Category: Євросоюз

Recruiting for Jihad is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS. During filming, Adel Khan Farooq, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. He met them through Norwegian-born Ubaydullah Hussain, a notorious recruiter, currently serving a nine-year sentence in a Norwegian prison.   “In the beginning, he was very charming,” Farooq told VOA, describing Hussain. “He was easy to talk with, and I never felt like he was a threat directly against me or anybody else for that matter, but when …

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A stabbing attack carried out Friday by an 18-year-old Moroccan migrant in Finland is being investigated by Finnish authorities as “a likely terrorist act,” officials said. Speaking Saturday with reporters, Pekka Hiltunen, a spokeswoman for the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, told reporters the agency was investigating the suspect’s ties to the Islamic State group, as IS “has previously encouraged this kind of behavior.” Police have not released the name of the suspect in the stabbing attack. On Friday, the asylum-seeker stabbed nine people in the small city of Turku, leaving two of the victims dead. He apparently was targeting women, …

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‘Recruiting for Jihad’ is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS.  During filming, Adel Khan Farook, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. Farrook and his partner Ulrick Rolfsen spoke to VOA’S Penelope Poulou on the growth of Islamist organizations in Europe. …

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Russian authorities say “A man was moving along the main streets stabbing people” in the Siberian city of Surgut. Officials say eight people were injured in the attack Saturday. The Russian law enforcement committee said in a statement that “the attacker has been killed,” without providing additional details. Russia’s Tass new agency reports the man likely had a psychiatric disorder.     …

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Police in Spain say the driver of the van that mowed down pedestrians on a Barcelona street Thursday may still be at large, contradicting earlier reports that the driver was among those killed after a similar attack hours later in a nearby town. Younes Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan-born man sought by police is now seen as the possible ring leader of the group that carried out the attack in Barcelona and another in Cambrils, about 120 kilometers south of Barcelona along the Spanish coast. A total of 14 people were killed in the twin terror attacks — 13 in Barcelona …

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A Russian court has banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ translation of the Bible following a drawn-out legal battle, another blow to followers of the pacifist Christian sect who have been branded extremists and driven to practicing their faith underground, as in Soviet times. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization in Russia and 395 regional branches were formally placed on the Justice Ministry’s list of extremist groups Aug. 17, a procedural move following the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the group’s activities and seize its property earlier this year. In a separate case that same day, a court in the northwestern border town of Vyborg banned …

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With no safe, legal passage to Europe, more than 100,000 migrants and refugees have nevertheless crossed the Mediterranean Sea this year, many setting off from Libya, which has become a trafficking hub. In recent months, the Libyan coast guard has expanded its operations beyond its territorial waters, threatening rescue ships and making it more difficult for humanitarians to assist those fleeing. From the United Nations, VOA’s Margaret Besheer has more. …

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Ahmad Alkhald, a Syrian national from Aleppo who played a key role in the Islamic State (IS) terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, has been identified as a specially designated global terrorist by the United States, the U.S. State Department said. The designation Thursday — which also included an Iraqi national who has provided close protection to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the IS leader in Iraq and Syria — imposed “strict sanctions” on the individuals and prohibited any dealings with them. Alkhald is an IS bomb maker and the terror group’s explosives chief who helped carry out the November 2015 attacks …

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Police in Finland are searching for more possible suspects in a mass stabbing that killed one person and injured eight other people Friday in the southwestern coastal city of Turku. Police shot one man in the leg and arrested him, prompting a police warning to avoid central Turku. Security has been heightened at Helsinki airport and train stations as a result of the stabbings. Prime Minister Juha Sippila said “The government is following the situation in Turku closely and a police operation is underway.” Public television station YLE reported witnesses saying they saw bodies on the ground in the city’s …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was an enemy of Turkey and called on Turks in Germany to vote against her and other major parties in next month’s elections. The comments are some of Erdogan’s harshest yet against Merkel and her Christian Democrats, illustrating the widening divide between the NATO allies and major trade partners. Ties between Ankara and Berlin have been strained in the aftermath of last year’s failed coup as Turkish authorities have detained more than 50,000 people and sacked or suspended 150,000, drawing criticism from Europe. Erdogan, who has little patience …

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Catalan police have arrested a fourth man in connection with two terrorist attacks in the Barcelona region Thursday that left at least 14 people dead and dozens more injured.   Police announced the arrest on Twitter Friday, but gave no further details. Police said they are still searching for the brother of one of the men already in police custody, but they do not know whether he was the driver of the van. “We are looking for Moussa Oukabir, but for the moment we don’t know whether he was the driver of the van,” police announced. The man’s brother, Driss …

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The United States has condemned what it calls a “terror attack” in Barcelona Thursday and is offering assistance to Spain. At least 13 people have died and about 100 others were left injured after a van ploughed into pedestrians in Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas area. Two people have been arrested in the case but the driver has fled. Terrorist group Islamic State has claimed the attack was performed by one of its “soldiers”, without offering any proof. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Parts of Portugal, beset by its deadliest summer of wildfires in living memory, were declared in a state of public calamity on Thursday as the government put emergency services on alert for further outbreaks. It has borne the brunt of a heatwave that has settled over much of southern Europe, and more than three times as much forest has burned down in the country this summer as in an average year. Since a single blaze killed 64 people in June, the government has been under pressure to come up with a strategic plan to limit the damage. It said on …

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Following are some of the deadly attacks in Western Europe in recent years: Aug. 17, 2017 — A van ploughs into crowds in the heart of Barcelona, killing at least 13 people, a regional official says, in what police say they are treating as a terrorist attack. June 3, 2017 — Three attackers ram a van into pedestrians on London Bridge then stab revellers in nearby bars, killing eight people and injuring at least 48. Islamic State says its militants are responsible. May 22, 2017 — A suicide bomber kills 22 children and adults and wounds 59 at a packed …

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Britain said on Thursday it was “confident” talks with the European Union would move toward discussing their future relationship by October, in contrast to warnings from the top EU negotiator that the target is receding. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government wants to push the discussion beyond the divorce settlement soon, to offer companies some assurance of what to expect after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. But the bloc has repeated that until there is “sufficient progress” in the first stage of talks on the rights of expatriates, Britain’s border with EU member Ireland and a financial settlement, officials …

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An international watchdog has condemned the beating of a Kosovo journalist known for his reports on corruption, calling it “an attack against freedom of media.” Parim Olluri, whose news website Insajderi has become one of the leading online media outlets reporting allegations of corruption among Kosovo’s top officials, was beaten by unknown assailants late Wednesday as he was going home with his fiancée. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose Kosovo mission monitors peace and democracy in the country, said: “Journalists should be free to state a different opinion without fear of violence or physical injury.” Kosovo’s journalists’ …

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The memorial site of Auschwitz-Birkenau is weighing in on the anti-Semitic and racially charged violence that has erupted in the United States, noting that hatred comes from people who promote it. The state museum, which preserves the site of the former Nazi German death camp, wrote Thursday on Twitter: “One of the hardest lessons for us today. Perpetrators were people. They accepted an ideology that rationalized and promoted hatred & evil.” With the words is a photo of Auschwitz officers and guards smiling and having fun. The message was posted in several languages after U.S. President Donald Trump made comments …

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Ukrainian officials and analysts were quick to deny allegations that the Soviet-era Yuzhmash arms factory was a likely source of engine technology used in North Korea’s missiles and to redirect suspicions to Russia.   “It is a complex and bulky piece of equipment. It is simply not possible to supply it by bypassing export procedures,” said Mykola Sunhurovskyi, director of military programs at the Razumkov Center, a Kyiv think tank, to VOA’s Ukrainian Service. “What is possible, is for North Korea to obtain engines left behind after rocket dismantling in Russia. That could be possible. Meaning Russia could have kept …

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The British government has vowed repeatedly to end the free movement of people from the European Union when the U.K. leaves the bloc in 2019. But on Wednesday it acknowledged that, in one area of the country, it won’t. Britain said there must be no border posts or electronic checks between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic after Brexit, and it committed itself to maintaining the longstanding, border-free Common Travel Area covering the U.K. and Ireland. “There should be no physical border infrastructure of any kind on either side of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland,” Conservative British Prime …

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British Parliament officials said Wednesday they will review plans to silence Big Ben during four years of repairs after senior politicians criticized the lengthy muting of the beloved bell. When the repairs were announced last year, officials said the massive bell in Parliament’s clock tower would be silenced for several months. But this week they said the ringing pause would last until 2021. Prime Minister Theresa May said “it can’t be right for Big Ben to be silent for four years.” The 13.5 British ton (15.1 U.S. ton, 13.7 metric ton) bell has sounded the time almost uninterrupted since 1859, …

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