Category: Europe

Belgium to revoke passports of ISIS fighters

The Belgian government proposed a law on Friday which will invalidate passports and identity cards of people authorities believe plan to go and fight for militant Islamist organisations in the Middle East.

The measure, which has to be approved by parliament, is a response to Belgium’s position as the source of many foreigners fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Some 300 mostly young men are estimated to have left the country of 11 million inhabitants over the past few years to fight for organisations such as Islamic State, one of the largest per capita contributors in western Europe.

“The new law allows us to make leaving Belgian territory with the intention of engaging in terrorist acts a criminal offence,” Justice Minister Koen Geens said.

Authorities could invalidate identity cards or refuse to issue passports to somebody suspected of wanting to leave for Syria or Iraq to fight, he added.

Similar provisions also exist in other European countries such as Britain and Denmark.

Source: Reuters

‘US drawing Europe into crusade against Russia, against our interests’

The US is drawing European states into a “crusade” against Russia, which goes against Europe’s interests, former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said. Speaking to French media, he stressed that Europe now is dependent on Washington.

“Today, Europe is not independent… The US is drawing us [the EU] into a crusade against Russia, which contradicts the interests of Europe,” Fillon told the BFMTV channel.

The ex-French prime minister, who served in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government from 2007 till 2012, lashed out at Washington and its policies.

Washington, Fillon said, pursues “extremely dangerous” policies in the Middle East that the EU and European states have to agree with.

He accused German intelligence of spying on France “not in the interests of Germany but in the interests of the United States.”

Fillon pointed out that Washington is pressurizing Germany to concede to Greece and find a compromise.

He noted the “American justice system” often interferes with the work of “European justice systems.”

“Europe is not independent,” the ex-PM said, calling for “a broad debate on how Europe can regain its independence.”

This, however, would not be possible if Europe goes ahead and signs the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a proposed EU-US treaty, which has drawn much criticism for its secretiveness and lack of accountability.

“I am definitely against signing this agreement [TTIP] in the form in which it is now,” he added.

The TTIP agreement seeks to formalize the economic relationship between the EU and US economies across the board. The two partners trade nearly €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) worth of goods and services annually.

Its supporters promise €100 billion in GDP growth for the EU and almost $90-billion growth for the US, as well as the creation of over 700,000 extra jobs in the US. However, TTIP critics warn the deal would create environmental problems, a loss of economic sovereignty, bring in torrents of genetically modified food and cause unemployment.

Berlusconi’s party urge lifting of anti-Russian sanctions

The members of the Forza Italia party plan to come forth with the initiative that envisages the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia by Italy, party leader Silvio Berlusconi said

Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, will urge the government to lift anti-Russian sanctions, which are crippling bilateral ties and harming Italy’s national interests, the former Prime Minister said after his meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

“Tomorrow we will present a motion calling on [the] government not to continue the sanctions against Russia, sanctions which harm our interests, causing significant financial losses,” Silvio Berlusconi said after his meeting with Putin at Fiumicino airport in Rome.

Berlusconi also said his Forza Italia party was planning to urge the Italian government to “commit itself” in convincing other European countries to follow its lead in lifting sanctions and “convince our American friends that the return to the atmosphere of the Cold War is inadmissible.”

The issue of Western sanctions and bilateral trade ties took center stage of Putin’s short visit to Italy.

While meeting with the current Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Milan, Putin was quick to point out that Italian companies had lost more than $1 billion due to the restrictive measures, while the trading volume shrank by one quarter in the first three months of 2015. The Russian president said that the sanctions also affected Russian-Italian military cooperation.

In Rome, meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, the leaders discussed the necessity of maintaining strategic bilateral relations in “all spheres” and not allowing them to “become hostage” of current difficulties, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added both Mattarella and Putin agreed “all countries in Europe are paying too high a price for the ongoing internal Ukrainian conflict.”

Mattarella’s stance seems to echo statements by the Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni who recently said that “Italy can’t afford to close the doors to Russia” and “can’t cut ties” with Moscow.

Berlusconi got a chance to meet Putin right before his departure to Moscow, and reminisce about the good old days of positive NATO-Russia relations.

The 78-year-old Italian said he remembers the times when world peace was fragile between the two nuclear superpowers. Berlusconi and Putin recalled the 2002 dialogue and cooperation, which established the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which the former Italian Prime Minister said had put an end to the nuclear “nightmare.”

Berlusconi stressed the need to normalize relations between the West and Russia, insisting that is vital for cooperation on a global scale.

The 78 year-old said he is happy that Putin found time to visit Italy and even meet him personally, announcing that he will soon return the favor and come to Moscow. Berlusconi and Putin share a long personal connection over the years, and according to the Russian President, the bond of friendship they share doesn’t depend on political necessities.

EU in chaos on TTIP vote

An historic vote on the biggest trade deal ever negotiated between the EU and the US has had to be postponed after the European Parliament descended into chaos.

European MPs were due to vote on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on Wednesday. But the vote had to be delayed because there were too many proposed amendments.

“It’s panic in parliament,” Yannick Jadot, a Green MEP from France, told AFP.

David Cameron has claimed that signing the deal would add £2 billion to the UK economy every year.

But the plan has been violently opposed by campaign groups across Europe that fear it would be at the expense of national services and social and environmental welfare.

Source: The Independent

London has highest concentration of cocaine in sewers

Scientists have found that London has the highest concentration of cocaine in its sewage system, closely followed by Amsterdam, according to test results from 50 European cities.

The EU’s drug monitoring body has determined that the average daily concentration of cocaine in London’s sewer system was 737mg per 1,000 people in 2014.

Measuring the concentration of drugs in waste water helps scientists monitor the level of illicit drug use in major metropolitan cities.

For instance, the amount of cocaine in London’s waste water drastically rises on Fridays and Sundays and falls back down on Sundays and Mondays, while in Amsterdam, consumption rises later in the weekend, peaking on Sunday.

Wastewater analysis is a “rapidly developing scientific discipline with the potential for monitoring real-time population-level trends in illicit drug use,” the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said in its research.

The study also shows that Amsterdam’s sewers have much greater concentrations of cannabis, and London has the fourth highest daily concentration of ecstasy.

At the same time, drugs like cannabis, methamphetamine, and amphetamine were not found in London’s waste water.

Oslo in Norway and Dresden in Germany had the highest levels of methamphetamine in their sewage.

According to recent statistics, there were 2,995 drug related deaths in 2013 (involving both legal and illegal drugs), according to the UK Office of National Statistics’. This is up from 2012, when there were 2,597.

Wilders to show cartoons of prophet on TV

Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders said Wednesday he plans to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Dutch television after Parliament refused to display them.

Wilders said he would show the cartoons during television airtime reserved for political parties, in a move likely to offend Muslims since Islamic tradition holds that any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemous.

Political parties in the Netherlands get a small amount of airtime each year and broadcasting authorities have no say in what the parties show. Wilders said the broadcast would likely take place in the next few weeks, but an exact date has yet to be determined.

The announcement came a month after Wilders gave a speech at a contest in Garland, Texas, for cartoon depictions of Muhammad. Shortly after Wilders left the event, it was targeted by two men with pistols and assault rifles. Security guards shot and killed the attackers.

Wilders, whose Freedom Party holds 12 of the 150 seats in Parliament’s lower house, told The Associated Press he wants to air cartoons from the Texas competition to support people “who use the pen and not the sword.”

Wilders is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of free speech and targeting Islam. He has lived under round-the-clock protection since 2004 because of death threats.

He was acquitted in 2011 of hate speech as judges said that his anti-Islam rhetoric came in the context of a fierce national debate about immigration and multiculturalism.

Wilders is again facing prosecution for hate speech over a chant last year in which he asked his supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands and they shouted back “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!”

Source: AP

Putins awards parents with seven or more kids

This is a wonderful event promoting family values. You don’t get to have dinner with the President every day, but these families deserved it!

The Order of Parental Glory is awarded to parents (including adoptive parents), who have raised seven or more children and pay great care to the next generation’s health, education, and physical, spiritual and moral development.

The decoration was instituted by a presidential executive order in May 2008, and was first awarded on January 13, 2009.

Russian investigators release name of key witness in MH17

The Russian Investigation Committee released the name of the key witness to the Malaysian Airlines flight that had been downed over eastern Ukraine last year, Russian Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Wednesday.

Markin said that investigators had decided to release the name in light of the numerous media reports that were somewhat doubtful.

“The [key] witness is a Ukrainian, Evgeniy Agapov, who served as a mechanic in the First Squadron Brigade of Tactical Aviation of the Ukrainian Air Force (Military Unit Number A4465).”

“[Agapov] is currently under state protection,” Markin added.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed by a Buk 9М38-М1 guided missile fired from Ukrainian military-controlled territory, Russia’s air defense systems manufacturer Almaz-Antey said in a press conference presenting its report on Tuesday.

The investigation into the crash that killed all 298 people on board is headed by the Dutch Safety Board.

According to a September preliminary report, the plane was hit by multiple high-energy objects causing it to break up in mid-air. The final report on the crash is due by October 2015.

The Russian maker of the Buk air defense missile system said Tuesday that it has concluded that Malaysian Airlines flight 17 was downed by an older version of the missile, which isn’t in service with the Russian military but is in Ukrainian arsenals.

Controversy continues over who shot down the plane last summer over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.

Ukraine and the West suspect it was destroyed by a “Russian surface-to-air missile fired by Russian soldiers or Russia-backed separatist rebels” fighting in the area, but refuse to release evidence to back their claims.

Russia has denied the allegations and has provided material in support.

Mikhail Malyshevsky, an adviser to the director general of the missile maker, state-controlled Almaz-Antei consortium, said at a news conference Tuesday that its analysis was based on photographs of the wreckage available to the public. He said the holes in the plane’s parts were consistent with a specific type of Buk missile and its warhead.

Source: Sputniknews

Record 4,200 migrants rescued at sea by Italian coastguard

Up to 4,200 migrants sailing across the Mediterranean Sea were rescued by European ships on Friday, but 17 people died during the journey on unseaworthy boats. The number rescued in 24 hours appears to be one of the highest in recent years.

The 17 bodies were found on three inflatable dinghies, from which over 300 other migrants were rescued alive, the Italian Navy said on Twitter.

Friday’s rescue operations were led by the Italian coastguard, and involved German and Irish naval ships working under the auspices of the EU’s Frontex border agency.

A similar international maritime mission off the coast of Sicily on Thursday resulted in the rescue of over 700 migrants from Libya in six boats.

So far, the busiest days this year have been on April 12 when 3,791 migrants were rescued and the May 2 rescue of 3,690 people.

According British activist John Wight, the drowning of hundreds of refugees in the Mediterranean is “a crime against humanity,” and “the ultimate responsibility lies with Western governments that have proved themselves the enemy of everything good in the world and a friend to everything bad.”

Over 40,400 boat migrants, many of them fleeing poverty and conflict-stricken countries such as Syria and Eritrea, have arrived in Italy since the start of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

New statistics gathered by IOM confirm 2015 appears to be “an even deadlier year than 2014,” when nearly 3,300 migrants perished trying to enter Europe. While last year the number of migrants dying in all Mediterranean crossings from January to April was 96, this year’s toll is an estimated 1,770 so far through to April 30, IOM said.

IOM’s team in Italy has recently reported a persisting trend of growing numbers of women from Africa, particularly Nigerians.

“In the first four months of 2015, we have registered an increase in the number of incoming Nigerian women – three times as many as during the same period last year. There are well-founded concerns that many of them may be victims of trafficking,” Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome, stated earlier this month.

By mid-May, some 62,500 people had crossed the Mediterranean, and at least 1,800 have died, the agency added.

“It happens a lot in waves, you could have a few days where nothing happens, then there can be a high number of arrivals at the same time,” Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman for the IOM in Italy, told AFP.

Speaking in Lisbon on Friday, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid said his country will consider the naval campaign the EU plans to curb the migrant problem “almost a military intervention.”

Essid added that it will not help, as “if you stop the boats in this area, they will just move to the other side.”

Liberal MP calls African migrants a threat to white race

Kristiina Ojuland, a former Foreign Minister of Estonia and former member of the European Parliament, voiced her disapproval of the European Commission’s migrant quota plan on her official Facebook page, by calling for a pan-European campaign against admitting any refugees in the EU.

In a post that was more reminiscent of a far-right extremist, than a former Vice President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ALDE), Ojuland said that the “white race is threatened” by dark-skinned immigrants (Ojuland actually used an Estonian word “neeger” which is not officially considered offensive in Estonia, but nevertheless becoming socially unacceptable).

“Today yet again I see a fully able young Negro begging for money in Italy, from people who have worked hard to earn a lunch. I think that we should start a pan-European campaign to collect signatures to ensure that not a single so-called refugee gets across the Mediterranean. Enough of this nonsense!” Ojuland, the former high-ranking politician who for years campaigned Estonia to join the EU, wrote.

Her posting has so far gathered over 2,000 “likes”, 500 shares and 300 comments. While many people pointed out her offensive remarks and some called her racist, one would have thought that the former foreign minister would back down, but it didn’t turn out to be so. Instead, Ojuland chose to rigorously defend her statement and even went offensive against the moderate commentators who asked for common sense.

“Stop using a word ‘racist’! As a white person, I feel that the white race is threatened today! Are Estonians also so brain-washed now that they start talking some kind of politically correct bullshit?” Ojuland said.

Another reasonable commentator was told by former liberal MEP that by being a member of the European Union does not mean “accepting people who would squeeze Estonia’s social system”. “Estonia needs to say clear no to Mediterranean migrants!” exclaimed Ojuland.

Ojuland was the Foreign Minister of Estonia from 2002-2005. In June 2004 she ran for the post of secretary-general of the Council of Europe, but was defeated. She was a member of the Estonian Reform Party from 1995-2013 and from 2009-2014 served as 1 of the 6 Estonian MEPs in the European Parliament. Ojuland was expelled from the Reform Party in June 2013 over alleged vote rigging in the party board elections and subsequently founded Party of People’s Unity, which failed to gain enough votes to enter the Parliament, effectively ending Ojuland’s major political career in Estonia.

Source: Estonian Public Broadcasting

Scotland warns Britain over Trident

Alex Salmond has given warning that it would be a “fatal mistake” for the UK government to proceed with its plan to renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent, refusing to rule out calling a second independence referendum if it does so.

“This government would be making a fatal mistake if they believed that for the sake of this costly trumpery that this useless, expensive, unlawful and inherently dangerous military plaything is going to be tolerated by these benches, this party or this country any longer,” said Mr Salmond.

Asked by reporters after the debate whether he saw the renewal of Trident as a possible trigger for a second independence referendum, he said: “You would have to ask Nicola Sturgeon [the first minister] whether this counts as a change in material circumstances.”

Referring to the SNP’s landslide election victory in Scotland, which gave his party 56 out of 59 seats, he added: “The government will have to take notice that they cannot go forward with the position that they used to.”

Mr Salmond was speaking during a debate about a military investigation into allegations made by William McNeilly, who worked on the Faslane base.

Mr McNeilly, a submariner, made a series of claims about the Trident weapons programme in a long online report.

He said it was harder to get into most nightclubs than into the area housing the submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles at the Faslane naval base. He said there were significant technical defects on the boats themselves, catalogued potential fire risks and leaks, and added that safety checks were rarely carried out on contractors working on the boats.

He called the system as a whole a “disaster waiting to happen”.

Source: FT

Six top FIFA officials arrested for corruption in Zurich

Only hours before the start of Fifa’s Congress in Zurich, six senior Fifa officials have been arrested in early-morning raids by Swiss authorities – with 14 people understood to be facing corruption charges worldwide.

Officers carried out the dawn raid at the five star Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, with the Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb understood to be among the six detained.

Sepp Blatter was not one of those arrested. Fifa’s spokesman Walter de Gregorio told the Associated Press: “He is not involved at all.”

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said the officials were arrested pending extradition to the US on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m.

The New York Times reported that the charges arising from an FBI inquiry include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, with the US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch due to hold a news conference later on Wednesday.

NBC’s Bill Neely makes this observation after it emerged that the US charges relate to alleged offences connected to tournaments in the US and Latin America.

So far the names of four officials have been released: Eduardo Li, Jeffrey Webb, Jose Maria Marin and Eugenio Figueredo.

Webb and Figueredo are Fifa vice-presidents. Li was due to join the executive committee on Friday and Marin is a former member of the executive committee.

The New York Times says charges “were also expected against” sports marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis.

It said José Margulies has also been charged for allegedly facilitating illegal payments.

Schumi’s wife sells off his belongings

Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna Betsch seems to be accepting the fact that her husband likely never will be the same.

The legendary Formula One driver remains paralyzed and unable to speak after a devastating ski accident in December 2013.

Now, Betsch has sold Schumacher’s private jet and Norwegian vacation home. Betsch has taken over the family’s finances, according to German magazine Bunte, adding “when it became clear that the old Schumi perhaps never would return, Corinna had to accept her new life. She had to act.”

Betsch has been running Schumacher’s multimillion-dollar business, also. The jet sold for $39 million, per the Mirror. Betsch also reportedly is considering selling the family’s chalet in the French Alps, where Schumacher’s accident occurred.

Bunte recently reported: “She took over the job, and the power, of her husband as an act of succession. Corinna underwent a remarkable transformation – from his wife to the clan chief, a lady who trained as a sales clerk to the manager of a multi-millions company.”

She is now in charge of the Schumacher ‘imperium’ which continues to generate millions even while he remains dormant. She manages the finances, the bank accounts, business advisers, lawyers and personnel.

According to Bunte her new role grates on her father-in-law Rolf , who now lives in a house built into the grounds of the Gland mansion with his partner Barbara Stahl so he can be close to his son.

Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm has revealed that the German driver is ‘making progress’ as he continues on the long road to recovery following injuries sustained during a skiing accident in 2013.

The former Ferrari driver suffered severe injuries in the accident that had rendered him in a medical-induced coma for over six months. He has since made progress, but is still immobile and unable to speak.

Kehm insists that despite the severity of his injuries the seven-time World Champion is getting better, which will come as a boost to his family and the entire racing community.

“We are pleased to continue to say that he is making progress, and I say that always, given the severity of his head injuries,” Kehm said, as quoted by the Mirror.

Earlier doctors treating Formula 1 ace were forced to deny the seven-times world champion had died.

A spokesperson for the Grenoble hospital where the racing driver is being treated put out a statement saying: “The hospital denies that Michael Schumacher has died.”

The man arrested on suspicion of involvement in the theft and leaking of a medical file on Schumacher was found hanged in his cell when rumours about the champion’s passing away started circulating.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, worked as an executive at a Swiss helicopter air rescue company, Rega, which organised the German sportsman’s transport from a French hospital to Switzerland in June, the Zurich prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

He was found hanged when officers came to bring him breakfast before a scheduled hearing before a judge.

Zurich police told AFP they had spotted no signs the man was mentally unstable or suicidal.

The former champion driver, a longtime Swiss resident, was brought by ambulance amid secrecy to a unit of the CHUV hospital in Lausanne.

But word soon got out that some of his medical records had been stolen and that the thief was attempting to sell them to different media.

French prosecutors tracked the IP address of the computer used in the theft of the medical records to Zurich-based Rega, the main operator of air ambulances in Switzerland.

The Zurich prosecutor’s office refused to reveal the man’s age, nationality or other identifying details. But spokeswoman Corinne Bouvard told AFP that he had been suspected of acting alone. In a statement the prosecution authority stressed that the man should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Source: NESN/The Mirror

Cannes: Immigrants 1, Lesbians 0

The debate around the world about what to do with growing waves of desperate migrants will be spurred by a Cannes Film Festival triumph for a movie that looks at the plight of a refugee hero.

“Dheepan”, a French movie about a Sri Lankan former soldier’s struggles in a Paris ghetto in the grip of narco-gangs, didn’t set out to tackle that wider thorny issue.

But the fact that the film’s win comes as refugee boats set off across Asian waters and the Mediterranean — the same sea lapping at glittering Cannes and its super-yachts — inevitably means it will figure in that context.

“It’s important to reflect on the situation,” the movie’s director, Jacques Audiard, admitted to reporters insistently raising the question.

But he stressed, “I started writing the screenplay four or five years ago and the situation wasn’t as critical as it is now”.

Nevertheless, “if it helps the situation, then so much the better”.

The movie won’t begin its release in cinemas for another three months. Its Cannes win will no doubt take it to countries that might otherwise have not seen it.

Some of those countries are ones grappling with the problem of immigrants.

A Hungarian movie taking viewers inside Auschwitz, “Son of Saul”, picked up the runner-up Grand Prize for its narrow but powerful look at the Holocaust.

The best actress award was something of an upset, confounding critics who had thought Australian star Cate Blanchett was untouchable for her turn in an American period lesbian drama, “Carol”.

Instead Blanchett’s co-star, Rooney Mara, and an actress in a French relationship drama called “Mon Roi”, Emmanuelle Bercot, ended up sharing the trophy.