Category: Євросоюз

Russia’s top domestic security agency says one Russian border guard has been killed in a shootout with two men who tried to cross into Ukraine.   The FSB said in a statement Monday the two men on Saturday opened fire when the officer who approached them in a Russian village that borders northeast Ukraine. One of the men blew himself up and the other was detained. The border guard died of gunshot wounds.   The FSB did not provide any other details on the attackers, although unnamed security sources told Russian news agencies the men were militants traveling from the …

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It took more than 24 hours before the European Commission spoke out about Sunday’s violence during an independence referendum in Spain’s northeast province of Catalonia, where a violent crackdown in a bludgeoning show of force, by Spain’s national police and Civil Guard, left more than 800 people injured. The statement Monday did not please Catalan separatists. “We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue,” Europe’s top body announced. “Violence can never be an instrument in politics,” it said. To the anger of secessionists, the commission added a supportive note for Spain’s embattled center-right …

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Muslim women in Austria were forced by police to remove their face coverings, as a law banning religious and other coverings came into effect Sunday. Under the ban, wearing a ski mask off the slopes, a surgical mask outside hospitals and party masks in public is now also prohibited. Those who defy the ban could face a fine of nearly $180.  Police are authorized to use force if people resist showing their faces. The government says the law, which says faces must be visible from the hairline to the chin, is about protecting Austrian values. Muslim groups have condemned the …

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They emerged early Sunday with helmets, masks and flak jackets from temporary overnight accommodation, cheap boarding houses and chartered cruise ships painted with huge Warner Bros. cartoon figures, Tweetie Pie and Daffy Duck, docked at Barcelona’s port. But as the day unfolded, Barcelona was far from being Disney World. Soon after polling stations opened, police, many drafted from outside Catalonia, moved in under orders from the national government in Madrid to block an independence referendum they and the country’s constitutional court said is illegal under the 1978 constitution that declares Spain indivisible. For Catalan separatists, Spain’s current constitution isn’t free …

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Catalonia’s government said early Monday that preliminary results show that 90 percent of voters in Sunday’s referendum want the region to declare its independence from Spain. Regional government spokesman Jordi Turull said 2.02 million of the 2.26 million votes cast were for independence. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said earlier he would unilaterally declare independence from Spain if the outcome of showed more than 50 percent of voters want to secede. “We have gained the right to have a state constituted in the form of a republic,” Puigdemont said in a televised address after polls closed. The government of Spain, however, …

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Turkey no longer needs to join the European Union but will not unilaterally abandon the stalled EU accession talks, President Tayyip Erdogan told parliament on Sunday. “We will not be the side which gives up. To tell the truth, we don’t need EU membership any more,” Erdogan said. Turkey’s 12-year-long accession talks have ground to a halt, with the EU especially critical of Ankara’s crackdown following a failed coup last year. Tens of thousands of people including teachers and journalists have been detained. Erdogan’s government says EU states failed to appreciate the gravity of the threat which Turkey faced, and …

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Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an apparent terror attack in which two women were stabbed to death at a train station in Marseille, France, Sunday. The extremist group made the claim through its official news agency. A man shouting “Allahu Akbar,” (God is great) stabbed the two women before French soldiers gunned him down. Police shut down and sealed off the station and French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb immediately went to Marseille. French prosecutors have opened a counterterrorism probe, but Collomb has not yet formally declared it a terror attack. Police video is said to show the suspect stabbing …

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Poland lowers its retirement age Sunday, a costly election promise by the ruling conservatives that goes against a European trend of gradually increasing the pension age as people live longer and stay more healthy. Lowering the age to 60 for women and 65 for men is popular in particular among supporters of the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, and reverses an increase to 67 approved in 2012 by the former centrist government. It is seen as having a limited immediate impact on the economy, which is booming, but might put pressure on state budgets in the future. Unemployment …

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Catalans were defying rain and police orders to leave designated polling stations Sunday ahead of a banned referendum on the region’s secession that has challenged Spain’s political and institutional order. The country’s Constitutional Court has suspended the vote, and the Spanish central government says it’s illegal. Regional separatist leaders have pledged to hold it anyway and ballot boxes have begun arriving at polling stations. Catalonia is home to 5.3 million eligible voters. Voters line up before dawn Defiant crowds gathered before dawn Sunday in Barcelona and towns across Catalonia at schools and some of the other 2,315 facilities designated as …

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Turkey’s largest foreign military base in the world opened Saturday in Mogadishu, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Somali leaders, top Turkish military officials and diplomats. Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and the head of the Turkish military, General Hulusi Akar have jointly inaugurated the 4 square kilometer (1.54 square mile) facility, which holds three military residential complexes, training venues, and sports courts. It had been under construction for the last two years. General Akar said the base is the biggest sign of how Turkey wants to help Somalia. “We are committed to help [the] Somali government, and this …

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Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Barcelona to oppose Sunday’s referendum on Catalonian independence from Spain. Waving Spanish flags, the protesters filled the square in front of Barcelona’s regional government buildings Saturday. Madrid has declared the vote illegal, and authorities in Spain began sealing off polling stations and confiscating ballots. While the Spanish national government said there would be no Catalonian independence vote, Catalonia’s regional government continued preparations for it. Hundreds of people supporting the referendum camped out in schools in an attempt to keep them open for Sunday’s vote. Enric Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish security official in the northeastern …

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Officials in far east Russia say a soldier who opened fire at other servicemen during drills has been tracked down and killed. The military says the soldier, who killed three and wounded two other soldiers, offered resistance to arrest and was shot dead early Saturday following a massive manhunt. During Friday’s incident, the soldier fired his Kalashnikov rifle at his comrades waiting to have target practice at a base outside the town of Belogorsk near the border with China and then fled. The city administration in Belogorsk says the soldier came from the province of Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus. …

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Kosovo’s president, Hashim Thaci, says U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has pledged that the United States will be directly involved in reaching a final agreement to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.  Thaci told VOA’s Albanian service after meeting with Pence on Friday at the White House that “Pence will be focused and maximally involved” in reaching a deal between the two countries.  “I believe that this willingness of the U.S. administration and personally of Vice President Pence is a guarantee for the success of this process,” Thaci said.  He said he is confident the process will “lead Kosovo into …

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Russian police released opposition leader and would-be presidential candidate Alexei Navalny on Friday after several hours in detention. Police charged Navalny with repeatedly organizing unauthorized rallies, an administrative offense punishable with a fine of up to a 300,000 rubles ($5,200) and compulsory work for up to 200 hours. “We were finally presented with a charge and released, and the trial will be on October 2 at the Simonovsky Court of Moscow at 15:00 Moscow time,” Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, told Interfax. Police had stopped Navalny early Friday as he was headed to a campaign rally in the city of Nizhny …

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Catalonia’s secessionists, who are trying to organize an independence vote from Spain on Sunday, may be getting aid from Russia as part of the Kremlin’s ongoing strategy to destabilize the European Union, according to European Union analysts. Spain’s central government has deployed thousands of police to contain expected disorder. They have threatened local officials who support the referendum with stiff fines and jail. Spain’s constitutional court has declared the pending vote illegal. Despite what some see as a heavy-handed response by Madrid, the United States and most EU governments have backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in his efforts to keep …

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Twenty-seven European Union nations, not including Britain, will be coming up with clear options on a more tightly knit future for themselves even before they will allow divorce negotiations with the U.K. to move toward brokering a new relationship. EU Council President Donald Tusk said Friday he would be presenting “a political agenda in two weeks’ time,” after EU vision statements in recent weeks from French President Emmanuel Macron, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and others on how to the reform the bloc. That will be just days before the next EU summit is expected to reject for now British …

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A Serbian minister has denied media reports in the Balkan nation that the government is muzzling the free press through intimidation, threats and financial pressure. Vladan Vukosavljevic, Serbia’s culture and information minister, told The Associated Press on Friday that his agency “strongly objects” to any form of pressure on journalists and believes in media freedom.   Vukosavljevic spoke a day after dozens of Serbian media outlets and other organizations darkened their web pages and published black ribbons on newspapers to warn citizens about the government pressure on media. The initiative was prompted by the recent closure of an independent newspaper …

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The Spanish government says there will be no Catalonia independence vote Sunday, even as the regional government continues preparations for the referendum. Spanish Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo said Friday the independence vote violates Spanish law and the government will not accept the results of the referendum. “We are open to dialogue within the framework of the law. As you would understand nobody can ask us … to engage in dialogue outside the framework of the law. It’s impossible,” he said. “No European political leader can even consider dealing with an issue that is not in [Spanish] government hands.” …

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Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has a message for the world’s central bankers: Don’t be Luddites. Addressing a conference in London on Friday, Lagarde said virtual currencies, which are created and exchanged without the involvement of banks or government, could in time be embraced by countries with unstable currencies or weak domestic institutions. “In many ways, virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money,” she said. “The best response by central bankers is to continue running effective monetary policy, while being open to fresh ideas and new demands, as …

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In Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, cameras are being installed inside taxis in a move city authorities claim will provide security for both drivers and passengers. But with the ongoing crackdown over last year’s failed coup locking up more than 60,000 people and purging nearly 200,000 from their jobs, fears are growing that the measure is the latest effort to extend surveillance and control over the people. An advertisement touts the benefits of Istanbul’s Itaxi. New taxis will be fitted with GPS tracking to allow drivers to find the quickest and cheapest route, as well as equipment to pay by credit …

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