Category: Євросоюз

At least 34 people have died after wildfires ravaged Portugal and Spain’s Galicia region, rescuers said on Monday. In Portugal, at least 31 people died in fires that blazed through forests in the northern and central parts of the country, causing residents to flee towns and villages, and injuring more than 50 people. Local media reports said several people are still missing, including a one-month old baby. Three people have been reported dead in Spain; two victims were found in a burned-out car on the side of the road. In Portugal, the government declared a state of emergency for regions …

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Sebastian Kurz, leader of Austria’s conservative People’s Party (OVP), is set to become the world’s youngest leader after declaring his party’s victory in Sunday’s general election. At 31, Kurz is believed to be younger than North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and France’s Emmanuel Macron who is approaching 40. With most of the votes counted, The People’s Party won more than 31 percent of the vote and is expected to form a coalition with right-wing Freedom Party (FPO).VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

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There is more trouble for disgraced U.S. movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he has started the process to strip Weinstein of the Legion of Honor — the highest honor in France and one of the world’s most prestigious awards. France presented Weinstein the honor in 2012 in recognition of his efforts to promote French and other European cinema around the world. Four French actresses are among the 13 who accuse Weinstein of sexually assaulting or harassing them over several decades. This latest blow against Weinstein came a day after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts …

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Innsbruck no longer plans to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics after its promise to organize low-cost and sustainable games failed to convince residents.   The province of Tyrol said Sunday it will drop plans to host the games after 53.35 percent of voters had rejected the idea in a referendum. In Innsbruck, the capital of the province, 67.41 percent of residents said “no” to a possible bid.   Results from postal voting will be announced Monday but were not expected to significantly change the outcome.   “The decision stands,” Tyrol governor Guenther Platter said. “I was, and still am …

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Ireland dispatched its armed forces to bolster flood defenses on Sunday and warned people against non-essential travel as the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia threatened the country with its worst storm in 50 years. Ophelia, the sixth major hurricane of the Atlantic season, is due to make landfall on the south west coast of Ireland at around 0500 GMT on Monday, the Irish weather service said, describing the storm as “unprecedented.” Hurricane force winds are likely off Ireland’s south coast but they are expected to ease before they reach the coastline, said the weather service, which has declared a Status Red …

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Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton cautioned Britain on Sunday over its push to secure a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump after it leaves the European Union. Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate who lost out to Trump in last November’s election, also said Britain would face serious disruption if it left the EU without a negotiated deal with Brussels. The British government has talked up the prospect of bilateral trade deals with the United States and others as one of the major benefits of leaving the EU following last year’s surprise referendum vote to leave. Asked about the …

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Catalonia’s president is facing a critical decision that could determine the course of the region’s secessionist movement to break away from Spain. The Spanish government has given Carles Puigdemont until Monday morning to clarify if he did or didn’t actually declare independence earlier this week. Puigdemont told Catalan lawmakers Tuesday that he had “accepted” a mandate for independence based on the results of a disputed referendum, but that he wanted parliament to delay its implementation “for a few weeks” to give one last chance to open negotiations with Spain. If Puigdemont replies “Yes” to Madrid on Monday, then Spain’s government …

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A Refugee Food Festival showcasing the cooking talents of refugee chefs from five different countries has won the hearts of Geneva residents by connecting through the food of their national cuisines.  Over the past week, local chefs have turned their kitchens over to their refugee counterparts from Syria, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Tibet and Nigeria. Nadeem Khadem al-Jamie smiles broadly as clients at this high-end restaurant applaud his culinary skills. Nadeem, a 29-year-old Syrian refugee, says cooking is his passion. An interpreter explains that he learned how to cook from his uncle and worked in his family restaurant in Damascus before …

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Polls are open in Austria where voters are casting ballots in a snap election that analysts say could result in a resurgence by conservatives. Opinion polls favor Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old charismatic conservative party leader and current foreign minister, who observers say has succeeded in reinventing the conservative party and galvanizing the Austrian right, including the far right, following the breakdown of a coalition between conservatives and socialists. The campaign has been dominated by the issue of immigration. Austria, with a population of just less than 9 million, accepted 90,000 asylum seekers, most of them Muslim, during the 2015 migrant …

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Hurricane Ophelia, a rare storm for the North Atlantic, was expected to bring high winds and rough seas to five western counties of Ireland this weekend. Ophelia, strengthening offshore near the Azores Islands, was a   Category 3 storm, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It had top sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph) and was expected to produce total rain accumulations of up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) over the southern Azores. Seven of the nine islands of the Azores were on red alert as ordered by regional civil protection services. The islands were expecting …

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The United Nations warns some 4 million people across Ukraine are facing a desperate situation as winter approaches and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance to survive the bitterly cold months ahead. Ukraine is into its fourth year of war, a war that the United Nations estimates has killed about 10,000 people and injured more than 23,500 others. No resolution is in sight to what has become a frozen conflict between the Kyiv government and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. This is causing immense suffering to millions of people living in zones close to the contact line that separates …

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The Vatican trial over $500,000 in donations to the pope’s pediatric hospital that were diverted to renovate a cardinal’s penthouse is reaching its conclusion, with neither the cardinal who benefited nor the contractor who was apparently paid twice for the work facing trial.   Instead, the former president of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital and his ex-treasurer are accused of misappropriating 422,000 euros from the hospital’s fundraising foundation to overhaul the retirement home of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope Benedict XVI.   Prosecutors have asked for a guilty verdict, a three-year prison term and a …

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UNESCO’s executive board voted Friday to make a former French government minister the U.N. cultural agency’s next chief after an unusually heated election that was overshadowed by Middle East tensions. The board’s selection of Audrey Azoulay over a Qatari candidate came the day after the United States announced that it intends to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias. The news rocked a weeklong election already marked by geopolitical resentments, concerns about the Paris-based agency’s dwindling funding and questions about its future purpose.   If confirmed by UNESCO’s general assembly next assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed …

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Iran’s president said Friday that the nuclear deal it signed with six world powers in 2015 could not be revoked, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would not certify that Iran was in compliance with it. In a nationally televised speech following Trump’s remarks, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged all signatories to the agreement to honor their commitments. He called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “an outstanding achievement” in international diplomacy and said Iran would continue to comply with it. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first to withdraw from the deal. But if …

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The current diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States, sparked by the arrest of local U.S. employee Metin Topuz at a diplomatic mission, is underscored by growing fears in Ankara that Washington is conspiring against it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech Friday, warned that Turkey is the target of daily attacks and plots, and in a thinly veiled reference to Washington added, “Those who supported terror groups such as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the PKK failed to corner Turkey … [and] now are taking direct action.” In its war against Islamic State, Washington is …

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Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. “Arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing. In Azerbaijan, more than 80 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people have been arrested since mid-September and the U.N. has received allegations that some were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, forced shaving and other forms …

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A Polish security official says Poland has expelled a Russian historian on suspicion that he acted against Poland’s interests. A spokesman for the minister in charge of state security, Stanislaw Zaryn, said Friday the man used his contacts among Polish historians and journalists to promote Russia’s viewpoint, to discredit Polish authorities and to undermine Poland’s ties with Ukraine. The man, identified only as Dmitry K. in line with Poland’s privacy law, taught at a college in Pultusk, eastern Poland. He was expelled Wednesday. Zaryn said he had failed to tell the college about his cooperation with the Russian Institute for …

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Human rights group Amnesty International held events Thursday to mark 100 days since several of its Turkish staffers were detained in Istanbul. This week, Turkish prosecutors officially filed an indictment against 10 of the human rights activists detained in July, along with Amnesty’s Turkey chairman Taner Kilic, and demanded jail sentences of up to 15 years on charges of supporting terrorist organizations. Amnesty labeled the indictment “trumped-up and absurd.”   WATCH: Amnesty Marks 100 Days of Detention for Turkey Staff, as Ankara’s Rift With West Grows “They were on day three of a workshop, a very routine workshop about digital security …

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Human rights group Amnesty International has held events to mark 100 days since several of its Turkish staff were detained in Istanbul. Prosecutors filed terror charges against the activists this week, the latest trials in a widespread crackdown that has soured relations between Ankara and its Western allies, culminating this week in the mutual suspension of visa services between the United States and Turkey. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday that Russia was preparing lawsuits to reclaim what Moscow says was illegally seized property in the United States, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Lavrov, in a telephone conversation with Tillerson, also said it was unacceptable that U.S. authorities had removed Russian flags from its seized diplomatic buildings in the United States, the ministry said. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, asked about the accusations later, told reporters that U.S. actions at the shuttered Russian facilities were “perfectly legal” and were carried out with “a lot of thought” …

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