Category: Євросоюз

The U.S. is providing Ukraine with lethal weapons, in an effort to help the country with its fight against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country.    The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that the decision to provide Ukraine with “enhanced defensive capabilities” is in keeping with the “effort to help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity, to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The statement added that the “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature.” An ABC-TV news report issued before the announcement said the “The total defense package of $47 million includes the …

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More than 70 firefighters tackled a blaze at London Zoo on Saturday after a fire broke out at a cafe and shop at the attraction. No animals were reported injured. The blaze broke out shortly after 0600 GMT, London Fire Brigade said. The fire was near an area where visitors can handle and feed animals but none were thought to have been involved. “The fire at @zsllondonzoo is now under control but crews will remain on the scene throughout the morning damping down the fire which has affected a cafe and a shop,” the fire brigade said on Twitter. Ten …

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Spain’s prime minister has rejected demands for talks from Catalonia’s independence leaders, following regional elections in the semi-autonomous region Thursday which gave pro-secessionist parties a slim majority of two seats in the Catalan parliament. The election was called after Madrid sacked the Catalan government, after it tried to declare independence following a disputed referendum in October. ​The former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is in exile in Belgium, called for talks Friday with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a location outside Spain. “Catalonia wants to be an independent state. This is the wish of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont told …

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Independence leaders in Catalonia have renewed their calls for the region to break away from Spain, following Thursday’s regional election result, which gave pro-secessionist parties a slim majority. The election was called after Madrid sacked the Catalan government following a disputed referendum in October. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Thursday’s vote offers little indication of how the political standoff will end. …

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The United States will provide Ukraine with “enhanced defensive capabilities,” the State Department said Friday, as Kyiv battles Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself,” the department said in a statement. Earlier Friday, ABC News reported that President Donald Trump was expected to approve the sale of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, citing State Department sources. Any sale would need congressional approval. On Monday, the Russian foreign ministry said it was recalling officers serving …

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Italy organized a first airlift of refugees from Libyan detention centers to Rome after coming under international criticism for helping the Libyan coast guard block migrants from leaving by boat. The Interior Ministry said the refugees were due to arrive later Friday at Rome’s Pratica di Mare military base. Interior Minister Marco Minniti and the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, were to welcome them. The U.N. refugee agency’s Libya representative, Roberto Mignone, tweeted that he was traveling with 162 “vulnerable” refugees. Italy said the women, children and elderly people were all entitled to international protection. It …

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Britain announced Friday it would return to “iconic” blue and gold passports after it formally leaves the European Union in 2019. Since 1988, British passports have been issued with a burgundy sleeve along with other European Union countries. Supporters of Brexit hailed the decision as a reclaiming of Britain’s independence from the EU, while opponents have mocked their attachment to something superficial and have voiced concern that Brexit will diminish the country’s standing in the world. “The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty — symbolizing our citizenship of a proud, great nation,” Prime Minister Theresa May …

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Kosovo’s president has urged political parties to intensify efforts to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro which is set as a precondition by the European Union for a visa-free regime for the country’s citizens. In his end-of-year speech to parliament Friday, Hashim Thaci urged all local actors to speed up efforts to find a solution “within the next weeks.” “Without losing time we should ratify the border demarcation deal with Montenegro. Ratification of such a deal would give an end to the unfair isolation of the Republic of Kosovo’s citizens,” said Thaci. The 2015 deal has been contested by …

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The Vatican is confirming Pope Francis has ordered an investigation into alleged financial and other irregularities in the diocese of one of his top advisers, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. Italian newsweekly L’Espresso says the investigation was initiated in May following allegations of failed investments, questionable expenses by one of Maradiaga’s deputies, and the ultimate destination of 35,000 euro a month paid to the cardinal by the Catholic University of Honduras.  Rodriguez Maradiaga’s supporters have told Catholic media the university funds are used to pay salaries and other diocesan expenses, and that such arrangements are used by other Honduran bishops. …

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The International Olympic Committee said on Friday it had banned 11 Russian athletes for life after they committed doping offences at the 2014 Sochi winter games. Among them are speed skaters Ivan Skobrev, a two-time medalist at the Vancouver 2010 Games, and Artem Kuznetcov. Along with lugers Tatyana Ivanova and Albert Demchenko, who both won silver medals in Sochi, cross-country skiers Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh — both silver medallists — and Natalia Matveeva, bobsledders Liudmila Udobkina and Maxim Belugin, and ice hockey players Tatiana Burina and Anna Shchukina, they were disqualified from the events they took part in. They were …

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Catalan separatists have claimed victory in a crucial snap election Thursday that could decide the future of Spain and its northern province. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the three secessionist parties together had won enough votes for 70 seats in the 135-seat assembly. But the Citizens party, which wants Catalonia to remain a semiautonomous part of Spain, appeared to be on track to become the biggest single party, with 35 seats in the parliament. As a result, it was unclear who would be given the right to form a government. The Spanish government called the election …

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Hackers tried to steal 55 million rubles ($940,000) from Russian state bank Globex using the SWIFT international payments messaging system, the bank said Thursday, the latest in a string of attempted cyberheists that use fraudulent wire-transfer requests. Globex President Valery Ovsyannikov told Reuters that the attempted attack occurred last week, but that “customer funds have not been affected.” The bank’s disclosure came after SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars each day, warned late last month that the threat of digital heists was on the rise as hackers use increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques to launch …

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Two Turkish-American men have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a brawl at the Turkish Embassy in Washington earlier this year,  according to court documents. Sinan Narin, 45, of Virginia and Eyup Yildirim, 50,  of New Jersey “each pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to one count of assault with significant bodily injury. The pleas, which are contingent upon the Court’s approval, call for each defendant to be sentenced to agreed-upon terms of one year and one day of incarceration.” Eighteen people, many of whom were members of the Turkish ambassador’s security detail, were indicted …

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The United States has approved the sale by U.S. manufacturers of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed this week that Congress was notified of the matter on December 13. The legal framework for U.S. manufacturers to sell arms to Ukraine has existed since the Obama administration, Nauert said.  Nauert noted in remarks to reporters Wednesday that the government itself was not supplying weapons to Ukraine, but only allowing U.S. weapons manufacturers to do so. The export license covers such weapons as semiautomatic and automatic firearms, the Reuters news agency reported. It includes combat shotguns, silencers, …

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Poland’s populist government remained defiant Thursday in the face of a European Commission decision to trigger a legal procedure that could lead to Poland losing EU voting rights. The unprecedented move by the commission to invoke an article 7 process to deter the Polish government from tightening political control over the judiciary was met with bravado by the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, who in a television address said he would go ahead and sign two controversial reform laws, adding to 11 other measures. Duda was careful in his late Wednesday address, though, not to repeat some of the more fiery …

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Catalonia holds a regional election Thursday that the Spanish government hopes will strip pro-independence parties of their control of the Catalan parliament and end their campaign to force a split with Spain. But, though final polls showed separatist and unionist parties running neck-and-neck, an effective pro-independence majority remains a likely outcome that would jolt financial markets and cast a long shadow over national politics. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the Dec. 21 vote in October in the hopes of returning Catalonia to “normality” under a unionist government. He sacked its previous government for holding a banned referendum and declaring …

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A jury did not reach a verdict in its first day of deliberations in the trial of a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions and launder billions of dollars in oil revenue. Deliberations began early Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Manhattan after Judge Richard Berman read instructions on the law to jurors. The jury went home four hours later after requesting some pens and coffee. The trial of Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla has featured testimony about bribery and corruption at high levels in Turkey. Turkish officials have lobbed counteraccusations that U.S. prosecutors are basing …

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Pope Francis is set to offer a “final commendation” Thursday at the Rome funeral of Cardinal Bernard Law, even as Law’s critics recalled him as the disgraced archbishop of Boston in the United States who covered up the actions of pedophile priests. The Vatican said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will celebrate the funeral mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for Law, who died earlier this week in Rome at the age of 86 after a long illness. Pope Francis will then offer a blessing for Law, as he has done previously at other cardinals’ funerals. …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May’s most senior minister, Damian Green, has resigned at her request after an internal investigation found that he had made misleading comments about pornography found on computers in his parliamentary office. The resignation of one of her most trusted allies, who helped pacify her deeply divided party, is a serious blow for May as she navigates the final year of tortuous Brexit negotiations before Britain’s exit in March 2019. Green was appointed in the wake of her disastrous bet on a June snap election which lost her party its majority in parliament. Green, an old friend, …

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Turkish citizens wishing to visit the United States will again be able to apply for visas, but not anytime soon. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara announced this week that the earliest appointments for applications are in January 2019, more than a year from now. The U.S. suspended all nonimmigrant visa services in Turkey Oct. 8 in response to the arrest of Metin Topuz, a consulate employee in Istanbul, on terrorism charges. Turkey shut down visa services in the U.S. in retaliation. WATCH: Student Arif Yediren The two nations resumed limited visa services in early November, around the time of a …

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