Category: Євросоюз

The United States says Turkey faces more U.S. sanctions if it refuses to release an American pastor held on allegations of helping the organizers of the failed 2016 coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The United States says Ankara has no evidence for the allegations and has held the pastor for too long. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday the United States is ready to hit Ankara with more sanctions if it does not release the American soon. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office on Thursday said had it demanded a 15-year prison sentence for former President Viktor Yanukovych, accusing him of “betraying his nation” to Russia.  Pro-Moscow Yanukovych has lived in exile in Russia since he was ousted in a Western-backed popular uprising in 2014, and it is highly unlikely he will ever face trial as the two countries remain locked in a bitter standoff. “Viktor Yanukovych betrayed his nation. He betrayed his army. At the most difficult time for the country and the people,” prosecutors said in court, according to a statement. “He left the country at the mercy …

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Finance Minister Berat Albayrak assured international investors on Thursday that Turkey would emerge stronger from its currency crisis, insisting its banks were healthy and signalling it could ride out a dispute with the United States. In a conference call with thousands of investors and economists, Albayrak — who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law — said Turkey fully understood and recognised all its domestic challenges but was dealing with what he described as a market anomaly. With Ankara locked in a complex rift with Washington, he also played down a decision by President Donald Trump to double tariffs on imports of …

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Russia says the latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian, Chinese, and Singaporean companies are “destructive” and “useless.”   The U.S. penalized the three companies Wednesday, accusing them of helping North Korea avoid international sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday the new U.S. sanctions come when “joint international efforts” are needed toward a settlement in North Korea. Moscow said the sanctions could undermine denuclearization talks. The U.S. has accused a Chinese trading company and its affiliate in Singapore of falsifying documents aimed at easing illegal shipments of alcohol and cigarettes into North Korea. The companies are said to have earned …

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An organization made up of the judiciaries of European Union states said  Thursday that it planned to suspend Poland, contending that political interference had rendered its legal system no longer independent of the government. The European Network of Councils for the Judiciary’s (ENCJ) announcement added to widespread criticism of the nationalist government’s changes to the courts since coming to power in late 2015. The ENCJ’s board said the Polish National Judiciary Council (KRS), which appoints judges and represents Poland at the ENCJ, “is no longer an institution which is independent of the executive and … guarantees the final responsibility for the support of the judiciary in the independent delivery of …

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Rescuers continue their search for possible survivors and bodies of victims of Tuesday’s highway bridge collapse in Italy. The death toll is at 38, but authorities say some people are still unaccounted for and no one is prepared to call off the search and rescue operation. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes near parts of the bridge that remained standing. The city of Genoa’s chief prosecutor has said there may still be 10 to 20 people missing and not all the recovered bodies have been identified. Sniffer dogs and large earth-movers are being used to search around …

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The U.S. continued to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to release detained American Pastor Andrew Brunson, after a Turkish court Wednesday rejected a second legal appeal to release him from house arrest. And Turkey is pushing back hard, sharply raising tariffs on a range of American goods in retaliation to the tariffs imposed last week by President Trump. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department on deteriorating relations with a U.S. NATO ally. …

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Two U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets squared off in simulated dogfights with two of Norway’s expanding fleet of F-35 aircraft Wednesday as part of an exercise aimed at strengthening the NATO alliance and increasing its deterrent power. The two U.S. F-22s are among 13 in Europe for a series of short-term deployments in places such as Greece and Poland, with further training missions planned in undisclosed locations in coming days. The Norwegian deployment lasted one day but will lay the groundwork for NATO allies as they work to integrate their stealth warfare capabilities, Colonel Leslie Hauck, chief of the fifth …

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The United States said Wednesday that Bosnia’s autonomous Serb-dominated region was attempting to deny history by revoking a report that concluded that Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Muslims in and around Srebrenica during the country’s 1992-95 war. The U.S. State Department said adoption by the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) government of the 2004 report on the Srebrenica genocide had been an important reconciliation step. Reconciliation step reversed “The August 14 session of the Republika Srpska National Assembly is a step in the wrong direction,” a State Department statement said. “Attempts to reject or amend the report on Srebrenica are …

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The White House on Wednesday condemned Turkey for boosting tariffs on U.S. imports, the latest confrontation between the two NATO allies. Ankara imposed stiffer levies on U.S. cars, alcohol, coal and other products — $533 million in new tariffs — in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum exported to the United States. The tit-for-tat tariffs came amid Turkey’s rejection of a U.S. demand that it release American pastor Andrew Brunson, detained on espionage and terrorism-related charges. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “the tariffs from Turkey are certainly regrettable and …

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In Paris, there is an experiment under way to find an environmental solution to the unsightly urban problem of men urinating in the street. However, the project has prompted strong reactions from some residents and visitors. The city has turned to open-air street urinals, called “uritrottoirs” and “pavement urinals,” which are similar to planters with an opening in the front and a floral display on top. The receptacles contain straw, which transforms into compost for later use in parks and gardens. Some see the pavement urinals as an innovation that might help rid the French capital of unpleasant sights and …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit Russia in September, Russian news agencies RIA and Tass reported on Wednesday. Xi will visit eastern Russian city of Vladivostok where he will take part in an economic forum, Putin was quoted as saying. …

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Turkey on Wednesday announced tariff hikes on a range of U.S. goods in the latest back-and-forth move amid a deteriorating relationship between the two countries. The extra tariffs apply to imports of vehicles, alcohol, coal, rice and cosmetics. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter the increases were being done “within the framework of the principle of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious economic attacks by the United States.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing the United States of waging a targeted economic war on his country, and on Tuesday he proposed a boycott of U.S. electronic goods. “If …

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Two Greek soldiers facing espionage charges in Turkey are due to fly home early on Wednesday after a provincial court released them, in a ruling Athens said would help to improve strained ties between the two NATO allies. The soldiers crossed into Turkey in March, in what Greece said was an accident while they were following the trail of suspected illegal migrants. But a court in the western province of Edirne ordered their detention the same month on suspicion of attempted military espionage. The same court ruled for their release on Tuesday after they said in a defense statement they …

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Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $4.9 billion to settle U.S. claims that it misled investors on residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2008, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. The Justice Department said the penalty was the largest ever imposed on a bank for misconduct leading up to the financial crisis. The bank announced in May that it had reached the settlement in principle. The government alleges RBS misled investors in underwriting and issuing residential mortgage-backed securities, understating the risks behind many of the loans and providing inaccurate data. “Despite assurances by RBS to its investors, RBS’s deals were …

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The Russian military said Tuesday that its forces in Syria will help U.N. peacekeepers fully restore patrols along the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reflecting Moscow’s deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes. The Russian deployment in the area has also highlighted Moscow’s growing clout in the region, where it seeks to balance the sharply conflicting interests of Israel and Iran. “The Russian flag is the guarantor of peace and security on that land,” said Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, speaking to international reporters on a trip to the area organized by the Russian Defense Ministry. He noted that …

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Alexei Nikolayev, one of more than 56 million Russians who re-elected President Vladimir Putin in March, is already counting the likely cost of a weaker ruble: less spending power abroad, higher prices at home and another round of belt tightening. But Nikolayev, 56, a graphic designer who enjoys foreign travel and imported wine, blames the West, not Putin, for the pain and has no regrets about voting for a politician he sees as the right man to guide Russia through trubled times. “It’s painful and it’s unpleasant, but it won’t change my politics,” Nikolayev said of the ruble shedding 10 percent of its value against the dollar since …

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A bridge over an industrial area in the Italian city of Genova partially collapsed during a sudden and violent storm on Tuesday, leaving vehicles crushed in the rubble below. Italian media reported that there were deaths, but Maria Luisa Catalano, a police official in Genoa, said that authorities were still involved in rescue efforts and did not yet know the number of victims or injured.   The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France and other vacation resorts on the eve of a major Italian holiday on Wednesday, Ferragosto, and traffic would have been heavier than usual …

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Police in London say a man crashed a car into a group of pedestrians and cyclists before hitting a set of barriers outside of Britain’s Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, causing a number of injuries. Authorities said officers arrested the male driver of the car on suspicion of terrorist offenses. They said there were no other people in the car, and that they did not find any weapons. They put his age as being in his late 20s. “It certainly appears to be a deliberate act, but what the motivation is we can’t say,” London Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told …

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Vienna has dislodged Melbourne for the first time at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index, strengthening the Austrian capital’s claim to being the world’s most pleasant city to live in. The two metropolises have been neck and neck in the annual survey of 140 urban centers for years, with Melbourne clinching the title for the past seven editions. This year, a downgraded threat of militant attacks in western Europe as well as the city’s low crime rate helped nudge Vienna into first place. Vienna regularly tops a larger ranking of cities by quality of life compiled …

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