Category: Євросоюз

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson traveled to Tehran on Saturday to call for the release of a jailed British-Iranian aid worker. Johnson met his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to talk about the consular case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. He asked for the release of the mother of one child on humanitarian grounds, along with other dual nationals. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in Tehran in April 2016, is serving a five-year prison term for a conviction on national security charges. Britain, however, says Zaghari-Ratcliffe was visiting family on holiday when she was jailed for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government. Zaghari-Ratcliffe …

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France bid farewell to its biggest rock star Saturday, honoring Johnny Hallyday with an extravagant funeral procession down Paris’ Champs-Elysees Avenue, a presidential speech and a televised church ceremony filled with the country’s most famous faces. Few figures in French history have earned a send-off with as much pomp as the man dubbed the “French Elvis,” who notched more than 110 million in record sales since rising to fame in the 1960s. Hallyday died Wednesday at 74 after fighting lung cancer. In an honor usually reserved for heads of state or literary giants like 19th-century novelist Victor Hugo, Hallyday’s funeral …

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A new exhibition aims to show how the art world has responded to the global changes since the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 at London’s Imperial War Museum brings together 40 artists from across the world whose works reflect on conflict and society since that day. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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The environmental group EcoWatch estimates that at least 1 million sea birds, and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every year by ingesting plastic or getting caught in it. It is an environmental nightmare, and it’s getting worse every year. But this week, more than 200 countries signed an agreement to begin dealing with the problem. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

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There was relief in London and Brussels Friday after Britain clinched an initial agreement on its terms of divorce from the European Union, opening the way for the next — and even harder — phase of negotiations over the country’s future trade relations with the economic bloc. “Let us remember that the most difficult challenge is still ahead,” Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, warned after the overnight deal was struck. “We all know that breaking up is hard. But breaking up and building a new relation is much harder.” ‘Give and take on both sides’ Welcoming Friday’s …

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Britons who voted for Brexit in the hope of slashing immigration seem set for disappointment. In the farming and food industries at least, any exodus of Polish and Romanian workers may simply be followed by arrivals of Ukrainians and Filipinos. From dairy farms to abattoirs, employers say not enough Britons have an appetite for milking cows before dawn or disemboweling pig carcasses — jobs often performed by workers from the poorer, eastern member states of the European Union. With unemployment at a four-decade low of 4.3 percent, even Brexit supporters acknowledge the industries will need some migrant workers after Britain …

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The U.N. migration agency called on social media giants Friday to make it harder for people smugglers to use their platforms to lure West African migrants to Libya where they can face detention, torture, slavery or death. The smugglers often use Facebook to reach would-be migrants with false promises of jobs in Europe, International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Leonard Doyle said. When migrants are tortured, video is also sometimes sent back to their families over WhatsApp, as a means of extortion, he said. “We really … ask social media companies to step up and behave in a responsible way …

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The European Commission said Friday enough progress had been made in Brexit negotiations with Britain and that a second phase of negotiations should begin, ending an impasse over the status of the Irish border. The Commission announced its verdict in an early morning statement after intense talks, which resulted in British Prime Minister Theresa May taking an early morning flight to Brussels to announce the deal alongside Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The Commission’s recommendation that sufficient progress has been made will now go to the European Union summit of leaders taking place next week. May said she expected a formal …

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The White House on Thursday denied that the president’s announcement on moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem meant his administration was pulling out of the Middle East peace process. “In fact, in the president’s remarks, he said that we are as committed to the peace process as ever, and we want to continue to push forward in those conversations and those discussions,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “And hopefully the ultimate goal, I think, of all those parties is to reach a peace deal. And that’s something that the United States is very much committed …

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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is challenging suggestions of illegal conduct in an undercover sting operation targeting allegedly corrupt government officials in Kyiv, which the FBI conducted in concert with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). The United States and European Union have provided logistical support and training for NABU investigators tasked with ferreting out government graft in the Eastern European country. The support is part of the financial and diplomatic backing of the leadership that took power in Kyiv after the 2014 Maidan protests, which ousted the Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. But Ukraine’s top prosecutor says NABU …

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The United Nations is appealing for $187 million to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 2.3 million of the most vulnerable Ukrainians who, it says, have reached the limits of their endurance after four years of conflict. Most people view the ongoing fighting between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels in Eastern Ukraine as a political crisis. But U.N. Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, Neal Walker, views it as a forgotten humanitarian crisis in the heart of Europe.  While the existing problems directly affect the people in Ukraine, he warns the potential spillover effect into neighboring countries is powerful and worrisome. “Just …

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Albania is planning to try to lure five-star hotel brands with tax breaks, including scrapping profit and property taxes, to increase its appeal for the higher-end of the tourist trade. With travel and tourism accounting for 8.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2016, rising demand to visit the country between Montenegro and Greece washed by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas is not being met by present facilities and infrastructure. One of Europe’s poorest but also most unspoiled countries, Albania has been wooing tourists by encouraging them to “Go Your Own Way,” counting on the appeal of adventure tourism. Now, …

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The trial of Kurdish opposition party leader Selahattin Demirtas has started in Ankara. Demirtas is charged with terrorism and has been held for more than a year in pretrial detention. The case is drawing growing international criticism. Supporters of the jailed Kurdish leader gathered outside Ankara’s Sincan prison, where the Kurdish leader’s trial began Thursday.   In a 500 page indictment, Demirtas is accused of leading a terrorist organization, spreading terrorist propaganda, and inciting hate and crime. Controversy surrounds the case over the decision to hold the trial in a prison and to allocate a court room that allows only …

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The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin will visit Egypt next week to discuss expanding political, economic, energy and trade ties.   During Monday’s trip the Russian leader will hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on issues related to stability and security in the Middle East and North Africa.   Putin’s visit follows the Russian government’s announcement last week that Moscow and Cairo have drafted an agreement for Russian warplanes to use Egyptian military bases.   The deal comes as part of Moscow’s efforts to further expand its military foothold in the region following its military campaign in Syria.   …

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At the summit of one of Iceland’s most dangerous volcanoes, a 72-foot (22-meter) depression in the snow is the only visible sign of an alarming development.   The Oraefajokull volcano, dormant since its last eruption in 1727-1728, has seen a recent increase in seismic activity and geothermal water leakage that has worried scientists. With the snow hole on Iceland’s highest peak deepening 18 inches (45 centimeters) each day, authorities have raised the volcano’s alert safety code to yellow.   Experts at Iceland’s Meteorological Office have detected 160 earthquakes in the region in the past week alone as they step up …

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The United Arab Emirates says it is “surprised and disappointed” about being blacklisted by the European Union along with 16 other countries the EU deems guilty of unfairly offering tax avoidance schemes. The UAE said in a statement on Thursday that it’s “committed to a reform process which will be finalized by October 2018” and that it’s “absolutely confident this will ensure the UAE is swiftly removed from the list.” The EU announced the list on Wednesday, though penalties still need to be confirmed. The UAE is a federation of seven sheikhdoms that includes Dubai and the oil-rich capital of …

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Pope Francis has given Paris and Mexico City new archbishops, filling two important positions in the Catholic Church with churchmen he has known and promoted in recent years.   Francis named Monsignor Michel Aupetit to replace the retiring Paris archbishop, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois. Aupetit was a doctor specializing in bioethics before entering the seminary and had been vicar in Paris before he was named bishop of Nanterre by Francis in 2014.   Mexico City’s new archbishop is Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, whom Francis made a cardinal last year in a clear sign that he intended him to eventually replace Cardinal …

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Opinion polls show Vladimir Putin is already a shoo-in to win a fourth presidential term. But a ban on Russia taking part in the Winter Olympics is likely to make support for him even stronger, by uniting voters around his message: The world is against us. Putin announced on Wednesday that he would run for re-election in March’s presidential vote, setting the stage for him to extend his dominance of Russia’s political landscape into a third decade. With ties between the Kremlin and the West at their lowest point for years, the International Olympic Committee’s decision to bar Russia from …

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Ukraine’s general prosecutor denied on Wednesday that his office was impeding the work of a new anti-corruption body as he sought to deflect charges by Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine was backsliding on promises to fight graft. The United States, the European Union and Canada have thrown financial and diplomatic support behind the leadership that took power in Kyiv after the 2014 Maidan protests ousted the Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovich. But perceived backsliding on reform commitments has delayed billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund and tested the patience of Western countries even as Kyiv pushes for …

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Supporters of the far right in Finland and anti-facists staged rival marches in the capital Wednesday as the country celebrated 100 years of independence. Police in riot gear reinforced by security personnel from around the country made 10 arrests because of scattered fights and misbehavior. About 2,000 people joined the anti-facist march while demonstrations by two far-right groups also gathered up to 2,000 people, the police said. Anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise in the Nordic European Union member country of 5.5 million. About 32,500 migrants and refugees arrived during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015. The number came down …

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