkan nations that fought bitter wars as Yugoslavia broke apart during the 1990s have agreed to step up their cooperation in identifying thousands of people still missing as a result of the conflicts. Representatives from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro signed an agreement Tuesday laying out how they will work together. Some 12,000 of the 40,000 people who went missing as the former Yugoslavia violently collapsed remain unaccounted for, including about 4,000 whose unidentified bodies still are stored in morgues across the region. The nations agreed to improve the sharing of information and to allow representatives from more than …

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Russia is facing another round of U.S. sanctions over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. The Trump administration informed Congress on Tuesday that Russia failed to prove it is abiding by a global treaty outlawing biological and chemical weapons. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia in August. A 1991 U.S. law automatically triggers another round of sanctions. It is unclear what those new sanctions would be or when they would come into effect, angering the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ed Royce. “It is unacceptable that the administration lacks a plan, or …

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Security problems and a spate of insider attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan will not affect the alliance’s commitment to building Afghan forces capable of making the Taliban accept a negotiated end to the war, NATO’s top official said Tuesday. The aim is to build a force strong enough to show the Taliban that it is “pointless and counterproductive to continue the fighting,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and senior NATO commanders. “So there is a close link between our military efforts and our political efforts, a link between …

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An EU army is likely to be formed one day, the European Commission said Tuesday after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “real European army” to reduce dependence on the United States. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a former premier of Luxembourg, has long been a vocal supporter of the idea that the European Union should have more common defense capability, separate from the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance. The imminent departure from the bloc of Britain, long opposed to EU military collaboration, has revived discussion of defense cooperation, as have concerns that President Donald Trump may be less willing than …

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The leader of Belarus has warned his nation would have to beef up its weapons arsenals if the United States sets up a military base in Poland. Commenting Tuesday on Poland’s proposal to host a U.S. base, President Alexander Lukashenko said it would force Belarus to commission new missiles. But he also reaffirmed that Belarus doesn’t need a Russian military base. Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, has maintained close political, economic and military ties with Moscow. Belarus relies on cheap Russian oil and billions of dollars in loans to keep its Soviet-style economy afloat. Russia has a …

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday his government has more information about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and that it will likely make the evidence public after investigations of his death have been completed. Speaking during a trip to Japan, Cavusoglu told reporters that Turkey said Saudi Arabia and other countries interested in the information have been given the opportunity to see it. Khashoggi died after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.  Initially, Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate and that his whereabouts were unknown, then that he died in a …

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Britons would vote to stay in the European Union if there were another ballot as those in the biggest “leave”-voting areas change their minds, a survey for Channel 4 published on Monday showed. Britain would back “remain” by 54 percent to 46 percent, the study by Survation for the broadcaster showed. It estimated that more than a hundred local authorities would now vote to stay. “Leave” won the June 2016 vote by 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent. Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out another referendum on the issue. Brexiteers argue May’s predecessor David Cameron said during the campaign …

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The German military has received a hefty boost in a revised budget plan from 2020 after Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen refused to sign off the previous draft. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Monday proposed adding 5.7 billion euros ($6.5 billion) to the planned military budget from 2020, to buy more ships, fighter jets and other weaponry over several years, on top of a more modest 323 million euro boost in 2019. Germany is under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to boost its military spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product from the current 1.2 percent – …

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President Emmanuel Macron has ratcheted up warnings about the rising threat of far-right nationalism, saying in an interview with a regional French newspaper that complacency was what allowed for the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Speaking to Le Courrier Picard, a newspaper that covers northern France, where Macron has been visiting World War I memorials, the president was challenged over comparisons he has made between current events and the 1930s in Europe. The newspaper asked if he wasn’t exaggerating by comparing right-wing nationalists today to Germany’s Nazis or Italy’s fascists, saying he was “distorting the historical record.” “The times are …

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European Union and Japanese plans to form the world’s largest free trade area cleared a significant hurdle Monday when EU lawmakers specializing in trade backed a deal that could enter force next year. The European Parliament’s international trade committee voted 25 in favor to 10 against to clear the deal for a final vote in the parliament’s full chamber set for December 13. An agreement would bind two economies accounting for about a third of global gross domestic product and also signal their rejection of protectionism. Both have faced trade tensions with Washington and remain subject to U.S. tariffs imposed …

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Turkey is accusing Saudi Arabia of dispatching agents to Istanbul last month with the express aim of covering up the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi inside Riyadh’s consulate. A Turkish official, speaking anonymously, confirmed a report in Sabah, a newspaper close to Turkey’s government, that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia, supposedly to investigate Khashoggi’s October 2 killing. The Sabah report said the two experts visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17, with Saudi authorities allowing Turkish investigators …

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As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in 1918, some in the Middle East mourn the fate of nations and peoples who came out losers in the ultimate dissection of the region and the division of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians mourn their dead during a World War I genocide in which close to a million-and-a-half people were killed. Other peoples who suffered from that war, including Greeks, Assyrians, and Kurds, recall its memory with bitterness. As the war ended, the Ottoman Empire was divided, leaving communities shattered and broken by ethnic cleansing. University …

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Their pain has long gone. No odor from the gas warfare they endured remains. There are no echoes of the thump of artillery, no reverberation of the clash of arms, no sound of fusillades or the rat-a-tat of the machine guns. The trenches have long been filled; the entanglements of harsh wire gone, too. All is quiet on the Western Front. But the memory remains of the industrial slaughter that was World War I. It echoes for later generations in fading black-and-white photographs, letters home stained with foxing and the poems of war poets like Wilfred Owen. And it echoes …

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Saudi Arabia sent a two-man “clean-up team” to erase evidence of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing a week after he disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said on Monday, calling it a sign top Saudi officials knew of the crime. Confirming a report in Turkey’s pro-government Sabah newspaper, the official said the chemist and toxicologist were tasked with erasing evidence before Turkish investigators were given access to the Saudi consulate and consul’s residence. Sabah identified the two men as Ahmed Abdulaziz al-Jonabi and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, saying they arrived in Turkey as part of an 11-person team …

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The president of the European Council is being questioned in Poland as a parliamentary investigation into a pyramid scheme is ongoing. The financial scam was revealed in 2012 while Donald Tusk was Poland’s prime minister.  Prosecutors say that about 20 thousand investors lost over $225 million in what turned out to be a pyramid scheme of the Amber Gold financial institution and allege that authorities did not take necessary measures against the scam despite warning signals. Tusk’s son Michal had dealings with Amber Gold. Critics say Poland’s ruling party is using the investigation in an effort to discredit Tusk, who …

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Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello was the big winner at the MTV EMAs gala in Spain on Sunday, while Janet Jackson used her acceptance speech for a life-time achievement award to take a stand for women’s rights. Jackson was honored with the Global Icon Award for her four-decade, 11-album career that started when she was a child growing up in the family that also produced her music legend brother, Michael, and The Jackson Five. The 52-year-old Jackson showed she still has her dance moves while performing a medley of “Made for Now,” ″All for You” and “Rhythm Nation” while accompanied by …

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everal hundred people have gathered outside the Ukrainian Interior Ministry headquarters after the death of an anti-corruption activist who was attacked with acid three months ago. Kateryna Handziuk died on Sunday in a hospital where she was being treated for burns from the July 31 attack.   Police detained five people in the case, including the alleged assailant.  They have not identified anyone suspected of ordering the attack on Handziuk, who was an aide to the mayor of the city of Kherson as well as an activist. The people honoring Handziuk on Sunday called for intensified efforts to find those …

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