Category: Євросоюз

The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by Italy’s highest court for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio. Francesco Schettino was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers. Friday’s ruling marked the end of the appeals process, with the court upholding the initial verdict. Free during the prolonged legal battles, Schettino, 56, reported to a Rome prison to start his sentence as soon as he was told of the verdict, his …

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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared both confrontational and conciliatory Friday, saying his scheduled talks next week with President Donald Trump could mark a “new beginning” in relations between the two NATO allies, who’ve been increasingly at cross purposes over Syria. Erdogan cautioned, though, that Washington’s decision to arm Syrian Kurds for an assault on the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa had damaged strategic relations between Turkey and America. And he warned Turkish forces would continue military operations against Kurdish militiamen not just in Iraq, but also those allied with the U.S. in northern Syria. The Turkish leader’s comments, …

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Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained 62 former employees of the Istanbul stock exchange over their alleged links to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for last year’s coup attempt. Anadolu Agency said the suspects were detained Friday in simultaneous police raids in Istanbul and five other cities. Detention warrants were issued for 40 other people, the agency reported. The detained are suspected of being followers of Fethullah Gulen who the government says is behind the July 15 coup attempt. Anadolu said the suspects were removed from positions at Borsa Istanbul stock exchange following the attempt. Gulen denies involvement …

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Authorities in Moscow have arrested five activists for gay and lesbian rights as they tried to deliver a petition calling on the government to investigate the alleged detention and torture of about 100 of gay men in Russia’s southern region of Chechnya. The activists were arrested Thursday on the way to the offices of Russia’s prosecutor general and are expected to be charged with staging a protest without official permission. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

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The lingering threat from Russia following its attempts to meddle with the U.S. presidential election is unlikely to recede anytime soon, with the nation’s top intelligence officials warning that Moscow is likely to get both more aggressive and more unpredictable. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin. …

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Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential elections brought a sigh of relief in many Western capitals, worried that the National Front’s Marie Le Pen if elected would pull France away from the European Union. But many analysts warn that the future of the European bloc remains uncertain. Britain, a key member of the EU, is on its way out, and the populist, anti-establishment, anti-EU wave is still on the rise across the continent. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi reports. …

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As the seven other Arctic Council member nations called on the U.S. to remain a steady partner in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told his counterparts the Trump administration has not yet made a decision on its policies on the issue. Tillerson, a former ExxonMobile CEO, spoke to the plenary session about U.S. policy on climate change going forward. “We’re not going to rush to make a decision. We’re going to work to make the right decision for the United States,” he said. “The Arctic Council will continue to be an …

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Television journalist Julia Kirienko was sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers and medics two miles (three kilometers) from the front when their cellphones began buzzing over the noise of the shelling. Everyone got the same text message at the same time. “Ukrainian soldiers,” it warned, “they’ll find your bodies when the snow melts.” Text messages like the one Kirienko received have been sent periodically to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. The threats and disinformation represent a new form of information warfare, the 21st-century equivalent of dropping leaflets on the battlefield. “This is pinpoint propaganda,” said …

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The U.S. informed French officials that Russia had hacked France’s computer networks during the country’s presidential election before the cyber attacks became public, a U.S. national security official told Congress Thursday. “We had become aware of Russian activity,” National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We had talked to our French counterparts and gave them a heads up,” Rodgers said. He added the U.S. offered to help French officials. France’s Macron targeted France’s election campaign commission said Saturday “a significant amount of data,” some of it likely fake, was leaked on social networks …

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Sprinkle the sequins, spark up the disco lights and get ready for battle — it’s time for the Eurovision Song Contest , a celebration of kitsch and cheesy pop with an undercurrent of politics and patriotism. More than a singing contest, it’s diplomacy in dancing shoes. This week musical acts from more than 40 countries are taking the stage in Kyiv to vie for the Eurovision crown, watched by some 200 million television viewers. The 62nd annual contest has clean-cut crooners, electro beats, yodeling Romanians and even a dancing gorilla. But there is also a big absence: Russia, whose participation …

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U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has reiterated its pledge to protect Turkey, as the country opposes a recent U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters in an attempt to oust Islamic State militants from their stronghold in Raqqa. Mattis reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to its NATO ally after meeting Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the highest level talks between the two countries since Washington announced on Tuesday plans to provide arms to the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, also known as the YPG. Turkey is strongly opposed to the arms deal and has called for its reversal. Turkey believes the …

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Russia’s annual World War II Victory Day parade was held today in Red Square. VOA’s Daniel Schearf filed this web video. …

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A Libyan Coast Guard ship picked up more than 350 migrants at sea Wednesday after a potentially deadly encounter with a German rescue boat. No casualties have been reported, and all the migrants rescued off the coastal city of Sabratha are back in Tripoli. A Libyan navy spokesman said the migrants were packed on a wooden boat. As the Coast Guard vessel approached, another boat from the German rescue group Sea Watch came dangerously close to ramming the Libyan ship. Sea Watch was apparently attempting to drive off the Libyans. It is unclear if Libyan authorities plan to take legal …

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Keen to stem growing resentment of globalization, which it sees as one of the drivers of a wave of anti-EU populism, the European Union’s executive said on Wednesday that the bloc had to work to make free trade fairer. French nationalist Marine Le Pen secured 34 percent of votes in France’s presidential runoff on Sunday with an anti-EU platform that promised to shield French workers from “savage globalization,” and the bloc is still smarting from Britain’s vote to leave. “Europe must help rewrite the global rule book so that free trade becomes fair trade. So that globalization becomes sustainable and …

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Italian authorities suspect arson caused the deaths Wednesday of three Gypsy sisters in Rome whose camper burst into flames as they slept. The three sisters, aged 4, 8 and 20, were killed, but their parents and eight other siblings escaped the blaze in the Centocelle neighborhood. The Italian news agency ANSA said prosecutors had opened an arson investigation after family members reported that they received threats in recent days and that a nearby camper was torched last week. Italian politicians, including President Sergio Mattarella, denounced the crime, and Pope Francis sent his chaplain to comfort the bereaved family and offer …

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Tens of thousands of people rallied on Wednesday in the Czech Republic’s capital and other major cities against President Milos Zeman and Finance Minister Andrej Babis. The protesters gathered at Wenceslas Square in downtown Prague demanded Babis’ firing and Zeman’s resignation in the latest development of the Czech political crisis. The public demonstrations follow Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka asking the president last week to get rid of the finance minister over his unexplained business dealings, especially charges that he hadn’t properly explained suspicions that he avoided paying taxes. Babis, one of the richest people in the country, has denied wrongdoing …

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Three shepherd children in Portugal were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them 100 years ago. The Catholic Church doubted their story too. From that unpromising start, the children’s reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal’s persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world’s foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year. Now, the Portuguese youngsters’ long-ago testimony is giving the Catholic Church its youngest saints who did not die as martyrs. Pope Francis plans to …

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Three women stare down from the gallery wall — colorful, defiant and imbued with a spirit of working for the many not the few. They are a brigadier, a factory worker and a youth volunteer with a hoe. They are paintings of socialist realism. They are also all Albanian women from the time of Enver Hoxha, who created one of the world’s most closed societies until his death in 1985. Visitors to Greece’s capital have a relatively rare opportunity to see Hoxha-era art on display outside its regular home in Tirana’s National Gallery of Art. The portraits are part of …

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The European Union foreign policy chief Tuesday sought to reassure the international community that the bloc remains strong, despite Britain’s planned departure and anxiety caused by elections in several member states.   In her annual briefing to the United Nations Security Council, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini said the bloc marks its 60th birthday, about to lose member Britain but as strong as ever.   “Indeed, our British friends have decided to leave us – which is very sad for all of us – but life goes on and the European Union as well goes on,” she told the council. …

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Britain’s political centrists and liberals can only look on jealously. The victory of Emmanuel Macron across the English Channel in France’s presidential race is reviving talk in Britain of a progressive alliance to deprive the Conservatives of a likely landslide win in next month’s parliamentary elections. The leaders of the country’s main opposition Labor Party, however, are rejecting out of hand any electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats and Greens, despite mounting calls from activists for them to do so. “Labor is a national party and everyone needs to have the opportunity to vote for a Labor candidate,” senior Labor …

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