Category: Євросоюз

Dozens of the world’s political and military leaders, along with thousands of politicians, journalists and security experts descend on southern Germany every year for the Munich Security Conference. The stated aim is to bring allies and adversaries together, to put dialogue before confrontation. The venue, the historical Bayerischer Hof hotel, seems barely big enough to squeeze everyone in. Organizers say the intimacy forces people to talk. This year, the 54th conference, there is a palpable sense the world is becoming a more dangerous place. “This year we meet at a critical time for our nations, and indeed for all humanity,” …

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A 100-year-old drawing by one of Austria’s most celebrated artists has come out of hiding. Gustav Klimt’s drawing, Two Reclining Figures, has resurfaced after being lost from the Lentos Museum in Linz for decades, apparently hidden in the home of a former assistant at the museum who retired in 1977. The drawing, which shows two female figures in blissful repose among fluffy bedcovers, was found after the assistant, whose name has not been released, left directions in her will that it be returned to the museum after her death. When she died in December 2017, her personal documents included instructions on …

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A California man has pleaded guilty to inadvertently selling bank accounts to Russians who were indicted Friday by a federal grand jury for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up bank accounts that were then used by the Russians, according to a February 12 court filing.   The special counsel investigating Russian meddling on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian entities for interfering in the election.   The indictment alleges that the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based social media company with Kremlin ties, 12 of its …

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Top Russian and American officials exchanged barbs Saturday in Germany over the U.S. indictment of 13 Russians accused of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. H.R. McMaster, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said at the Munich Security Conference that the federal indictments showed the U.S. was becoming “more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion.” “As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain,” McMaster told a Russian delegate to the conference. Just minutes before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May made her case on Saturday for a new security treaty with the EU from next year, winning support from EU and U.S. officials who agreed the issue was too important to risk getting subsumed in broader Brexit negotiations. In a speech to Western leaders and officials in Munich, May promised that London would continue to lead military missions and share intelligence if Brussels agreed to a pact “effective from 2019”, the year Britain is due to leave the bloc. May’s government is using a series of speeches to set out its vision for Britain outside …

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Pope Francis has reactivated his sexual abuse advisory panel by restructuring its membership, following criticism of his handling of scandals that have staggered the Catholic Church for more than three decades.  The Vatican announced Saturday that Francis reconfirmed Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the northeastern U.S. city of Boston as head of the panel, the reconfirmation of seven members and the appointment of nine new ones. The reshuffling comes two months after the panel’s three-year mandate lapsed. None of the most fervent lay victims’ advocates from the original group returned, but the Vatican said the commission’s work would be influenced by …

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The head of NATO has said the alliance is determined to avoid a new arms race with Russia, but he warned that Moscow is developing new nuclear weapons that pose a threat to the West. “Russia is modernizing its nuclear capabilities, developing new nuclear systems, and increasing the role of nuclear weapons in its military strategy. This is a cause for real concern,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told delegates Friday at the three-day Munich Security Conference. Political and military leaders from across the world are gathered in the southern German city to discuss defense issues, amid growing doubts over …

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A disputed case of euthanasia in Belgium, involving the death of a dementia patient who never formally asked to die, has again raised concerns about weak oversight in a country with some of the world’s most liberal euthanasia laws. The case was described in a letter provided to The Associated Press, written by a doctor who resigned from Belgium’s euthanasia commission in protest over the group’s actions on this and other cases. Some experts say the case as documented in the letter amounts to murder; the patient lacked the mental capacity to ask for euthanasia and the request for the …

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Turkey is undergoing a new nationalist wave led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a study by the Center for American Progress (CAP) concludes. The report and the findings of polls and focus groups conducted in Turkey late last year conclude that Erdogan is trying to craft a new nationalism. “He is doing this with his political rhetoric, but he is also drawing on a genuine upswelling of nationalism from the Turkish populists” Max Hoffman, one of the report’s authors, told VOA. Hoffman said this new nationalism includes “real hostility towards the West, particularly the U.S., but also Germany and Europe. …

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The special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election announced charges against the first group of Russians it says were behind the effort, unsealing an indictment against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities. The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury on Friday, alleges that Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based company with ties to the Kremlin, and its 12 employees engaged “in operations to interfere with elections and political processes” from 2014 through the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. The firm was long believed to have played a critical role in Russia’s election meddling effort, …

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Belgian media say a Brussels court has ordered Facebook to stop collecting data about citizens in the country or face fines for every day it fails to comply. The daily De Standaard reported Friday that the court upheld a Belgian privacy commission finding that Facebook is collecting data without users’ consent. It said the court concluded that Facebook does not adequately inform users that it is collecting information, what kind of details it keeps and for how long, or what it does with the data. It has ruled that Facebook must stop tracking and registering internet usage by Belgians online …

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Turkey’s state-run news agency says a court in Istanbul has sentenced six journalists accused of involvement in a 2016 coup attempt to life prison terms. Anadolu Agency says those sentenced Friday include Ahmet Altan, the former editor-in-chief of Taraf newspaper, his brother, journalist and academic Mehmet Altan, and prominent journalist Nazli Ilicak. The journalists were accused of links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for the July 15, 2016, failed coup. Gulen denies the accusation. The defendants were charged with attempts against Turkey’s constitution and membership in a terror organization.  …

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Since the International Criminal Court began collecting material three months ago for a possible war crimes case involving Afghanistan, it has gotten a staggering 1.17 million statements from Afghans who say they were victims. The statements include accounts of alleged atrocities not only by groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State, but also involving Afghan Security Forces and government-affiliated warlords, the U.S.-led coalition, and foreign and domestic spy agencies, said Abdul Wadood Pedram of the Human Rights and Eradication of Violence Organization. Based in part on the many statements, ICC judges in The Hague would then have to decide …

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The White House on Thursday blamed Russia for the devastating “NotPetya” cyber attack last year, joining the British government in condemning Moscow for unleashing a virus that crippled parts of Ukraine’s infrastructure and damaged computers in countries across the globe. The attack in June of 2017 “spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the Americas,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “It was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia’s involvement in the ongoing conflict,” Sanders added. “This was also a reckless and …

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Russia’s communications providers on Thursday blocked access to the website of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on orders of the state communications watchdog. Navalny announced the move via his Twitter account, which was still accessible. Users going to the website were told it could not be reached. The agency, Roskomnadzor, had demanded that Navalny remove a video alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko received lavish hospitality from billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska rejected the report and won a court ruling that ordered Navalny to remove the investigation as an unlawful intrusion into the tycoon’s privacy. Navalny refused, and appealed the ruling. …

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For Russian mother Farkhanur Gavrilova, the blow came a week ago when an acquaintance called her to say that her son was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria that pitted Russian and U.S. combatants against each other for the first time in the Syrian war. Gavrilova’s son, 37-year-old Ruslan Gavrilov, was one of seven men in this central Russian village of 2,300 who are believed to have joined a private military company called Wagner. The company reportedly was involved in a Feb. 7 attack on U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria and suffered devastating losses in a U.S. counterstrike. On …

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Barry Bennell shook his head and muttered to himself as the final guilty verdicts were read out, seemingly unrepentant until the end.   In a harrowing court case lasting nearly five weeks, the former soccer coach had forced a group of men to detail the sexual abuse they suffered as boys — then aspiring players — while in his supposed care and had to live with through adulthood. Decades later, and now aged 64, Bennell was being made to pay for crimes that have sent shockwaves through British soccer. Still, though, he was in denial. Hushed cries of “yes” came from …

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A series of muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival celebrations are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city.  TV Globo on Wednesday showed videos of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a policeman narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home. Rio state Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao acknowledged there weren’t enough police on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 policemen worked in Rio state each day during the festivities.  “We were not prepared. There was a …

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Brett McGurk, the U.S. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State group, talks with VOA about where the fight against Islamic State goes next. …

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Brett McGurk, the U.S. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State group, has been meeting with partners in Kuwait this week, looking to build on the gains the alliance has made in countering and, in many instances, crushing IS militants in Iraq and Syria. VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer spoke with McGurk about where the fight against Islamic State goes next.   Besheer: “Special Envoy, welcome. So you just had this meeting here in Kuwait. Is there a long-term political and strategic road map for countering ISIS and making sure it doesn’t regroup and re-emerge in Iraq …

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