Category: Євросоюз

Ukrainian police on Saturday freed the remaining hostages being held in a post office by a man believed to be strapped with explosives. They arrested the hostage-taker after an hourslong standoff in the city of Kharkiv. “All hostages freed in Kharkiv. The assailant was arrested,” President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Twitter, while Interior Minister Arsen Avakov published a picture of the man, with blood streaming down his face, being held by a policeman. None of the hostages were harmed. A Reuters witness saw special forces police in green camouflage rushing to the entrance of the post office, a yellow-and-white building …

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The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Saturday slammed a decision in Greece to grant asylum to a Turkish helicopter co-pilot, who fled the country after last year’s failed coup, as “politically motivated” and warned of a negative impact on bilateral relations. The co-pilot — who flew seven other Turkish military officers to Greece — was granted asylum after Greek authorities ruled that his human rights would be at risk, despite repeated requests for his extradition by Ankara. The decision “again reveals that Greece is a country that protects and embraces plotters,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that …

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Hundreds of thousands of law enforcement, military and security officials will be deployed in cities around the world to keep New Year’s Eve revelers safe as they gather to welcome 2018. In the United States, New York City officials announced they would use two-step screening, snipers, street closures and specially trained dogs to secure Times Square, where an estimated 2 million people will gather to watch the annual ball drop at midnight. In Las Vegas, 300 National Guard troops will join more than 1,500 police officers to keep safe the city’s famed Strip, home to a number of casinos, resorts and hotels. …

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At least 81 reporters were killed doing their jobs this year, while violence and harassment against media staff has skyrocketed, the world’s biggest journalists’ organization says.   In its annual “Kill Report,” seen by The Associated Press, the International Federation of Journalists said the reporters lost their lives in targeted killings, car bomb attacks and crossfire incidents around the world.   More than 250 journalists were in prison in 2017.   The number of deaths as of December 29 was the lowest in a decade, down from 93 in 2016. The largest number were killed in Mexico, but many also …

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Russian news outlet Interfax is reporting that a suspect in Wednesday’s St. Petersburg bombing was arrested on Saturday. Interfax reported that “the organizer and direct perpetrator who triggered an improvised explosive device on December 27 in a supermarket in St. Petersburg was arrested during a special operation by the FSB,” the Russian security service. The report said the suspect was handed over to the Russian Investigative Committee for further action. No other details were given. Wednesday’s blast from a homemade bomb injured at least 13 people. Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, according to the SITE intelligence …

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Russia’s highest court has upheld election officials’ decision to bar opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running for president in March’s election.   The Supreme Court on Saturday turned down Navalny’s appeal against the Central Election Commission’s move, saying that the decision to bar him from the race fully conforms to law.   President Vladimir Putin, whose approval ratings top 80 percent, is set to easily win a fourth term in the March 18 vote.   Navalny has campaigned for the presidency all year despite an implicit ban on his candidacy due to a fraud conviction seen by many as politically …

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The U.S. is urging Kosovo leaders to leave unchanged a war crimes court established to hear serious cases arising from the country’s war for independence. “The United States is deeply concerned by recent attempts of Kosovo lawmakers to abrogate the law on the Specialist Chambers,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Friday. “We call on political leaders in the Republic of Kosovo to maintain their commitment to the work of the Chambers and to leave the authorities and jurisdiction of the court unchanged.” The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on December 21 that “the pursuit …

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The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack earlier this week in a Russian supermarket in St. Petersburg.  The militants said the explosion was carried out by an Islamic State-linked group, according to a statement made Friday by its Amaq news agency.  The group did not provide any evidence for its claim.  At least 13 people were injured when a homemade bomb detonated in a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain on Wednesday.  Health officials said none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries. Russian investigators initially said they were treating the case as an act of attempted …

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Russia has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu on a farm in the central region of Kostromskaya Oblast that led to the deaths of more than 660,000 birds, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Friday. The virus killed more than 44,000 birds in an outbreak first detected on December 17, the OIE said, citing a report from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The rest of the 663,500 birds on the farm were slaughtered, it said in the report. It did not specify the type of birds that were infected. It is the first outbreak …

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Kidnappers in Ukraine have released an employee at a United Kingdom-registered cryptocurrency exchange after getting more than $1 million in bitcoins as ransom, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister told Reuters on Friday. Pavel Lerner, a leading analyst and expert in blockchains, or decentralized public ledgers, was abducted by unknown masked people on December 26, according to a statement by his company, EXMO Finance, on its website. “This is the first such case in Ukraine linked to bitcoins,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said in a phone text message. It was unclear who paid the …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying an agreement enabling Russia to expand operations at its naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus. The document was posted on the official website for Russian legislation after Putin signed it Friday.  It could help cement what Putin has said would be a “permanent” Russian presence at the Tartus facility and the Hmeimim air base, key platforms for Russia’s campaign backing Syria’s government in the nearly seven-year war in the Middle Eastern country. The agreement, signed in Damascus in January 2017, allows for the Russian navy to expand the technical …

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Members of a Russian environmental group say masked men attacked their leader in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar late Thursday. Andrei Rudomakha, head of Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus, was hospitalized with multiple injuries including a fractured skull and broken nose. Rudomakha and several other activists were returning from a trip to Russia’s Black Sea region, where they had documented the illegal construction of a luxury mansion. Local authorities said they are investigating the incident. For more than 20 years, Environmental Watch has exposed illegal landfills, the destruction of landscapes and the contamination of waterways in Russia’s south …

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Facebook says it blocked the social-media accounts of Ramzan Kadyrov because the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader had become subject to financial and travel sanctions imposed by the U.S. government. The company said in a statement Thursday it had the “legal obligation” to disable Kadyrov’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which it also owns, after the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 20 hit the Chechen leader with sanctions. “We became aware and have now confirmed that the accounts appear to be maintained by or on behalf of parties who appear on the U.S. Specially Designated Nationals List …

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The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed details of its case against two Romanians who allegedly hacked computers tied to Washington, D.C., police surveillance cameras. Police in Bucharest arrested Mihai Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru on December 15. U.S. attorneys have charged them with conspiracy to commit computer and wire fraud. They allegedly hacked into more than 120 computers tied to Washington police surveillance cameras last January. It was part of an alleged scheme to infect personal computers with ransomware. Ransomware restricts users from accessing their own computers and demands a payment to the ramsomware operator to unlock it. The Justice …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled he wants to mend fences with the governments of several European nations he’s quarreled with this year, saying Turkey must “decrease the number of enemies and increase friends.” In comments published Thursday in Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, Erdogan described the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium as “old friends,” called recent contacts with them “quite good” and noted that they, like Turkey, oppose a controversial U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  “We have no problems with Germany, or with the Netherlands or Belgium,” Erdogan told journalists on his return from a …

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Italy aims to deploy up to 470 troops to Niger to help tackle people-smuggling, the military General Staff said Thursday. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday some of the 1,400 Italian troops now stationed in Iraq could be transferred to the Sahel region in West Africa — which includes Niger — after victories against Islamist militants in Iraq. Gentiloni said the redeployed troops could also help to combat terrorism in the Sahel. The General Staff said in a statement that a reconnaissance mission was under way in Niger to help decide the scale of the assistance, which the African …

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Egypt’s pro-government media on Thursday vilified neighboring Sudan over its expanding ties with Turkey and Qatar, saying the three are conspiring against Egypt. While the government has publicly remained silent, Egyptian media seized on a visit to Sudan earlier this week by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a meeting in Khartoum between the chiefs of staff of Sudan, Turkey and Qatar, and renewed efforts by Khartoum to revive a longtime border dispute with Egypt. Most views expressed in Egypt’s media reflect the thinking of the government or at least one of its key institutions. The criticism of Sudan and its …

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The United States announced Thursday that full visa services for Turkish citizens wishing to travel to the U.S. will resume and said it received assurances Ankara would inform Washington before moving to detain or arrest any embassy employees.   Turkey welcomed the decision on visas, but said that it had not provided the U.S. any such assurances. The U.S. suspended all non-immigrant visa services in Turkey earlier this year, 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. In a statement released Thursday, …

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Moscow is having a “Journey to Christmas” festival from December 22 to January 14 with decorations, including over 1,000 New Year’s trees, and holiday festivities throughout the Russian capital.  VOA Moscow attended the opening of the festival in central Moscow and spoke to locals about their holiday hopes and wishes for 2018. …

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Russia’s latest space launch failures have prompted authorities to take a closer look into the nation’s struggling space industry, the Kremlin said Thursday. A Russian weather satellite and nearly 20 micro-satellites from other nations were lost following a failed launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome in the Far East on November 28. And in another blow to the Russian space industry, communications with a Russian-built communications satellite for Angola, the African nation’s first space vehicle, were lost following its launch on Tuesday. Asked about the failures, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Thursday that authorities warrant a thorough analysis of …

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