Category: Євросоюз

Kellogg Co said Thursday it is recalling an estimated 1.3 million cases of its Honey Smacks cereal from more than 30 U.S. states because of the potential for salmonella contamination, in the latest case of U.S. food products possibly tainted by the illness-causing bacteria. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration said it worked with Kellogg to issue the recall after preliminary evidence linked the product to more than 60 illnesses. “The FDA is working with the company to quickly remove this cereal from the marketplace,” the agency said in a statement. Cereal pulled The FDA said it has asked Kellogg …

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Like prizefighters slugging it out this week, Italy’s populist leader Matteo Salvini clashed with French President Emmanuel Macron. The immediate cause for the bout was Salvini’s closing of Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships carrying migrants from Africa. Few doubt, though, the cosmopolitan French leader and the iconoclastic Italian nationalist, who is the interior minister in Italy’s new coalition government and its driving force, will clash time and again in the coming months in a prolonged contest to shape the future of the European Union. Both men defied naysayers and flouted conventional political norms to get where they are: Macron …

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A Hungarian court sentenced four members of a people-smuggling operation to 25 years in prison Thursday for the deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated inside a truck in 2015. The four were convicted of murder in a court ruling in the town of Kecskemet. In August 2015, authorities found the bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children in the truck abandoned alongside an Austrian motorway. The victims came from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They were among the hundreds of thousands of other migrants who were trying to reach Germany during the height of Europe’s worst migrant crisis since …

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The football World Cup kicked off Thursday with host Russia defeating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opening match of the tournament. Russia President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony the the event at the 80,000-seat Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Russia is spending $13 billion to put on the event with matches taking place in 11 host cities. Group play runs through June 28 with the knockout phase beginning June 30.The World Cup champion will be crowned July 15. Brazil, France, Spain, Argentina and defending champion Germany are among the favorites to win the 32-team tournament. In addition to fans watching …

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Up to a million football fans from around the world are expected to travel to Russia over the coming weeks for the World Cup, which kicks off Thursday. They include hundreds of thousands of supporters from South America and Africa, who are famous for bringing their passion and partying to the tournament. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, there are concerns that stem from a record of racism and violence in Russian football. …

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The president of Portugal will be visiting the White House later this month to meet with President Donald Trump. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will visit on June 27. She says the visit will mark “the culmination of a month-long celebration of the Portuguese-American community” and celebrate the close bond between the countries. Sanders notes Portugal is an important NATO ally and partner in Afghanistan and says the meeting will focus on strengthening the countries’ cooperation in addressing global conflicts and promoting economic prosperity, among other topics. …

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Back in 2010, President Vladimir Putin helped secure Russia’s bid for the World Cup with guarantees he would introduce the world to an open and welcoming Russia. This week, Putin said Russia had made good on its promises. “We’ve done everything to ensure our guests, sportsmen, experts, and, of course, fans feel at home in Russia,” said Putin in a video address released by the Kremlin.”We have opened our country and our hearts to the world.” With the final countdown to Thursday’s opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia underway, the stadiums appear ready, the fan zones (nearly) built, the …

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Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov says an agreement reached Tuesday with Greece to change his country’s name is detrimental for the Republic of Macedonia and that he would not sign it into law. In a televised national address, Ivanov said the agreement reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras violates constitutional law. The deal called for Macedonia to be renamed as the Republic of North Macedonia. “The government did not have the strength and courage to initiate the building of a common stance and consensus,” he said. “The entire process lacked transparency and the end …

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China and Russia see the now-concluded Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as vindicating their views on how the thorny issue of a nuclear armed North Korea could and should be approached. Security analysts, however, are less certain about the outcome of the summit, especially Trump’s announcement that he would halt “war games” on the peninsula.   Some argue the announcement is not only in line with Pyongyang’s interests but Beijing’s bigger strategic objectives as well.   Commenting on the summit, the Kremlin said the meeting had shown that President Vladimir Putin had …

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Sotheby’s says it’s auctioning a set of natural pearls that once belonged to the famed — or infamous — French queen Marie Antoinette, and have not been seen in public for two centuries. The sale of “Royal Jewels from the Bourbon-Parma family” is set to take place in Geneva on Nov. 12.   Sotheby’s says Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined during the French Revolution, was often portrayed wearing pearls, which the auction house says were as prized as diamonds in the late 18th century.   Announcing the sale Wednesday, the auction house said the pearls have not been seen in public in …

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The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents on Tuesday inaugurated a key pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets and eventually to Europe, part of a wider Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to diversify gas supplies and reduce countries’ dependence on Russia.   The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, or TANAP, is also part of Turkey’s ambition of becoming a major energy hub.   “We are taking a historic step,” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in central Eskisehir province with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev marking the delivery of the first gas. “We are inaugurating a …

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Greece and Macedonia reached a historic settlement Tuesday to their long-simmering dispute over the name Macedonia — shared by the former Yugoslav republic and an ancient region of northern Greece. Under the deal between the two prime ministers, the country will now be called The Republic of North Macedonia. “Our investment in the compromise is a definition of a specified Macedonian name for our country, a dignified and geographically defined name,” Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the deal ends any claim he believes Macedonia may have had on Greek territory. “This achieves a clear distinction …

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Frosty relations between the United States and its European allies should not be blamed on U.S. President Donald Trump — that’s according to a diplomat who represents one of the countries with whom Trump has been feuding. “The impression is that if we have a crisis in the transatlantic relationship, it’s because of one person  —the president,” French Ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud said Tuesday in Washington. “It’s something that I don’t believe to be true.” Instead, the French envoy believes the fraying ties are the result of an underlying fragility in the U.S.-European alliance and the lack of …

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Another hearing was postponed on Tuesday in the Serbian trial dealing with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims from Srebrenica, further delaying the landmark proceedings that opened over a year ago. The trial of eight former Bosnian Serb policemen charged with killing hundreds of Bosnian Muslim prisoners is seen as a test of Serbia’s resolve to help punish those responsible for Europe’s worst crime since World War II. The proceedings have been constantly delayed and were suspended for several months last year because the indictment was filed while Serbia did not have a chief war crimes prosecutor. Serbia’s war crimes …

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Ireland will hold a referendum later this year to remove the offense of blasphemy from its constitution. Charlie Flanagan, minister for justice and equality announced Tuesday that the referendum will likely be held in October at the same time as the presidential election. The Irish constitution says, “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious or indecent matter is an offense which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” The move is part of the government’s plan to overhaul the constitution of the most socially conservative country in Europe. It pairs with the referendum last month that overturned Ireland’s ban on …

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Spain’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s conviction of the husband of Princess Cristina for fraud and tax evasion, though it acquitted him of forgery and reduced his prison sentence by five months. The court ruled on an appeal that Inaki Urdangarin, King Felipe VI’s brother-in-law, was also guilty of misuse of public funds, abuse of power and influence peddling and should serve a sentence of five years and 10 months.   The lower court, in Palma de Mallorca, convicted Urdangarin in a 2016 trial that captivated Spain as Princess Cristina testified in court. It was the first …

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The man at the center of a sex-abuse and financial crimes scandal that is tarnishing the academy which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, was Tuesday charged with two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. Swedish prosecutor Christina Voigt said the evidence “is robust and sufficient for prosecution.”   Jean-Claude Arnault, a well-known figure in Sweden who ran a cultural center, is married to poet and member of the Swedish Academy, Katarina Frostenson. He has denied this and other sex abuse allegations.   In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that …

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Spain announced Monday that it will allow a ship carrying 629 migrants to dock in Valencia. The rescue ship Aquarius has been in international waters since picking up the migrants from a smuggler’s vessel off the coast of Libya. Malta and Italy refused to let it dock, saying they cannot cope with more migrants and refugees. It is not clear whether the rescue ship can make the 1,400-kilometer journey to Valencia and what awaits migrants once they disembark in the European Union country. …

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is campaigning for re-election, seized on the latest Turkish growth figures as a vindication of his economic policies in the face of skepticism from not only voters but international investors of the country’s economic strength. The economy grew by 7.4 percent in the first quarter, beating expectations. “We continue to be one of the fastest-rowing countries in the world,” Erdogan said at an electoral rally in Istanbul. He also claimed victory against what he called “conspirators” whom he blamed for last month’s heavy falls of the Turkish lira. In May, the currency fell more than …

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An American teacher responsible for bringing to light the story of a Polish woman credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children during World War II has been presented with the award that bears her name. Norman Conrad shepherded three high school students in rural Uniontown, Kansas, as they researched the life of Irena Sendler for a National History Day project. The research evolved into a play, Life in a Jar, in 1999. Poland’s Culture Ministry and the San Francisco-based Taube Philanthropies on Monday presented Conrad with the 2018 Irena Sendler Memorial Award in Warsaw’s Royal Castle. Poland has designated 2018 the Year …

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