Category: Євросоюз

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is expected to host a meeting Tuesday with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Brussels to discuss the future of the Iran nuclear deal, now that U.S. President Donald Trump has announced the United States is pulling out of the deal. The EU’s External Action Service made the statement Friday, adding that Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif also is expected to meet with the three foreign ministers and the EU’s Mogherini. Meanwhile, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said Europe should not think of the United States as the “world’s …

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Britain is set to roll out the red carpet Sunday as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan starts a three-day visit to London. The visit comes at an opportune time for him, ahead of the June 24 presidential elections, but it is controversial because he is facing growing accusations of authoritarianism. Hosting Erdogan in the middle of an election campaign is seen as a sign of Britain’s commitment to the Turkish president. “It is a great honor to have him and to be able to host him in our capital city,” Britain’s ambassador to Turkey, Dominick Chilcott, said Friday. Erdogan’s reputation …

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Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Thursday proposed member of parliament Quim Torra as candidate for head of the Catalan government as the region attempts to put an end to a seven-month impasse and form an administration. Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by May 22 to avert more elections, following a standoff during which separatist politicians put forward candidates who were blocked by the courts for being either abroad or in jail. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called regional elections in December after sacking the previous administration for illegally declaring independence from Spain. However, pro-independence …

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A 104-year-old Australian scientist who had campaigned for the legalization of assisted dying in his home country has ended his life at a clinic in Switzerland. David Goodall died Thursday at the Lifecircle clinic in Basel after administering a lethal drug under the guidance of doctors. With his grandson Daniel and a longtime nurse at his side, the renowned botanist and ecologist from Perth, Australia, began the final stage of the process by receiving a fatal dose of barbiturates. The lethal cocktail is normally ingested, but since Goodall couldn’t swallow, the substance was injected intravenously. He died shortly after 12:30 …

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Chilean bishops are arriving in Rome ahead of an expected brow-beating next week from Pope Francis, who says he was misled about a bishop at the center of the Chilean church’s sex abuse scandal. One top-ranked churchman is apparently not coming: Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, retired archbishop of Santiago, who sits on Francis’ kitchen cabinet. Abuse survivors have laid much of the blame for the scandal on Errazuriz, whom they accuse of discrediting victims and covering up abuse rather than punishing pedophiles. Errazuriz was quoted by Chile’s La Tercera paper as saying he wasn’t coming for personal reasons.  The executive committee …

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Italian researchers on Thursday unveiled a new robotic hand they say allows users to grip objects more naturally and featuring a design that will lower the price significantly. The Hennes robotic hand has a simpler mechanical design compared with other such myoelectric prosthetics, characterized by sensors that react to electrical signals from the brain to the muscles, said researcher Lorenzo De Michieli. He helped develop the hand in a lab backed by the Italian Institute of Technology and the INAIL state workers’ compensation prosthetic center. The Hennes has only one motor that controls all five fingers, making it lighter, cheaper …

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Turkey has pushed back hard against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned of serious consequences, with analysts saying Turkey could find itself drawn into a dispute between Washington and Tehran. Erdogan spoke by telephone with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, Wednesday. Local media, citing a Turkish presidential source, said Erdogan reaffirmed his support of the nuclear deal and criticized Trump’s decision.   “We don’t need new crises in the region,” Erdogan said in an interview with international broadcaster CNN, warning the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal could have …

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U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an act that Jewish groups praise as helpful in their efforts to reclaim lost property in Poland, but which the Polish government says is discriminatory.   The White House said on Wednesday that Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today — or JUST — Act. It requires the State Department to report to Congress on what steps dozens of countries in Europe have taken to compensate Holocaust survivors or their heirs for assets seized under Nazi German and Communist rule.   The law does not give the U.S. any powers to act against any country …

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A new survey by the organization seeking restitution for victims of Nazi persecution found Americans lack knowledge about the Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The survey found more than 90 percent believe children should learn about it at school. Recently, a museum exhibit on how the U.S. reacted to the genocide, which took place more than 70 years ago, opened in Washington. Anush Avetisyan has more. …

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U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran is likely to engage in new negotiations on its nuclear program. Trump told reporters Wednesday the United States will impose some of the strongest sanctions on Iran ever and that the United States will work toward a deal with Tehran that will ensure the world’s safety. Iran has rejected suggestions to renegotiate any part of the 2015 agreement. Britain, France and Germany say they will continue to uphold the agreement with Iran. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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 After failing to coax Washington to stick with the Iran nuclear deal, and facing protests at home over his labor and pension reforms, French President Emmanuel Macron may find solace Thursday in Germany, where he will be given a prestigious European award for another key ambition: far-reaching goals to reform and revamp the European Union.  The Charlemagne Prize, which he will receive in the German spa town of Aachen, remains more of an aspirational nod to Macron’s European ambitions than his ability to actually unify the region. Named after the medieval emperor who ruled over a swath of western and central …

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A Russian company accused by U.S. prosecutors of funding a propaganda operation to tilt the 2016 presidential election in President Donald Trump’s favor and stir disharmony in the United States pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court. Concord Management and Consulting LLC is one of three entities and 13 Russian individuals indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in February in an alleged criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper in the U.S. race, boost Trump and disparage his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The indictment said Concord is controlled by Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, who U.S. officials have said has extensive …

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A transatlantic diplomatic tussle appears to be looming after European leaders pledged to defend their countries’ commercial interests in Iran, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. Fellow signatories Russia and China also said they would stick with the accord. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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Attraction park Legoland has unveiled a miniature model of this month’s royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor castle, built by a team of 11 model-makers who used almost 60,000 pieces of Lego bricks. The replica includes a 60-brick Markle in her wedding dress and veil, with Harry by her side. The couple are riding in a brick-built carriage being drawn by horses along Windsor Great Park’s Long Walk toward the castle, surrounded by 500 spectators, recreating the real-life procession that is planned for the big day on May 19. The scene is completed by miniature models …

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The double-Oscar winning filmmaker who opened the Cannes Film Festival has made a last-minute plea to Iran to let a fellow Iranian director – who is officially banned from working and traveling – come to the premiere of his own film. Seated alongside Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, the stars of his new movie, Asghar Farhadi said Iran should allow acclaimed director Jafar Panahi to attend the festival where they both have movies competing for the Palme d’Or. “I think there’s still time,” he said of getting Panahi to the Saturday premiere of his film “3 Faces.” “I would like …

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Spain acted on Wednesday to blockpro-independence politicians in Catalonia from voting in ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now in Germany, as their regional head with a deadline looming to form a government and avoid fresh elections. Madrid said it was appealing a new Catalan law that would have allowed Puigdemont to be elected at a distance while he waits in Berlin for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him. “We are appealing [before the Constitutional Court] … against a law that aims to swear in someone who has fled from justice and is living abroad,” Prime Minister Mariano …

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Hundreds protested in Montenegro on Wednesday after unknown assailants shot and wounded a prominent crime and corruption reporter, the latest attack on journalists in the small Balkan country that is seeking EU membership. Carrying banners reading “Stop violence,” or “For a life without fear,” the protesters demanded that the authorities find the assailants who opened fire late Tuesday on Olivera Lakic, who works for the independent Vijesti daily. Lakic, 49, was shot in the leg outside her home in Podgorica, the capital. She remains in a local hospital following the attack which has drawn U.S. and European Union concern. Protesters …

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Unidentified assailants on Tuesday shot and wounded a Montenegrin journalist who has written about crime and corruption in the small Balkan country.   Olivera Lakic, a journalist for the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti, was wounded in the right leg outside her home in the capital, Podgorica. Lakic was taken to a hospital and was reported out of danger.   Police said the attack happened around 9 p.m. A search for the attackers was underway, including stepped up controls throughout the city and a review of surveillance cameras in the area, police said.   Vijesti’s chief editor, Mihailo Jovovic, said Lakic told …

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Dolls, a memory jar, a magnifying glass, a used condom — each is a memento of heartbreak contributed by an anonymous contributor to the Museum of Broken Relationships, an eccentric display in Kosovo. The traveling exhibition — tied to a permanent tourist attraction in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, dedicated to treasuring and sharing heartbreak stories and symbolic possessions — opened a monthlong stint in Kosovo last week as part of Europe Week.  “Its mission is to connect people in public spaces through the stories of love and loss,” a statement from the EU office in Kosovo said. Curator Kushtrim Fetahu …

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As tens of thousands gathered in the central square of Armenia’s capital to celebrate Tuesday’s 59-42 vote to make Nikol Pashinyan prime minister, supporters of the longtime opposition figure called their political triumph the first step in a much longer journey. Tuesday’s decision followed weeks of largely peaceful protests against corruption and poor governance that came after former President Serzh Sargsyan became prime minister in April, a move that critics called a manipulation of the country’s constitution to extend his hold on power. Just last week, Armenia’s ruling Republican Party, which holds a majority in parliament, blocked Pashinyan’s initial bid …

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