Category: Євросоюз

Spain has been plunged back into political turmoil after violent protests over the weekend in the wake of the arrest of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont.  The 55-year-old former leader was detained on the German-Danish border Sunday under a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, as he attempted to drive back to his adopted home in Belgium. He appeared before a court in the German town of Neumuenster on Monday for a preliminary hearing ahead of a decision on his extradition.  Puigdemont declared independence after the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum last year, though …

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The Trump administration’s decision to shutter the Russian consulate in Seattle displeased many Russian immigrants Monday, some of whom rushed to its offices in hopes of securing passports, visas and other important documents. One woman, who identified herself as a dual U.S.-Russian citizen from Boise, Idaho, said she spent $1,000 traveling to Seattle to renew a passport so that she could visit her brother in Russia – only to be turned away. Another, Luda Rieve, of San Diego, told The Seattle Times she too was turned away after taking the day off work and flying from California to renew her …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday voiced hope that a difficult period in relations between Turkey and the European Union is now in the past.   Erdogan spoke after talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna.   “I hope that we have left a tough period in the relations between Turkey and Europe behind us,” Erdogan said and voiced hope that “a first step was taken here toward restoring trust with Europe.”   He also said that EU membership was …

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A reshuffled Slovak government led by Peter Pellegrini won a parliamentary confidence vote Monday, a month after the murder of an investigative journalist sparked mass protests and forced long-serving leader Robert Fico to resign. The new government won 81 votes in the 150-member parliament. Fico, prime minister for 10 of the last 12 years, bowed out this month amid protests and calls for an early election, handing the three-party ruling coalition to Pellegrini, a long-time senior member of the ruling Smer party. The new cabinet has adopted its predecessor’s agenda, including plans to reach a balanced budget by 2020. It …

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French President Emmanuel Macron has set his sights on artificial intelligence as the next technological frontier France cannot afford to miss, and will launch a major “offensive” this week, officials said Monday. Macron, the 40-year-old who swept to power last May promising to transform France into a “startup nation,” wants to avoid seeing France and Europe fall behind Chinese and U.S. giants such as Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Alibaba in this area. “France missed the boat of all the latest technological revolutions: robotics, the internet. We have no giants in these fields,” a presidential adviser said. “We will do what …

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Britain and Russia have been waging a fast and furious information war since former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found poisoned March 4 in the provincial English town of Salisbury.  Not a day has gone by without at least one fierce exchange between British and Russian officials — and both governments have turned to social media, from Twitter to Facebook, to make accusations and counter-claims in their efforts to convince a global audience of guilt or innocence.  And the barbs flying have been getting more personal. The British narrative has been more consistent, demanding an explanation from …

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Turkey has declared complete control of the northern Syrian area of Afrin after a two-month-long offensive to oust a Kurdish militia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that the next target is the nearby town of Tal Rifaat. Erdogan has vowed to remove Kurds from power in all areas of Syria and Iraq where they took control after defeating Islamic State militants. As VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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With the fire alarms silent and staff reportedly nowhere to be seen, a fire at a shopping mall packed with children and their parents on the first weekend of the school recess killed 64 people in eastern Russia. The fire at the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo, a city in Siberia, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, was extinguished by Monday morning after burning through the night. Firefighters were still recovering bodies as parts of the buildings were still smoldering. Some of the dead were found inside a cinema. Sixty-four deaths were confirmed after the firefighters finished combing …

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A British journalist expelled from the country last month did not have valid accreditation and was filming without a permit, Egyptian authorities said Sunday. The State Information Service said in a statement that The Times of London correspondent Bel Trew, expelled after being threatened with military trial, also covered Egypt unfairly and published false information. The move comes as part of a heavy crackdown on media ahead of this week’s presidential election, which general-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is set to win after all serious competitors were arrested or intimidated into dropping out. Trew, who had been in Egypt for seven years, …

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Catalonia’s ousted president Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Germany Sunday while crossing the border from Denmark, German police said. Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, confirmed the arrest on Twitter, adding that Puigdemont was traveling to Belgium, where he initially fled after an arrest warrant was issued against him for his role in an independence referendum in October. A news report (on AFP) says Puigdemont will appear before a judge in Germany on Monday as part of a process of determining if he is to be returned to Spain. Puidgmont’s detention sparked some demonstrations in Spain, according to the Associated Press. Puigdemont …

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Survivors and families of victims of Friday’s terror attack in France attended a special mass to honor the four killed and three wounded, including an officer who swapped himself with a hostage in a supermarket in the southwestern town of Trebes. The Bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne Alain Planet celebrated mass, during which he praised the “extraordinary devotion” of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame. “I am here to share in people’s mourning, but also to warm myself to their profound solidarity. This event was also an opportunity to see an extraordinary act, extraordinary devotion by [Lieutenant] Colonel Arnaud Beltrame,” he said. “The …

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Pope Francis marked Palm Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square urging young people not to let themselves be manipulated. A large crowd turned out at the Vatican to listen to the pope’s words and receive his blessing on the first of Holy Week services leading up to Easter. Pope Francis and cardinals dressed in red robes marked Palm Sunday with a long and solemn ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square attended by a large crowd, which included many young people who turned out to celebrate the Catholic Church’s World Day of Youth. Carrying a woven palm branch, Pope Francis first led a …

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In Russia’s far north, the city of Vorkuta is slowly being reclaimed by the Arctic tundra. The front lines of this battle between the urban and natural worlds are in the suburbs, where abandoned apartment blocks emerge from the towering snowdrifts. Huge icicles claw over the edges of buildings and emerge through shattered windows, seemingly pulling these brutalist relics deeper into their Arctic grave. Vorkuta’s population began to plummet in the 1990s as one by one the local coal mines closed, leaving a handful operational today. The suburb of Sovetsky once housed thousands of miners and their families, the pioneers …

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In Russia’s far north, the city of Vorkuta is slowly being reclaimed by the Arctic tundra. Its population has plummeted as the local coal mines have closed, and the very future of the city is in doubt. As Henry Ridgwell reports for VOA, Vorkuta’s fate reflects a wider population crisis across Russia’s far north as old Soviet industries have crumbled. …

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About 1,000 people have protested again in Volokolamsk, some 100 kilometers west of Moscow, demanding the closure of a landfill that has been leaking toxic gas that harmed dozens of children this week. The protesters gathered outside the local administration headquarters, many of them wearing pink ribbons as homage to a local schoolgirl who shamed Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov with a defiant gesture during a previous protest. Saturday’s protest came despite the fact that Vorobyov the previous day fired the district chief, after dozens of local children were hospitalized Wednesday due to apparently breathing gas that leaked from the …

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Britain’s information regulator said Saturday that it was assessing evidence gathered from a raid on the office of data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, part of an investigation into alleged misuse of personal information by political campaigns and social media companies like Facebook. More than a dozen investigators from the Information Commissioner’s Office entered the company’s central London office late Friday, shortly after a High Court judge granted a warrant. The investigators were seen leaving the premises early Saturday after spending about seven hours searching the office. The regulator said it would “consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and …

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Turkey’s president on Saturday criticized anti-war students at a top university, calling them terrorists following a fight there. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “communist traitor youth” tried to mess up a student stand opened by “religious nationalist local youth” at the public Bogazici University. Erdogan announced an investigation and said “we won’t give these terrorist youth the right to study at these universities.” On Monday, a group of students opened a stand distributing sweets dubbed “Afrin delight” to commemorate fallen soldiers in Turkey’s cross-border operation in Syria. Another group protested against them, holding anti-war banners. Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency said a fight broke out …

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Thousands of Croatian far-right supporters marched Saturday in Zagreb to protest an international convention they said indirectly legalizes gay marriages and gives rights to transgender people. The protesters sang patriotic songs and chanted slogans against Croatia’s center-right government, which last week approved the Istanbul Convention that was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011 but still hasn’t been ratified by Croatia’s parliament. Croatia’s conservative opposition and the Catholic Church — the organizers of the protest — said they support combating violence against women and domestic violence, which is the main point of the convention, but are against its alleged introduction …

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U.S. President Donald Trump has denounced Friday’s attack in France that claimed four lives, including that of a police officer who exchanged himself for a hostage the gunman was holding captive in a supermarket in the southwestern town of Trebes. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the horrible attack in France yesterday, and we grieve the nation’s loss,” the president posted on Twitter. He added, “We also condemn the violent actions of the attacker and anyone who would provide him support. We are with you @EmmanuelMacron!” Earlier Saturday, France’s interior minister said Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the police …

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European Union leaders have given their unqualified backing to Britain over its accusation that Russia used a nerve agent to try to kill a former double agent and his daughter in Southern England earlier this month. At a two-day summit in Brussels that ended Friday, EU leaders also demanded a permanent exemption from proposed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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