Category: Євросоюз

The World Health Organization says the number of measles cases in Europe jumped sharply during the first six months of 2018 and at least 37 people have died. The U.N. agency’s European office said Monday more than 41,000 measles cases were reported in the region during the first half of the year — more than in all 12-month periods so far this decade. The previous highest annual total was 23,927 cases in 2017. A year earlier, only 5,273 cases were reported. The agency said half — some 23,000 cases — this year occurred in Ukraine, where an insurgency backed by …

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Poland has used its powers as a European Union member to ban a human rights Ukrainian activist from all 26 countries in Europe’s Schengen area, saying she poses a security threat following allegations that she works for Russian interests. Some government critics, however, have questioned whether the government is misusing the system to intimidate its opponents. The activist, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, and her Polish husband Bartosz Kramek told The Associated Press they consider the move punishment for their open opposition to Poland’s conservative, nationalist government. Kozlovska, who runs an organization with offices in Warsaw, Brussels and Kiev, the Open Dialog Foundation, …

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Engineering experts determined in February that corrosion of the metal cables supporting the Genoa highway bridge had reduced the bridge’s strength by 20 percent — a finding that came months before it collapsed last week, an Italian news magazine reported Monday. Despite the findings, Espresso wrote that “neither the ministry, nor the highway company, ever considered it necessary to limit traffic, divert heavy trucks, reduce the roadway from two to one lanes or reduce the speed” of vehicles on the key artery for the northern port city. A large section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed August 14 during a heavy …

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Iran’s oil minister says France’s oil giant Total SA has pulled out of Iran after cancelling its $5 billion, 20-year agreement to develop the country’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field over renewed U.S. sanctions. The parliament’s website ICANA.ir quoted Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying on Monday that since Total first announced its decision a while ago, Iran has been in the process of “looking for an alternative” to Total. He didn’t elaborate.   There was no immediate comment from TotaI.   Earlier this month, Iran said China’s state-owned petroleum corporation took a majority 80 percent share of …

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Pope Francis said Monday every effort must be made to ensure the culture of the Catholic Church prevents future clerical sexual abuse of children and to make sure that if such abuses do take place, they cannot be covered up. The pope’s comments came in a letter to the world’s Catholics in response to the latest revelations of abuses by clergy members. Last week, a U.S. grand jury report said more than 300 predator priests had abused more than 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the span of 70 years. “Even though it can be said that most of …

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Shots were fired at a security booth outside the U.S. Embassy in Turkey’s capital early Monday, but U.S. officials said no one was hurt. Private Ihlas news agency said four to five rounds were fired from a moving white car and targeted the booth outside Gate 6 at the embassy in Ankara. Police were searching for the car.   U.S. Embassy spokesman David Gainer thanked police for their “rapid response”‘ and said no injuries had been reported.   The U.S. mission is closed this week as Turkey celebrates the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.   Ties between Ankara and Washington …

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“For the first time since early 2010, Greece can stand on its own feet,” the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rescue fund said as Athens exited its final, three-year international bailout program on Monday. The ESM allocated about $71 billion over the past three years, after an agreement was reached in August 2015 to help the country cope with fallout from an ongoing debt crisis. “Today we can safely conclude the ESM program with no more follow-up rescue programs,” Mario Centeno, the chairman of the ESM’s board of governors, said in a statement. “This was possible thanks to the extraordinary effort …

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Italy’s firebrand interior minister is threatening to return to Libya 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days following another standoff with Malta. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanded Sunday that other European countries take in the migrants after his Maltese counterpart, Michael Farrugia, insisted that the “only solution” is for the Diciotti ship to dock at the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The Diciotti has been off Lampedusa after rescuing the migrants Aug. 16. Italy asked Malta to take them in, but Malta refused, saying the migrant boat wasn’t in distress and that the migrants declined …

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The death toll of Genoa’s bridge collapse has risen to 43 as rescuers confirm they found remains believed to be of a missing family. Firefighters discovered the three bodies, reported to be those of a couple and their nine-year-old daughter, early Sunday inside a car extracted from the rubble of the viaduct. All those reported missing after Tuesday’s collapse have now been accounted for, although rescuers say they will continue combing the wreckage. The announcement followed the discovery Saturday of the body of a man in his 30s in the rubble and the death of another man in hospital. Italy …

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Senior U.N. Human Rights officials condemn the decision by the Republika Srpska National Assembly in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take back its endorsement of a report acknowledging the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica. U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, warns the decision by the Republika Srpska National Assembly to revoke its endorsement of the 2004 Srebrenica Commission Report is a step backwards for Bosnia and Herzegovina.   He says it undermines the rule of law and efforts to achieve justice for victims of crimes committed against people of all ethnicities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian …

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A budding trade war between the U.S. and Turkey over a detained American pastor is having global consequences. A sharp drop in Turkey’s lira, inflation and the threat of loan defaults, could drag down other economies, particularly in emerging markets. Turkey’s troubles are causing ripple effects in countries as far away as Argentina and Indonesia, while weighing on Asian currency rates and triggering currency fluctuations. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington. …

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Kofi Annan left the United Nations far more committed than it had been to combating poverty, promoting equality and fighting for human rights — and until his death Saturday he was speaking out about the turbulent world he saw moving from nations working together to solve problems, to growing nationalism. As secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, Annan saw as his greatest achievements the programs and policies he put in place to reduce inequality within and between countries, to combat infectious diseases and to promote human rights and protect civilians from war crimes including genocide. ​Millennium goals …

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A driver whose car collided with several people before crashing outside Britain’s Parliament has been charged with attempted murder. Police say 29-year-old Salih Khater was charged Saturday with trying to kill police officers and members of the public. Three people were injured when Khater — a British citizen originally from Sudan — hit a group of cyclists before colliding with a security barrier guarded by police outside Parliament on Tuesday. The incident sparked a huge police response. Last year London was hit by several attacks in which vehicles were used as weapons. Police say that because of the methodology and …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called on Europe to financially contribute to the reconstruction of Syria to allow millions of refugees to return home. “We need to strengthen the humanitarian effort in the Syrian conflict,” he said ahead of a meeting with his German counterpart Angela Merkel at the government retreat of Meseberg castle 70kms (45 miles) north of Berlin. “By that, I mean above all humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, and help the regions where refugees living abroad can return to.” There are currently one million refugees in Jordan, the same number in Lebanon, and three million …

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It’s Italy’s national day of mourning Saturday after the collapse of the Morandi highway bridge Tuesday in the port city of Genoa killed 42 people. Three more bodies were recovered by rescuers overnight and Italian state radio reported another was body found Saturday morning. Authorities said all those missing have now been accounted for. But not all the families of the victims agreed to take part.   Applause broke out at the funerals as rescuers and members of the civil defense department arrived to take part in the service. Authorities used an exhibition center in the area of the Genoa …

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Turkey’s currency this month has suffered heavy falls triggered by U.S.-Turkish tensions over the ongoing detention of an American pastor. Washington’s threat to impose new economic sanctions sparked another steep currency drop Friday. Dorian Jones reports on the economic fall out for people in Istanbul. …

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A decade-long dispute between Kosovo and Serbia is compelling both countries to consider a territorial swap along ethnic lines — a move that has long been opposed by both Brussels and Washington. But the leaders of both Balkan countries say redrawing the borders could help them resolve their differences and advance in their quest for European integration.   Experts have mixed opinions over whether such a deal is workable or even desirable.  Ten years after Kosovo declared independence, there has been little to no progress between the two countries in settling their disputes. Kosovo considers itself a sovereign nation, though …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday for talks about the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that has drawn U.S. ire. Putin arrives in Germany after a stop at an Austrian vineyard to attend Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl’s wedding to entrepreneur Wolfgang Meilinger. Merkel warned on Friday against expecting too much from her discussions with Putin at the government’s Meseberg palace, but said the two countries needed to remain in “permanent dialogue” on the long list of problems they face. “It’s a working meeting from …

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Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress and nemesis of U.S. President Donald Trump, has pulled out of a British reality-TV show at the last minute after a dispute with producers.  Daniels was due to take part in “Celebrity Big Brother,” which locks contestants in a house under constant surveillance. But she failed to join housemates including actress Kirstie Alley and psychic Sally Morgan for Thursday’s first episode. Lawyer Michael Avenatti said Friday that Daniels argued with producers who attempted to “control her and produce a certain result.” Broadcaster Channel 5 said Daniels told producers hours before airtime that she no …

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With anger and grief, Italians began burying some of their dead Friday from the Genoa highway bridge collapse, holding funerals in the victims’ hometowns. Several angry families rebuffed the offer of a state funeral, and the cardinal of Naples was merciless in his condemnation of negligence by Italian officials. Saturday has been declared a national day of mourning in Italy and will include a state funeral at the industrial port city’s fairgrounds for those who plunged to their deaths as the 45-meter (150-foot) tall Morandi Bridge gave way Tuesday. But many of those who lost loved ones declined to participate …

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