Category: Євросоюз

A state election Sunday in western Germany offers Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives a tough test against their resurgent center-left rivals six months before Merkel seeks a fourth term in a national vote. The election for the state legislature in Saarland, a region of just less than 1 million people on the French border that Merkel’s Christian Democrats have led since 1999, is the first of three regional votes before Germany’s September 24 national vote. Test for Merkel, Schulz It’s being watched closely as the first electoral test since the center-left Social Democrats nominated Martin Schulz as Merkel’s challenger in January. …

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Francois Fillon’s aides used an umbrella to shield him from eggs thrown by protesters in southwest France on Saturday as the beleaguered conservative fell further behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-rightist Marine Le Pen in opinion polls. The contrast between former front-runner Fillon, embroiled in a financial scandal, and new poll favorite Macron was striking as both candidates campaigned 29 days before the first round of France’s unpredictable presidential election. Addressing a rally in the French island of La Reunion, in the Indian ocean, Macron departed from typical campaign speeches by inviting members of the audience — including a 6-year …

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Tens of thousands of pro-EU demonstrators rallied in London, despite heightened concerns about the terrorism threat, to mark the European Union’s 60th anniversary — just days before Britain’s exit from the EU is expected to formally begin. Organizers said about 80,000 people joined the march calling for Britain to stay in the EU on March 25. The demonstration came four days before British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would formally start Britain’s exit negotiations by invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. Hundreds of blue EU flags were carried by protesters in the procession as it stretched through …

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Riot police in Belarus launched a massive crackdown Saturday on protesters trying to hold a banned march in Minsk. Hundreds were reported arrested, and a human rights leader said many of the detainees had been beaten by police and needed medical attention. An estimated 700 people were trying to march through a central part of the capital, part of a wave of anti-government protests against a new tax on workers. Truckloads of police intercepted the protesters and attacked them with clubs. Witnesses said unarmed civilians also were assaulted, and a Reuters reporter said at least 10 journalists were arrested. Earlier …

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Riot police in the Belarusian capital have raided the office of a human-rights group hours ahead of an attempt by opposition activists to mount a large protest march. Authorities banned the demonstration planned for Saturday afternoon and dozens of police detention trucks were deployed in the center of Minsk. The authoritarian former Soviet republic has seen an unusually persistent wave of protests over the past two months against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994. After tolerating the initial protests, authorities cracked down. Lukashenko this week alleged that a “fifth column” of foreign-supported agitators was trying to bring him …

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Leaders of the European Union met in Rome Saturday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty and demonstrate that the EU can survive the impending departure of major power Britain. Under heavy security as the Italian capital braced for anti-EU protests later in the day and the risk of attacks such as that by an Islamic State follower in London last week, the 27 national leaders gathered in the Campidoglio palace where the six founding states signed the Treaty of Rome, March 25, 1957. Britain absent Conspicuous by her absence was British Prime Minister Theresa May, who …

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The man who killed four people outside Britain’s Parliament was in Saudi Arabia three times and taught English there, the Middle Eastern country’s embassy said.    A Saudi Embassy statement released late Friday said that Khalid Masood taught English in Saudi Arabia from November 2005 to November 2006 and again from April 2008 to April 2009.    The embassy said that he had a work visa. It said he returned for six days in March 2015 on a trip booked through an approved travel agent.   The Saudi Embassy said that he wasn’t tracked by the country’s security services and …

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A Syrian monitor says at least 16 people have died in airstrikes on a prison in northwestern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday said prisoners and staff were killed in the strikes in the rebel-held city of Idlib. The Observatory says it has received reports that some of those killed were fleeing after the airstrikes and were shot by prison staff members. Idlib is an opposition stronghold where Russian warplanes have been known to carry out strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since 2011, the conflict in Syria has killed 400,000 people, wounded more …

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U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has revised and retracted statements it used to buttress claims of Russian hacking during last year’s American presidential election campaign. The shift followed a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank. In December, CrowdStrike said it found evidence that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, contributing to heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine’s war with pro-Russian separatists. VOA reported Tuesday that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which publishes an annual reference estimating the strength of world armed forces, disavowed the CrowdStrike report and said it had …

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As police race to identify what motivated a 52-year-old British-born father to carry out Wednesday’s attack at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, a debate is simmering over issues of identity, religion and immigration — hot topics in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union. With police and press helicopters still buzzing overhead, thousands of Londoners gathered Thursday night in Trafalgar Square to grieve for the victims but also to express determination that life in the city will carry on as normal. Musharaf Ahmed was one of hundreds of Muslims attending the vigil. “These attacks — they …

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Bonn-based Haribo, which invented the gummy bear nearly a century ago, said Friday it would open a U.S. factory in Wisconsin in 2020. Haribo, founded in 1920, has been in the U.S. since 1982 with a sales operation, and is already the top seller of gummy bears in the country, but says it wants to grow further. Company head Hans Guido Riegel said “Haribo of America is the fastest growing confectionary company in the U.S.A., therefore the step of starting our own production there from 2020 is important for us.” The $242 million factory near Kenosha is expected to create …

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WATCH: Latvia-Russia Ties Shaped by Soviet History, Marred by Politics …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin wished French far-right leader Marine Le Pen “good luck” for next month’s presidential election, a close aide to the National Front candidate said after the two met in the Kremlin on Friday. “He wished her good luck for the presidential election,” Ludovic de Danne, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters from Moscow. “We felt they understood each other, they were on the same wave length,” he said in a phone interview. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and focused mostly on international affairs including the fight against terrorism and very little …

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Hurt by Britain’s planned exit, European Union leaders are making a pilgrimage to Rome this weekend with the hope that a visit to the cradle of their project of unity can somehow rekindle the vigor of youth. Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of the signature of their solemn bond, which started with six founding nations but steadily grew to 28. But the biggest setback in the EU’s history looms next week when Britain officially triggers negotiations to become the first nation to leave the bloc. “Ever closer union” — long the mantra of the EU — pointed toward a seamless …

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday warned Western nations against destabilizing the political situation in Macedonia. His comments to a Moscow news conference came less than two days after the European Union’s enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, visited Skopje in another bid to help break a political deadlock that has left the country’s parties unable to form a government since an election in December. The crisis has sparked inter-ethnic tension, as three ethnic Albanian parties push for Albanian to be designated a second official language as a condition to joining any coalition government. That has led to daily protests for …

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London police on Thursday identified the attacker who killed four people near Parliament as Khalid Masood, a Briton who converted to Islam and had a lengthy criminal record for weapons possession and other charges. Islamic State said Masood, 52, was a “soldier” of the extremist group who responded to its call to attack civilians and the military in countries allied with the United States in battling IS. Masood had never been convicted of terrorist offenses, but British security officials said he had been investigated in the past “in relation to concerns about violent extremism.” Authorities said they thought he was …

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The Turkish foreign ministry says it has summoned Russia’s top diplomat in Turkey over the killing of one of its soldiers that has been blamed on a Syrian Kurdish group that Moscow is supporting. The dispute is putting increasing strain on rapprochement efforts between the countries. The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned Thursday by the Turkish foreign ministry and warned that Turkey will retaliate against a Syrian Kurdish group if there is a repeat of Wednesday’s cross-border attack. The Turkish military claims that a sniper of the the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, killed one of its soldiers. Turkish foreign …

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A message of resilience posted online in the wake of the London terrorist attack Wednesday was read in Parliament, it was mentioned on the BBC, and it went viral online. Unfortunately, the hand written message, which appeared in a photo of a whiteboard commonly seen in the London Underground, was a hoax. The message read: “All terrorists are politely reminded that THIS IS LONDON and whatever you do to us, we will drink tea and jolly well carry on. Thank you.” One member of Parliament read the message to Prime Minister Theresa May, who then called the sign a “wonderful …

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Speaking in the House of Commons, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May solemnly listed the diverse nationalities of those injured in Wednesday’s lone wolf attack in London, underlining the global nature of the British capital and its diversity. She emphasized the attacker was British-born. But some British nationalists and nativists have been quick to blame whole communities for the attack, accusing migrants and liberals for having created the conditions for Islamist terrorism. Two narratives are being fought over in newspapers and social media following the attack that left four dead and 40 injured. One emphasizing the importance of unity and embracing …

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Ceremonies Wednesday marked the anniversary of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks that killed 32 people. The bombings came four months after attacks in Paris. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the remembrance services took place amid a fierce debate in Europe over security failings that allowed the attackers to travel freely into and within the European Union. …

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