Category: Євросоюз

British police have arrested a third suspect in last week’s bombing on a London Underground train that injured more than 30 people. The Scotland Yard said Tuesday that the 25-year-old suspect was arrested in Newport, Wales. Police were searching a property in Newport, but they would not release any more details. Two other men were arrested over the weekend. An 18-year-old refugee from Iraq was nabbed in the port area of Dover, a major ferry terminal for travel between Britain and France, and a 21-year-old from Syria was arrested in the west London suburb of Hounslow, which is home to …

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A Russian attack helicopter mistakenly fired at least one rocket into a crowd of spectators during a large-scale military exercise in western Belarus simulating a counterattack against NATO forces. The Russian military acknowledged that a rocket was fired by accident by a helicopter, but insisted that no one was hurt in the incident. It also would not say when or where the incident took place. However, several Russian online media portals have reported that as many as three people were injured and two vehicles were destroyed. A video posted on the British news site theguardian.com showed two helicopters flying low …

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The White House Monday reaffirmed its commitment to withdrawing from the Paris Climate agreement, saying it poses serious obstacles for the United States. But at the state and city level, U.S. officials say they’re pressing ahead to curb emissions and promote clean energy sources even without Washington’s participation. VOA’s Daniel Schearf reports from New York. …

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Two of Italy’s biggest coffee houses are reinforcing their brands with flagship cafes in Milan near the spot where U.S. rival Starbucks is set to begin operations next year. Lavazza opens its first flagship cafe in the coffee-obsessed city on Tuesday, not far from the renovated 19th century palazzo where Starbucks will open its first Italian store, a ‘Reserve Roasteries’ outlet offering specialty blends and fine food. Another top Italian brand, illycaffe, opened its own luxury cafe close to the Starbucks site in May, in a cozy courtyard in Milan’s most fashionable street. Lavazza, which is opening near the city’s …

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Dirty money? Swiss investigators are perplexed about who flushed tens of thousands of euros down toilets in Geneva. And why? Bundles of shredded 500-euro notes, worth about $120,000 or 100,000 euros, were found clogging toilets at a bank and three nearby restaurants.  The high-value euro notes are due to be discontinued in 2018 over fears they are being used in illegal activities, including money laundering and sponsoring terrorism. The notes will remain legal tender, but the European Central Bank will stop producing them following a European Commission inquiry into their use. Destroying legal tender is not an offense in Switzerland, …

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Thirty journalists and newspaper executives from a Turkish newspaper which was shut down last year went on trial Monday, facing life sentences over charges that they had links to a failed coup attempt. The former employees of the Zaman newspaper are charged with “membership of an armed terror organization” and “attempting to overthrow” the government, parliament and the constitutional order through their links to cleric Fethullah Gulen. Zaman was affiliated with Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric and former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen is blamed by Ankara for instigating the failed July 2016 coup, but denies any involvement. Zaman …

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The British government’s attempt to appear strong and united over Brexit wobbled Monday as a top official was shifted from his post days before a new round of divorce negotiations with the European Union. Opposition lawmakers said the move reflected the Conservatives’ “chaotic” approach to handling the biggest challenge facing the country. Prime Minister Theresa May, meanwhile, faced calls to discipline fellow Conservative Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for undermining her leadership by publishing his own manifesto for Brexit. A week before negotiations between Britain and the bloc are due to resume in Brussels, the U.K. government announced Monday that the …

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“One clear lesson is that you can’t fight propaganda with propaganda,” says Tetiana Popova. “If you do that you lose credibility yourself and bring all facts into doubt,” adds the former Ukrainian deputy minister for information policy. “And that is what the Russians want,” she said firmly. Now working with the Ukrainian media NGO Information Security, Popova recalled for VOA her part in Ukrainian campaigns to counter Russia propaganda in the 18 months she was a minister. It was partly thanks to her that the Ukrainian military set up an embed program for reporters to cover the conflict in east …

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A four-ship fleet from China has performed formation drills in the Sea of Japan, near North Korea, before heading to the Russian port of Vladivostok for joint land and sea military exercises with Russia. Moscow is already conducting the largest military exercise since the Cold War in areas close to its northwestern borders. That operation, code-named Zapad 2017, includes joint drills with Belarus. NATO is closely watching the exercises and says they include as many as 100,000 servicemen, not 12,700 as Moscow claims, and involve firing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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A violent storm that hit western Romania on Sunday killed at least eight people and injured 67 others. Among the reported deaths were people strolling outside or coming out of supermarkets, emergency situation authorities said. A man in the city of Timisoara died as he was hit by a billboard, while a woman was killed by a falling tree. Two more people died in the western town of Buzias, one of them hit by a falling tree. Another man died in the northwest city of Bistrita after he was hit by a branch during a walk in the park.  The …

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Ana Brnabic, Serbia’s first openly gay prime minister, joined several hundred activists at a gay-pride march in Belgrade on Sunday. Brnabic, who is also the first woman in top-level job, said she is working “one step at a time” toward building a more tolerant society. Serbian riot police cordoned off the city center with metal fences early Sunday to prevent possible clashes with extremist groups opposed to the gathering. Similar events have been marred by violent clashes in the conservative country.  “The government is here for all citizens and will secure the respect of rights for all citizens,” Brnabic told …

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One of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies said on Sunday she saw no logic in deploying U.N. peacekeepers along the border between Russia and Ukraine, something Kyiv and Washington favor. Putin this month suggested armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to help end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the proposal “interesting,” while Kurt Volker, the U.S. envoy to Ukraine peace talks, says the suggestion …

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Britain eased its terrorist threat level Sunday from “critical” to “severe” after police arrested a second suspect in the bombing of a subway train in London. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the second arrest was an indication that “good progress” was being made int the investigation of Friday’s attack that injured 30 people, all but one of whom have now been released from hospitals. The “severe” threat level indicates British authorities now believe another attack is highly likely, while the “critical” designation meant an attack was seen as imminent. Police said in they arrested a 21-year-old man in the west …

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Four young female U.S. tourists were attacked with acid Sunday in the French city of Marseille by a woman who has been arrested, the Marseille prosecutor’s office said. Two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city’s main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press in a phone call. She said all four of the tourists, who are in their 20s, have been hospitalized, two of them for shock. She said a 41-year-old female suspect has been …

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Stuck in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios with poor internet and little credit, Abrar Hassan, like many others, was unaware that the tech world had been falling all over itself to help him. More importantly, he was unaware of his rights and how best to prepare for the asylum interviews that would determine whether the 19-year-old, who fled a murderous family feud in Pakistan, had a future in Europe. There has been an explosion of digital software applications, hackathons and websites since the refugee crisis filtered into Western public consciousness, with the tech world offering a …

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A French journalist held for 51 days on terror charges in Turkey has returned to Paris. Free-lance journalist Loup Bureau was met by his parents Sunday at Charles de Gaulle airport, according to the campaign group Reporters Without Borders. Bureau said his release came as “a bit of a surprise”, as he saw no signs pointing to his release Friday, a day after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. Bureau was detained July 26th on the Turkey-Iraq border under anti-terror legislation. He was reportedly being held because images were found on …

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The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday denied it had bombed U.S.-backed militias in Syria, saying its planes only targeted Islamic State militants and that it had warned the United States well in advance of its operational plans. U.S.-backed militias said they came under attack on Saturday from Russian jets and Syrian government forces in Deir al-Zor province, a flashpoint in an increasingly complex battlefield. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting with the U.S.-led coalition, said six of its fighters had been wounded in the strike. But Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the …

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Hundreds of people marched in Athens, Greece, Saturday in an anti-racism protest to commemorate the killing of an activist rapper by a member of the Greek ultranationalist political party Golden Dawn. Scuffles broke out between police and a few dozen protesters who broke off from the march and began heading toward the Golden Dawn offices. Blocked by police from reaching the offices, the protesters threw firebombs and police responded with tear gas. The march was to commemorate rapper Pavlos Fyssas, whose music conveyed anti-fascist messages. Fyssas’ stabbing death in 2013 resulted in an investigation of Golden Dawn, which had been …

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Ukraine’s top prosecutor has said former Georgian President and Ukrainian regional governor Mikheil Saakashvili will not be arrested for defying authorities with his dramatic return to the country after his citizenship was canceled. In his comments on Saturday, Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko also said that Saakashvili, who is wanted in Georgia on allegations of corruption during his presidency, would not be extradited and suggested the stateless ex-leader may have a document allowing him to remain in Ukraine. “Saakashvili will not be arrested in this case, Saakashvili cannot be extradited from this country while he has a residence permit or other document …

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The United Nations reports world hunger is rising because conflicts and problems related to climate change are multiplying. The report finds about 815 million people globally did not have enough to eat in 2016 — 38 million more than the previous year. The statistics in this report are particularly grim. They show that global hunger is on the rise again after more than a decade of steady decline. The report, a joint product by five leading U.N. agencies warns that malnutrition is threatening the health of and compromising the future of millions of people world-wide. The report says 155 million …

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