Category: Євросоюз

Russia used its U.N. veto Tuesday to block a resolution extending the mandate of the investigators probing chemical weapons attacks in Syria. In a Security Council vote, 11 countries supported extending the mission for another year, while Russia and Bolivia voted against the measure, and China and Kazakhstan abstained. The investigating team, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism or JIM, is expected to make public a report on Thursday that could identify the party responsible for a deadly April 4 attack in the rebel-controlled town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib that killed and sickened scores of civilians. Three days …

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A trial begins in Istanbul Wednesday for eleven prominent human rights activists, including two foreign nationals, in a case that is drawing criticism from international human rights organizations who say it is part of a campaign by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to silence criticism and scrutiny in Turkey in the wake of last year’s coup attempt.   The defendants face prison sentences of up to 15 years in prison. Amnesty International’s chairman in Turkey, Taner Kilic, and Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s Turkey director, are among those on trial. The case centers on a digital security seminar that …

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The international aid group Save the Children is suspending its efforts to rescue migrants making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya. Tuesday, the organization said the combination of falling numbers of crossings and worsening security forced it to stop sending its ship, the Vos Hestia, out from its port in Italy. Save the Children said the ship rescued as many as 10,000 migrants over the past year after the smugglers’ vessels they were in foundered at sea. The announcement comes just a day after Italian authorities searched the Vos Hestia as part of Rome’s efforts to deter people smuggling …

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As far as political revolutions go the independence bid by Catalan separatists to tear away from Spain must rank as one of the most surreal in recent memory. There are no Molotov cocktails or barricades or other trappings of insurgency. In fact, there is no geographical flashpoint — no Maidan or Tahrir Square. But there are hordes of tourists thronging the alleys of the Gothic Quarter, sampling the flavors of Barcelona, a prosperous, sun-blessed city — and that despite a reported 20 percent drop in tourist numbers. Wedged between the Mediterranean and the Montserrat, a multi-peaked mountain range, Barcelona boasts …

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When Britain’s Cambridge University put physicist Stephen Hawking’s 1966 thesis on line for the first time Monday, the university’s website collapsed. Professor Hawking’s “Properties of Expanding Universes” has been the most requested item in the university’s library. To meet the demand, and with Hawking’s encouragement, Cambridge made it available on line. About 60,000 people sought to access it, causing the system to periodically shut down throughout the day Monday. Hawking is the world’s best-known physicist and expert on the cosmos. His landmark 1988 work “A Brief History of Time” has sold more than 10 million copies. With his thesis now …

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Britain’s democracy is one of the most secure in the world and will remain so, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday in response to a question about a suggestion that there may have been foreign interference in the Brexit vote. Opposition lawmaker Ben Bradshaw last week urged the government to look into reports by an advocacy group suggesting that the origin of some Brexit campaign funds was unclear. Bradshaw said in parliament the issue should be investigated “given the widespread concern over foreign and particularly Russian interference in Western democracies.” At a regular briefing with reporters, …

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The building that houses EU summits, where toxic fumes forced EU leaders to switch venues last week, will be closed for a further week as investigators seek to resolve the problem. The fumes leaking from the drains have forced the Europa Building, also known as “The Egg,” to be evacuated twice this month, including before a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday. The new building was opened in January amid controversy over its 321-million-euro ($378 million) price tag. Staff and meetings will be temporarily transferred to the next door Justus Lipsius building until the issue is resolved. About …

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U.S. and Turkish diplomats continue talks on resolving a dispute over recent visa curbs, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan steps up his rhetoric against Washington. Bilateral relations are set to be further strained by an upcoming court case over Iranian sanction busting involving Turkish citizens. Erdogan launched a scathing attack Sunday on the country’s Western allies. He warned Turkey would respect its strategic alliances with its partners as long as those countries respected the law. Ankara has accused some of its NATO partners of conspiring against it and offering sanctuary to people it accuses of being involved in last …

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An unidentified male assailant has rushed into the Moscow headquarters of news radio station Ekho Moskvy and stabbed a deputy editor in chief and anchor, Tatyana Felgengauer. Ekho Moskvy editor in chief Aleksei Venediktov wrote on Twitter that the attacker struck Felgengauer in the throat with a knife in the October 23 attack. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into charges of attempted murder. The attacker was detained by station security personnel, while Felgengauer was hospitalized in serious, but non-life-threatening condition. He said that police are working at the scene. No more details were immediately available. Venediktov said …

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Catalan separatists are devising nonviolent plans to resist the imposition of direct rule by Madrid. With days to go before the Spanish government secures parliamentary approval to curb Catalonia’s semi-autonomy, separatist leaders are promising to disrupt Madrid’s efforts to shutter their regional government, which could start by the end of the week. Separatists stand firm They have pledged to meet any deployment of the national police with what the leaders say will be “walls of people.” And they say that new bosses sent in by Madrid to oversee Catalonia’s own regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and Catalonia’s public broadcaster as …

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Amid the turmoil in Spain’s separatist-minded Catalonia region, two wealthy Italian regions voted overwhelmingly Sunday for more autonomy from Rome. Referenda were held in Veneto – the northern region that includes the tourist haven of Venice – and in Lombardy, another northern region with the city of Milan as its main attraction. The presidents of both regions say more than 90 percent of those who cast ballots voted in favor of more autonomy. Both referenda are non-binding. But the presidents say the voices of their people give them a strong mandate and more leverage when they open talks with Prime …

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Several thousand Maltese citizens rallied Sunday to honor an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb, but the prime minister and opposition leader who were chief targets of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting stayed away from the gathering.   Participants at the rally in Malta’s capital, Valletta, placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the 53-year-old reporter that sprang up opposite the law court building after her October 16 slaying.     Some wore T-shirts or carried placards emblazoned with words from Caruana Galizia’s final blog post: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate” in …

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Slovenia’s incumbent president Borut Pahor won the most votes in Sunday’s election, but not enough to avoid a runoff. With nearly all the ballots counted, Pahor is expected to finish with 47 percent, while his main challenger, former comedian Marjan Sarec, will win about 25 percent. Pahor said he expects to win the November 12 runoff as he thanked voters for backing him in Sunday’s first round. Slovenia is a former Yugoslav republic which has frequently been in the news in the past year as the birthplace of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. The Slovenian presidency is a largely ceremonial …

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Key U.S. senators called Sunday for the White House to be more forthcoming about the country’s military involvement in Niger after four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush there earlier this month. In separate interviews on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news show, Republican Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer said they support an effort last week by Republican Senator John McCain to find out the details of the attack as well as the scope of the U.S. campaign against Islamic State in the west African country. Both Graham and Schumer said they had been unaware of the …

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The centrist ANO movement led by populist Andrej Babis decisively won the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election Saturday in a vote that shifted the country to the right and paved the way for the euroskeptic billionaire to become its next prime minister. With all votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said ANO won in a landslide, capturing 29.6 percent of the vote, or 78 of the 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament. “It’s a huge success,” the 63-year-old Babis told supporters and journalists at his headquarters in Prague. Babis is the county’s second-richest man, with a media empire including …

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Turkey’s banking regulator urged the public on Saturday to ignore rumors about financial institutions, in an apparent dismissal of a report that some Turkish banks face billions of dollars of U.S. fines over alleged violations of Iran sanctions. “It has been brought to the public’s attention that stories, that are rumors in nature, about our banks are not based on documents or facts, and should not be heeded,” the BDDK banking regulator said in a statement, adding that Turkey’s banks were functioning well. The Haberturk newspaper on Saturday reported that six banks potentially face substantial fines, citing senior banking sources. …

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As thousands of Portuguese protested on Saturday over the government’s  handling of massive wildfires that have killed 108 people since June, government ministers pledged to spend over 400 million euros ($470 million) in aid. The decision, announced during a special cabinet meeting which continued into the night, came on the same day as a new interior minister took over after his predecessor resigned, and ahead of Tuesday’s parliamentary vote on a motion of no-confidence launched by the opposition. Earlier thousands of protesters gathered on Lisbon’s main Comercio square, in Porto and other cities to mourn the victims of the Portugal’s …

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The Spanish government said Saturday it plans to depose the leaders of Spain’s restive northeast region of Catalonia and wants snap elections within six months — part of an effort to block the region from breaking away. Catalan separatists remain defiant, saying it won’t be so easy to bring them to heel, and they’re threatening to engage in mass civil disobedience. VOA’s Jamie Dettmer has more from Barcelona. …

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A popular Russian TV anchor who recently announced plans to seek the presidency has vowed to withdraw her candidacy if mainstream opposition leader Alekei Navalny becomes eligible to reenter the contest, but some Russia observers have been quick to pan her candidacy as a Kremlin ploy to split the liberal opposition. Journalist Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of the late Anatoly Sobchak, the former St. Petersburg mayor and one-time mentor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, launched a promotional video Wednesday in which she in announced her decision to run as a candidate “against all” on behalf of all angry Russian voters. In …

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A man with a knife attacked four people in Munich on Saturday and then fled, police said. A suspect was arrested a few hours later, and authorities were working to determine whether he was the assailant. Police received initial reports of an attack in the Haidhausen area, just east of downtown Munich, at about 8:30 a.m., spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said. They determined that a lone attacker apparently had gone after passers-by indiscriminately with a knife. The assailant attacked six people – five men and one woman – at different sites in the area, with four of them wounded …

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