Category: Євросоюз

The American men have won the Olympic gold medal in curling in a decisive upset of Sweden.   John Shuster skipped the United States to a 10-7 victory Saturday for the second curling medal in U.S. history. Shuster was part of the other one, too, as the lead thrower on Pete Fenson’s bronze-medal team at the 2006 Turin Games.   The Americans received a good luck call from Mr. T before the match. The King of Sweden was there, as was U.S. presidential daughter Ivanka Trump. They saw Shuster convert a double-takeout for a five-ender in the eighth — an …

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As Europe seeks to stop migrants and militants reaching its shores, EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Friday that international donors have raised more than $500 million for a multinational military force in West Africa’s Sahel region. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports. …

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European Union leaders staked out opening positions Friday for a battle over EU budgets that many conceded they are unlikely to resolve before Britain leaves next year, blowing a hole in Brussels’ finances. At a summit to launch discussion on the size and shape of a seven-year budget package to run from 2021, ex-communist states urged wealthier neighbors to plug a nearly 10 percent annual revenue gap being left by Britain, while the Dutch led a group of small, rich countries refusing to chip in any more to the EU. Germany and France, the biggest economies and the bloc’s driving …

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The European Union and other international donors pledged more than half-a-billion dollars Friday to support a multi-national military operation in Africa’s vast Sahel region, which has fallen prey to smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists in recent years.  Speaking after an international meeting on the Sahel in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the pledges far exceeded initial expectations. She said they mirrored the strong international support for the so-called G-5 Sahel — a regional development and security initiative headed by five Sahelian nations. Mogherini said the challenges facing Sahel spill well beyond the region, and demand a …

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When the first jet airplane lands Monday at Istanbul’s newest airport, it will mark a milestone in what analysts see as a Turkish drive to accomplish with contracting dollars what it has not been able to achieve with traditional diplomacy. Long frustrated in its bid to join the European Union, analysts say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increasingly stressed trade and investment initiatives during his travels to European capitals, making his country second only to China in large-scale construction projects while muting the criticisms of Turkey’s human rights record that have blocked accession to the E.U. Istanbul’s third airport, when …

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A second Russian athlete has failed a doping test at the Pyeongchang Games, a day before the International Olympic Committee’s executive board is to decide whether to reinstate the country for Sunday’s closing ceremony.   Russian Bobsled Federation president Alexander Zubkov told The Associated Press on Friday that a drug-test sample that pilot Nadezhda Sergeeva gave on Sunday was positive.   The Russian delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics said in a statement that the substance found was trimetazdine, a medication used for angina sufferers that is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a banned substance affecting the metabolism.   …

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The U.S. embassy in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica has reopened a day after an ex-Yugoslav soldier hurled a hand grenade into the compound and then killed himself with another one.   The embassy said Friday on Twitter it’s “open for business as usual following yesterday’s incident.” The blast around midnight Wednesday created a crater in the embassy’s yard but injured no one. Police are investigating possible motives and whether the attacker acted alone.   The suspect has been identified as Dalibor Jaukovic, who served in the Yugoslav military during the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia. He was reportedly opposed …

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Haiti has temporarily revoked Oxfam Great Britain’s right to operate in the Caribbean country after allegations of sexual misconduct by some of the charity’s staff there, Planning and External Cooperation Minister Aviol Fleurant said on Thursday. The British aid organization has been rocked by allegations that staff, including a former Haiti country director, used prostitutes during a relief mission after a devastating earthquake hit the island nation in 2010. Fleurant said the suspension was ordered due to “serious failings” by Oxfam Great Britain between 2010 and 2011, and that a definitive decision on its ability to operate in Haiti would …

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Amnesty International says its new global report on human rights shows Iran’s record reflected some positive developments, but mostly remained poor, and in some areas worsened in the past year. The London-based group’s annual State of the World’s Human Rights report for 2017-2018, released Thursday, accused Iranian authorities of “heavily suppressing” people’s rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and religious belief. It also said those authorities arrested and imprisoned “peaceful critics and others” after what it called “grossly unfair trials” before Islamic Revolutionary courts. The Amnesty report said torture and other ill treatment of detainees “remained common and widespread” …

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The European Central Bank has set a deadline of Friday for Latvia’s third-largest bank to plug a financing hole, the country’s finance minister said, as the Baltic state faced its worst financial difficulties in almost a decade. Earlier, ABLV said it had asked for a 480 million euro ($591 million) emergency loan from the country’s central bank as part of efforts to reopen for business after being forced to halt all payments in the face of money laundering accusations. The request for credit comes amid frantic efforts by ABLV’s management to keep the bank afloat after U.S. authorities singled it …

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Turkey’s foreign ministry on Thursday condemned the Dutch parliament’s approval of a motion recognizing as genocide the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. The ministry said in a written statement that the decision was not legally binding or valid, and noted that the Dutch government had said it would not become the official policy of the Netherlands.   …

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The world’s oldest known cave paintings were made by Neanderthals, not modern humans, suggesting our extinct cousins were far from being uncultured brutes. A high-tech analysis of cave art at three Spanish sites, published on Thursday, dates the paintings to at least 64,800 years ago, or 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa. That makes the cave art much older than previously thought and provides the strongest evidence yet that Neanderthals had the cognitive capacity to understand symbolic representation, a central pillar of human culture. “What we’ve got here is a smoking gun that really overturns the …

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Rights group Amnesty International’s annual report documents human rights violations in nearly 160 countries and claims 2017 saw the politics of hate and fear normalized by some of the most powerful leaders in the world. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo has this report. …

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The United Nations atomic agency has concluded that Iran is continuing to restrict its nuclear program in compliance with the 2015 international accord aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear weapons development. A quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency report Thursday said Iran is honoring key aspects of the deal that the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and the European Union reached with Iran in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that hobbled the Islamic Republic’s economy.  U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized what he says are “disastrous flaws” in the agreement. He has pushed the countries that agreed to the …

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Montenegro says an attacker threw a grenade at the U.S. Embassy in the capital of the Balkan state then killed himself with another explosive device. The area was sealed off by police, and the embassy warned Americans to avoid the area because of “an active security situation.” Montenegro’s government said the unknown assailant hurled the grenade into the embassy compound around midnight (1100 GMT) and then killed himself with another explosive device. No one else was hurt and there was no major damage. Montenegro borders the Adriatic Sea in southeastern Europe and its capital is Podgorica. It joined NATO last …

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Two members of a French counterterrorism force in Mali were killed Wednesday when an improvised explosive device hit their armored vehicle in a border region with Niger, authorities said. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said a soldier and an officer were killed in the explosion. A statement by Defense Minister Florence Parly said those killed were part of a “vast operation” patrolling the border region with Niger. It did not specify the locality. The minister identified the victims as Emilien Mougin and Timothee Dernoncourt, from an armored regiment based in Valence but members of Operation Barkhane, an anti-terrorism force operating in …

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Greece’s powerful Communist Party has vowed to step up protests against online auctions of homes with defaulted mortgages, putting more pressure on the government which has promised bailout creditors it will speed up the auction process. More than 2,000 protesters from the party’s labor union took part in a rally in central Athens against the auctions which restarted Wednesday, following months of delays. Until now, protests against the auctions at courthouses and the offices of notary publics have been led by smaller left-wing groups. European Union institutions participating in Greece’s bailout are pressing Athens to ensure that auctions proceed. This …

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Once a month, accountant Michael Byrne pulls on his rubber boots and makes his way to a spot on the banks of the River Thames. He carefully marks out a one-square meter (11-square foot) patch and, with gloved hands, catalogues each bit of plastic he finds, meticulously reporting the data to the environmental group Thames21. On Aug. 20, for example, he and other volunteers found an average of 31 food wrappers, the sticks from 29 cotton swabs, 12 bottle tops and about 100 pieces of small chewed up plastic in each patch. “We are the data gatherers” who provide evidence …

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British aid agency Oxfam says it is investigating dozens of new allegations of sexual misconduct. It follows revelations last week that some Oxfam staff in Haiti paid sex workers in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the scandal looks set to mark a watershed moment for the aid sector. …

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Emmanuel Macron’s government will on Wednesday propose toughening France’s immigration and asylum laws amid strident criticism from human rights groups, in a move that will test the unity of his left-and-right majority. The bill will double to 90 days the time for which illegal migrants can be detained and shorten deadlines to apply for asylum, and it will make the illegal crossing of borders an offense punishable by one year in jail and fines. The government says it wants to be both firm and fair on immigration, and the bill will also make it easier for minors to get asylum …

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