Category: Євросоюз

A Swiss couple whose bodies were found on an Alpine glacier after they went missing for nearly 75 years have been buried in Switzerland. Swiss broadcaster SRF said the funeral of Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine, took place Saturday in a church in Saviese in southwestern Switzerland. They were 40 and 37 when they disappeared on August 15, 1942. The couple’s daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, now 79, said her parents set off on foot to feed their animals but never returned. SRF said two daughters took part in the funeral; the other five children have already died. The bodies were …

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Two aftershocks hit the Greek island of Kos on Saturday night, just a day after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake killed two people and injured nearly 500 others. The first aftershock, of 4.4 magnitude, hit the island about 8 p.m. local time and was followed 16 minutes later by a 4.6-magnitude tremor, the Athens Geodynamics Institute reported. The fresh tremors meant more worrying for residents and tourists on the island, as hundreds chose to spend the night sleeping outside, too scared to return to their homes or hotel rooms. Officials on the island were assessing damage to cultural monuments and infrastructure, …

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Two former top U.S. intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”   Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t hold back their anger about Trump’s past disparaging comments about the intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow deliberately interfered in the election and tried to sow discord in the United States.   Asked if he thinks Trump takes the threat from Russia seriously enough, …

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Lyudmila Alekeyeva, a renowned human rights activist who has challenged the Soviet regime and Russian authorities since the 1950s, tells VOA that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent surprise visit to her flat left her with an improved perception of the man. Putin visited Alekeyeva on Thursday, her 90th birthday, reaching out to the prominent and respected critic months before a March 2018 election in which he is expected to run for a fourth Kremlin term. According to the Kremlin website, Alekeyeva offered him a glass of champagne and a bite to eat shortly after a presidential security official quickly inspected …

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Hundreds of people on the eastern Greek island of Kos have spent the night sleeping outdoors after a powerful earthquake killed two tourists and injured nearly 500 others across the Aegean Sea region in Greece and Turkey.    Residents and tourists were too afraid to return to their homes and hotels, camping out instead in parks and olive groves, or slumbering in their cars or on lounge chairs.   The most seriously injured in Greece were airlifted to hospitals on the mainland and the southern island of Crete, and at least two were listed in critical condition Saturday.  The U.S. …

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Poland’s Senate approved a contentious law Saturday that gives politicians substantial influence over the Supreme Court, in defiance of European Union criticism. The bill proposed by the populist ruling party only needs the signature of President Andrzej Duda to become binding. Duda has so far followed the ruling party line. The vote was 55-23 with two abstentions. And it was met with boos from protesters gathered in front of the Senate building. End of judicial independence EU leaders say the bill would kill judicial independence and threaten the rule of law in the EU’s largest member in Central and Eastern …

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The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 campaign has represented a military unit operated by Russia’s intelligence agency, according to court filings obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.   The filings from 2011 and 2012 show that Natalia Veselnitskaya represented Military Unit 55002 — run by the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency — in a dispute over property rights. The court ruled in favor of the Federal Property Agency, which sought to regain ownership of a building occupied by the military unit.   Veselnitskaya was not immediately available for comment.   President Donald Trump’s eldest …

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Whether Kenya’s elections next month turn deadly violent, like the 2007 vote, or remain mostly peaceful, like the 2013 poll, international monitors will be on the ground to see whether the final outcome is trustworthy and fair. With political tensions running high, it’s too early to tell how the August 8 elections might go. But Marietje Schaake, the head of the 2017 European Union Election Observation Mission to Kenya, says the voters she’s met with ardently hope there will be no election drama this time around. “I myself have visited Mombasa, Eldoret and two other regions of Kenya, other than …

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As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro for talks with Western Balkan leaders, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong. The comments by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Hoyt Brian Yee, come amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed State Department budget could diminish Washington’s role in fragile democracies exposed to Russian interference. On issues where U.S. and Russian interests align in the region, such as counterterrorism, Yee said the United States will try to work closely with Russia. “But where Russia and the United States do …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan starts a two-day tour of Gulf states Sunday in an effort to resolve a crisis involving Qatar, and four Arab states accusing the small peninsular nation of supporting terrorism. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have severed relations with Qatar. They are enforcing a land and sea embargo, accusing the oil-rich nation of supporting extremist groups and destabilizing the region, allegations Qatar has denied. “Turkey is trying to contribute to efforts to facilitate toward peace and stability,” said Mithat Rende, a retired Turkish ambassador to Qatar. “Erdogan will try to bring people …

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U.S. allies in eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said on Thursday. Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and U.S. official remain wary about their scale and scope. U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who heads U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters in an interview that allied officials would keep a close eye on military equipment brought into Belarus …

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U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Obama’s China ambassador for the U.S. top envoy in Russia. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, served as U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the first Bush administration and was elected twice as governor of Utah. In 2011 he resigned from his post in Beijing to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but soon dropped out. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more about Trump’s nominee for a high profile diplomatic post. …

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A powerful earthquake shook the Greek resort island of Kos early Friday morning, damaging older and historic buildings and the main port, killing at least two people and causing more than 120 injuries, authorities said.   The 6.5-magnitude quake rattled other islands and Turkey’s Aegean coast as well, but Kos was nearest to the epicenter and appeared to be the worst hit, with all of the deaths and injuries reported there.    A wall collapsed on a building dating to the 1930s, and it crushed people who were at the bar in the building’s lower level, according to Kos Mayor …

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U.S. allies in Eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said Thursday. Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and U.S. official remain wary about their scale and scope. U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who heads U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters in an interview that allied officials would keep a close eye on military equipment brought to Belarus for …

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NATO should permanently deploy anti-aircraft weapons in the Baltics to deter Russia, Lithuania’s president said Thursday as the United States put Patriot missiles on display after including them in an exercise in the region for the first time. The permanent deployment of the advanced air defense system would be the next step in NATO’s new deterrent in the Baltics and Poland, which includes ground troops on rotation. Moscow says it is an unjustified military buildup on its borders. “It would be really meaningful to have such weapons in the Baltic region. It would ensure a greater security for all our …

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A spokesman for the Ukrainian military says nine soldiers died over the past day in the east where Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels have been fighting for more than three years. Although full-scale offensives in the war have ebbed, both sides report artillery fire or small clashes almost daily. The death toll reported Thursday by military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko was notably high for a single day.   Lysenko said four of the deaths came in tank and mortar fire near Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region. Another was killed in rebel firing in Novohorodske, also in the Donetsk region, he …

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After renowned journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bombing in central Kyiv last year, Ukraine’s president promised all-out efforts to solve the case. But as of Thursday’s anniversary of his death, there has been no visible progress.   Instead, say Ukrainian journalists, the case is mired in either incompetence or deliberate inaction. In a country where violence against journalists is frequent, reporters feel more in danger than ever.   The killing of 44-year-old Sheremet, who was driving in central Kyiv to appear on a morning radio show on July 20, 2016, was a shock that resonated far beyond …

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Europe’s top human rights court ruled on Thursday that online videos considered by a Belgian court to be Islamist hate speech were not protected under free speech provisions. Fouad Belkacem is a Belgian national currently imprisoned for his activities as the head of Sharia4Belgium, an organization banned for recruiting foreign fighters to participate in militant activities in the Middle East. The European Court of Human Rights evaluated Belkacem’s argument that his remarks in a series of videos on online platform YouTube fell within his freedoms of expression and religion and were not meant to incite violence. In the videos, Belkacem …

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Germany on Thursday told all citizens traveling to Turkey to exercise caution following the jailing of a human rights activist who had no previous links to the country, which Germany’s foreign minister said shows that “every German citizen in Turkey” could suffer the same fate. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he also can’t see how the German government can continue to guarantee German companies’ investments in Turkey in light of the threat of “arbitrary expropriations for political reasons.” He added that Berlin will talk with its European Union partners about the future of pre-accession financial aid for Ankara, which is …

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France’s military head has resigned after a clash with President Emmanuel Macron over budget cuts. The resignation has revealed the pressures facing Macron’s new government as he tries to balance the books while maintaining military commitments at home and overseas. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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