Category: Євросоюз

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, is due to go on trial Monday for a deadly attack in a Paris’ shopping mall decades ago, the oldest one blamed on the former public enemy of France and probably the last one to come to court. The Venezuelan-born Ramirez Sanchez, one of the most notorious political terrorists of the 1970s and `80s, is serving a life sentence in France for a series of murders and attacks he perpetrated or organized in the country on behalf of the Palestinian cause or communist revolution.   He first was convicted by a …

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U.S. President Donald Trump plans to quiz German Chancellor Angela Merkel about her experience dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the chancellor visits the White House Tuesday. A senior administration official said Friday Trump would be “very interested to get German Chancellor Merkel’s insights” as he prepares to engage the Kremlin leader. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have been suspicious of what they see as Trump’s naivete when it comes to Putin, particularly with regard to the Kremlin’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. But four officials briefing reporters in advance of the March 14 meeting …

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Sharing services are a growing trend in 21st economies. In London, the Spacehop website provides a marketplace where people who have unused living spaces can meet those looking for short-term work places. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry has more. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

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Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Sunday that Turkey will retaliate in the “harshest ways” and “respond in kind to this unacceptable behavior” after the Netherlands refused to allow a Turkish minister into the country and expelled another one. In addition, Turkish officials have sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara and have said the Dutch ambassador is not welcome in the country. Earlier Sunday, Dutch riot police on horseback clashed with hundreds of Turkish government supporters in Rotterdam who were protesting the moves against the Turkish ministers. Before clashes broke out, about 2,000 protesters had gathered outside the Turkish …

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Several hundred people have staged a protest in the southwestern Belarusian city of Pinsk, calling for the scrapping of a law imposing a tax on jobless people. The protest Saturday was the latest in series of demonstrations against the law, despite authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka announcing that he was suspending its application for one year in order to “correct” it and carry it out next year. Lukashenka said the law, which is reminiscent of Soviet-era legislation, was needed to fight what he has called “social parasitism.” The legislation has sparked protests across the nation of 10 million. It imposes a …

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Russia has hinted at involving the United States in a newly-launched regional dialogue Moscow says is aimed at seeking a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan. The move comes as Afghanistan’s national security adviser is due to visit Moscow to discuss the prospects for promoting reconciliation with armed opposition in his country. Moscow’s stepped up Afghan diplomacy stems from its concerns that a protracted conflict is encouraging Islamic State militants to establish a foothold in the war-torn country and export terrorism to neighboring Central Asian states that ultimately could threaten Russian security. In December, the Russian government hosted senior …

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The Netherlands barred Turkey’s foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam on Saturday in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish emigres, leading President Tayyip Erdogan to brand its fellow NATO member a “Nazi remnant.” The dispute escalated in the evening as Turkey’s family minister was prevented by police from entering the Turkish consulate in the Rotterdam while hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside demanding to see the minister. Turkey’s foreign ministry said it did not want the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to return from leave “for some time.’ Turkish authorities sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara …

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Three families who helped shelter former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013 after his mass leak of information about surveillance programs have asked Canada for asylum, their lawyer said Friday. The families — three Sri Lankan adults, a Filipina, and three stateless children — have long-pending asylum claims in Hong Kong that they fear may soon be rejected, lawyer Marc-Andre Seguin said in a phone interview from Hong Kong. Seguin said the families had been thrust into the spotlight after the September release of the Oliver Stone film Snowden, which referred to their role …

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President Donald Trump has asked former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Russia. It’s a job likely to come with heavy scrutiny amid questions about the Trump campaign’s possible ties with Russia. Huntsman would bring extensive diplomatic and bipartisan experience to the high-profile ambassador post. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff reports. …

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Relations between Turkey and Europe took a nosedive this week after many EU countries objected to visits by Turkish ministers campaigning ahead of a Turkish referendum on constitutional change. Ankara wants to drum up support among the millions of Turks living in Europe to give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers, which could see him remain in office until 2029. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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Iraq is assessing what help it might need to collect and preserve evidence of Islamic State crimes, but has not yet decided whether it needs United Nations assistance, the country’s U.N. Ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, said Friday. Britain is drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution to establish a U.N. investigation to collect and preserve evidence for future prosecution, but would like Iraq to approve such a move by sending a letter formally requesting council action. International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi woman who was enslaved and raped by Islamic State fighters in Mosul, pushed …

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A boyish 30-year-old who looks like Justin Trudeau and sounds like Barack Obama has emerged as a potential kingmaker in Dutch politics, riding a rare message of tolerance ahead of an election dominated by anti-immigrant rhetoric. Jesse Klaver, son of a Moroccan father and part Indonesian mother, is expected to turn his tiny Green Left party into one of the main groups in the Dutch parliament in a vote next week that has mostly made headlines because of a far-right surge. The election is mainly billed as a challenge by flamboyant anti-Islam nationalist Geert Wilders to conservative Prime Minister Mark …

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Kosovo’s president said on Friday he would resign and force a parliamentary election if lawmakers do not approve changes that would effectively create a national army under a plan opposed by the country’s ethnic Serb minority and its NATO and U.S. allies. The Kosovo government ordered the creation of a national army three years ago, but Serbian deputies said they would block the required changes to the constitution. On Wednesday, parliament indicated it would bypass that opposition by preparing amendments to an existing law that would allow the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) to buy heavy weapons and recruit more soldiers, …

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A helicopter crashed on a highway in the outskirts of Istanbul on Friday, after apparently hitting a television tower in dense fog, reports said. At least five people were killed, the governor said.    The helicopter, belonging to the Eczacibasi group of companies, was carrying seven people on board: the company’s four Russian guests, a Turkish official and two pilots.    Gov. Vasip Sahin said the helicopter crashed in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district after taking off from Itsanbul’s Ataturk Airport, adding that the cause of the crash is under investigation.   Eyewitness Fikret Karatekin, a taxi driver, told CNN-Turk television by …

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Donald Trump’s surprising victory in last year’s U.S. presidential election signaled a turn to the right. Now Europe is facing three critical elections of its own: next week in the Netherlands; next month in France; and later this summer in Germany. Just as anti-establishment fervor in Europe proved to be a harbinger of the U.S. election, will there now be a “Trump effect” in Europe that puts populist candidates into power? VOA’s Jane Bojadzievski has more. …

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Air pollution takes the lives of more than half a million young children every year, according to the World Health Organization. An entrepreneur in London has come up pollution-busting face masks to protect kids from toxic air. …

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Israel’s prime minister was in Moscow Thursday to talk with Russia’s president about the Syrian crisis, the latest sign of Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East as well as Israel’s concerns over Moscow’s regional allies. Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin made no joint statement following the talks, but Netanyahu later issued a statement indicating he had “made it clear” to Putin that Israel wants to prevent any Syrian settlement from leaving “Iran and its proxies with a military presence” in Syria. Russia has come to assume a larger role in Israel’s foreign policy calculations since the Kremlin’s intervention in …

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Pope Francis says the Roman Catholic Church should start considering whether to let married men serve as priests in order to address a shortage of clergy, especially in remote areas. In an interview with Germany’s Die Zeit magazine, Francis said: “We must think about whether viri probati [married men of proven religious faith] are a possibility. Then we have to decide what tasks they can take on — for example, in remote communities.” Francis said allowing would-be priests to decide whether they wanted to remain celibate was not something he favored, but he suggested that was an issue for further …

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of “devastating incompetence” Thursday after his organization was able to obtain and publish documents related to CIA hacking programs. “This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place and not secured it,” Assange said during a live-streamed press conference. Earlier this week, WikiLeaks published thousands of pages of what it says are classified CIA documents that expose “the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.” The documents allege that the CIA has the tools to hack into smart …

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Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkey to stop invoking Berlin’s Nazi past in criticizing cancellations of Turkish ministers’ rallies in Germany, and said she would do everything possible to prevent Turkish domestic conflicts spilling onto German soil. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who survived an army attempt to topple him in July, is working to enlist the votes of Turks abroad to clinch sweeping new powers in an April referendum. But unease is spreading in Europe over the dispatch of ministers to communities themselves sometimes deeply divided. “To the many people with Turkish roots who are German citizens or have lived here …

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