Category: Євросоюз

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it had extended the deadline for investors to divest holdings in sanctioned Russian companies EN+, GAZ Group and Rusal to Oct. 23 from Aug. 5. The U.S. Treasury in April imposed sanctions against billionaire Oleg Deripaska and eight companies in which he is a large shareholder, including aluminum exporter Rusal, in response to what it termed “malign activities” by Russia. Deripaska has held a controlling interest in En+, which in turn controls Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer outside of China. Automaker GAZ is also part of his business empire. U.S. Treasury …

READ MORE

A change in who gets to use the Eiffel Tower’s elevators has stranded frustrated tourists in long queues at the Paris landmark during a heat wave in the French capital. Management of the 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower decided this month to dedicate one elevator for those who book tickets in advance and leave only one for those who turn up on the day, rather than both as before. Sightseers who arrive without tickets have had to join queues that snake all the way around the base of the monument. Some said they had waited for up to three hours, annoyed that …

READ MORE

German farmers intensified calls for around 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in special aid on Tuesday after crop damage from a drought and heatwave, but Berlin said it would wait for an August harvest report before making a decision. The president of German farming association DBV, Joachim Rukwied, said drought had caused 1.4 million euros ($1.6 million) of damage to grains crops alone this year. Poor growing weather, including a heatwave and lack of rain, has damaged crops in France, Germany and the Baltic Sea countries, while a shortage of animal feed is also looming after damage to maize (corn) …

READ MORE

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci ruled out on Tuesday partition of the country with Serbia along ethnic lines, an idea raised in Belgrade to settle a long-running dispute that is hindering both sides’ ambitions to join the European Union. Thaci is due to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels after the summer break under an EU-sponsored dialogue that has made little progress in normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina since it was launched in 2013. But Thaci dismissed suggestions that Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority but also a Serb minority, should be divided. Officials in Belgrade say partition, allowing Serbia to maintain control over northern Kosovo …

READ MORE

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Tuesday Tokyo had asked Russia to reduce its military activity on a disputed island chain in the Pacific after Moscow beefed up its forces there in response to what it sees as a potential threat. The territorial dispute over the islands, known as the Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have not yet signed a peace treaty to mark the end of World War II. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved the deployment of Russian warplanes on one of the disputed islands in February, …

READ MORE

After the devastation of World War Two, architects in Yugoslavia got to work helping to rebuild the country which straddled the Cold War divide between the East and West. The architecture reflects styles from both sides and the architects’ vision of the future. The Museum of Modern Art in New York examines their work in an exhibit called “Toward a Concrete Utopia.” Ardita Dunellari has the story. …

READ MORE

On August 1, when face veils are banned in Denmark, Sabina will not be leaving her niqab at home. Instead, she will be defying the law and taking to the street in protest. In May, the Danish parliament banned the wearing of face veils in public, joining France and some other European countries to uphold what some politicians say are secular and democratic values. But Sabina, 21, who is studying to be a teacher, has joined forces with other Muslim women who wear the veil to form Kvinder I Dialog (Women in Dialogue) to protest and raise awareness about why …

READ MORE

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Monday he was organizing a conference to look for ways to stabilize Libya, a main departure point for migrants from North Africa trying to reach Europe. “In agreement with President (Donald) Trump, I’m going to organize a conference on Libya,” Conte told reporters at the White House after meeting with the U.S. president. “We would like to deal (with) and discuss all of the issues related to the Libyan people, involving all of the stakeholders, actors, protagonists in the whole of the Mediterranean,” said Conte, who took office last month promising a crackdown …

READ MORE

Macedonia’s parliament has set September 30 as the date for a referendum on changing the country’s name to North Macedonia. Macedonian lawmakers approved the measure with 68 votes in the 120-seat parliament. Opposition members boycotted the vote by leaving the room. Greece has objected to its neighbor being called Macedonia, saying it implies territorial claims over its own province of the same name. It has blocked the former Yugoslav republic’s bid to join the European Union and NATO because of the naming disagreement. Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who was elected in 2017, has pushed for an agreement with Greece …

READ MORE

Some European companies are rethinking their strategies to cushion the impact of trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China. The focus will switch back to China after a truce on tariffs emerged from U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on July 25. Trump and Juncker agreed to suspend any new tariffs on the European Union, including a proposed 25 percent levy on auto imports, and hold talks over duties on imports of European steel and aluminum. However, Trump retained the power to impose tariffs if no progress is made. …

READ MORE

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of an Australian archbishop convicted in May for covering up child abuse. An Australian magistrate said Archbishop Philip Wilson had shown no remorse for concealing the crimes of a pedophile priest who had attacked altar boys in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney in the 1970s. The court in the city of Newcastle said the archbishop’s “primary motive” at the time when he was a junior priest was to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church. He had said he would only resign if his appeal against his conviction for covering up child abuse …

READ MORE

Two-thirds of Britons now think the government will end up with a bad deal when Britain leaves the European Union early next year, and half want the chance to vote on what happens next, Sky News reported on Monday, citing its own poll. With less than eight months until Britain is due to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to find a proposal to maintain economic ties with the bloc that pleases both sides of her divided party and is acceptable to negotiators in Brussels. The Sky poll said 65 percent of British voters thought the government …

READ MORE

President Donald Trump will welcome new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at the White House Monday. The two leaders will have a private conversation in the Oval office, followed by an expanded bilateral meeting, with the White House saying the talks are aimed at deepening “cooperation in addressing global conflicts and promoting economic prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic” and at recognizing “the historical and cultural ties between the countries.” Conte became Italy’s prime minister through a coalition deal reached by two anti-establishment political parties, the League and the Five Star Movement after Italy’s March 4 election. These two …

READ MORE

Those who have been lucky enough to enjoy the Gregorian chants and complex Renaissance melodies of the pope’s choir say it’s like hearing the angels sing. The choir sings at all the main papal events and travels around the globe to perform. Officials say the choir delivers a message of peace to people of all faiths. VOA’s Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome. …

READ MORE

Greece began over the weekend to begin burying the victims of the deadly wildfire that raged through crowded resort areas east of Athens last week.  Fire officials raised the death toll to 91 and said 25 people remained missing on Sunday, after last Monday’s fire raced through the area.  Hundreds attended a memorial service Sunday in Mati, a popular resort village hardest hit by the fire.  The local Orthodox Church official, Bishop Kyrillos, presided over the service. “There’s fewer of us now than usually,” Kyrillos said. “It is the victims of the recent fire that are missing — friends, relatives …

READ MORE

Thousands protested in central Moscow on Sunday against a proposed increase to the retirement age and the crowd chanted slogans critical of President Vladimir Putin whose approval ratings have been dented by the bill. The rally organized by the opposition Libertarian Party chanted “Putin is a thief” and “away with the tsar,” slogans common at anti-Putin and anti-government protests. The retirement age proposal is politically sensitive for Putin, who was re-elected in March, because it has prompted a series of protests across Russia since it was announced on June 14, the day Russia played the first match of its soccer …

READ MORE

Buoyed by the #MeToo Movement, Nuns have begun to free themselves of their fears of speaking out against the abuses they have suffered for years at the hand of their superiors in the church. Cases of abused nuns have emerged in countries all over the world. It does not only involve sexual abuse but also the exploitation of the work of nuns. Nuns are there to clean and cook for the priests, bishops and cardinals they serve and often paid very modestly for their services. There is hardly any recognition for their work. The sisters have a second-class status in …

READ MORE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing not to back down to Washington’s demand to release American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is on trial on terrorism charges. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, threatened “severe sanctions” if Brunson was not released. “We will not take a step back when faced with sanctions, “Turkish state broadcaster TRT on Sunday quoted Erdogan, “They should not forget that they will lose a sincere partner.” The Turkish President is currently on a tour of African countries. Erdogan’s comment coincides with an escalation of anti-U.S. rhetoric. Five pro-government newspapers Sunday all carried the same headline, …

READ MORE

A prominent Belgrade lawyer who in the past helped to defend late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was shot dead, gangland-style, in front of his home on Saturday, police said. Dragoslav Ognjanovic, 57, was gunned down in front of his apartment building in the Novi Beograd neighborhood and his 26-year-old son was wounded in the right arm, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. As a prominent criminal lawyer, Ognjanovic served in the early 2000s on a legal team that helped to defend Milosevic at his war crimes trial before the U.N. tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Milosevic died …

READ MORE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responding to a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to slap sanctions on Ankara if it did not free an American pastor, said his country would stand its ground, Haberturk TV reported Sunday. The friendship between the United States and Turkey is on the line in this dispute, Erdogan said, according to TRT Haber and other media. “We will not take a step back when faced with sanctions,” Erdogan was quoted as saying. “They should not forget that they will lose a sincere partner.” American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was transferred to house arrest this week after 21 months of detention in a …

READ MORE