At least 13 people died as violent rainstorms turned rivers into raging torrents in southwestern France on Monday in the latest episode of wild weather in Europe, officials said.

Flash floods swamped a number of towns and villages around the fortress city of Carcassonne, leaving a trail of overturned cars, damaged roads and collapsed homes.

An elderly nun was swept to her death as rising waters smashed through a nunnery in the village of Villardonnel to the north of Carcassonne. Meanwhile, at least four people died overnight in the hard-hit village of Villegailhenc, local authorities said Monday.

As Prime Minister Edouard Philippe headed to the scene, the French interior ministry said a total of 13 people had died after the equivalent of three months’ of rainfall in just a few hours.  

“There’s water everywhere in the house. Everything is flooded,” Helene Segura told AFP by telephone from Villegailhenc where at least one small bridge had collapsed.

“When I look out the window, I can only see water and mud everywhere. It’s sad when you’re 70 years’ old like me and you need to redo your house, change the furniture and all the upholstery,” she said.

Authorities rushed in helicopters and 600 firemen to help with rescue operations, particularly those in the floodplain of the Aude river which hit its highest level in 100 years, according to the Vigicrues flood agency.

In the town of Trebes, near Carcassonne, the water in the Aude rose eight metres (26 feet) in just five hours, officials said.

Around 1,000 people were evacuated in the area of Pezens, also near Carcassonne in the Aude area, due to fears that a nearby dam could burst.

The storms were triggered when a front of warm and humid air from the Mediterranean Sea slammed into colder air around the Massif central mountain range in central France, inundating an area from the eastern Pyrenees to Aveyron further north.

Violent storms on Sunday also hit Portugal, leaving 28 with minor injuries and hundreds of thousands without power amid flooding in the region around the capital Lisbon.

The heavy rain, which later rolled on through Spain, was the tail end of hurricane Leslie in the Atlantic which weakened to a post-tropical storm as it made landfall.

Last week, an unrelated weather system moving across the Mediterranean left 12 dead in the Spanish island of Majorca and another two died in southeastern France.

Firemen responded to more than 250 calls overnight, as 160 to 180 mm (6 to 7 inches) of rain fell within five hours in Carcassonne.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies lost their absolute majority in Bavaria’s state parliament by a wide margin Sunday, according to projections from a regional election that could cause more turbulence in the national government.

The Christian Social Union was on course to take just over 35 percent of the vote, down from 47.7 percent five years ago, projections for ARD and ZDF public television based on exit polls and a partial vote count indicated.

That would be the socially conservative party’s worst performance in Bavaria, which it has traditionally dominated, since 1950. Squabbling in Merkel’s national government and a power struggle at home have weighed in recent months on the CSU, which has taken a hard line on migration tradition.

There were gains for parties to its left and right. The Greens were expected to win up to 19 percent to secure second place, more than double their support in 2013. And the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was set to enter the state legislature with around 11 percent of the vote.

The center-left Social Democrats, Merkel’s other coalition partner in Berlin, were on course for a disastrous result of 10 percent or less, half of what the party received in 2013 and its worst in the state since World War II.

The CSU has held an absolute majority in the Bavarian parliament for all but five of the past 56 years and governed the prosperous southeastern state for 61 years.

Needing coalition partners to govern would in itself be a major setback for the party, which only exists in Bavaria and has long leveraged its strength there to punch above its weight in national politics.

“Of course this isn’t an easy day for the CSU,” the state’s governor, Markus Soeder, told supporters in Munich, adding that the party accepted the “painful” result “with humility.”

Soeder pointed to goings-on in Berlin and said “it’s not so easy to uncouple yourself from the national trend completely.”

But he stressed that the CSU still emerged Sunday as the state’s strongest party and a mandate to form the next Bavarian government.

He said his preference was for a center-right coalition — which would see the CSU partner with the Free Voters, a local center-right party that was seen winning 11.5 percent, and possibly also the Free Democrats, who may or may not secure the 5 percent needed to win state parliament seats.

The Greens, traditionally bitter opponents, with a more liberal approach to migration and an emphasis on environmental issues, are another possibility.

Bavaria is home to some 13 million of Germany’s 82 million people.

In Berlin, the CSU is one of three parties in Merkel’s federal coalition government along with its conservative sister, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and the Social Democrats.

That government has been notable largely for internal squabbling since it took office in March. The CSU leader, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, has often played a starring role.

Back in Bavaria, a long-running CSU power struggle saw the 69-year-old Seehofer give up his job as state governor earlier this year to Soeder, a younger and sometimes bitter rival.

Seehofer has sparred with Merkel about migration on and off since 2015, when he assailed her decision to leave Germany’s borders open as refugees and others crossed the Balkans.

They argued in June over whether to turn back small numbers of asylum-seekers at the German-Austrian border, briefly threatening to bring down the national government.

Seehofer also starred in a coalition crisis last month over Germany’s domestic intelligence chief, who was accused of downplaying recent far-right violence against migrants.

Seehofer, who has faced widespread speculation lately that a poor Bavarian result would cost him his job, said he was “saddened” by Sunday’s outcome, but didn’t address his own future.

It remains to be seen whether and how the Bavarian result will affect the national government’s stability or Merkel’s long-term future.

Any aftershocks may be delayed, because another state election is coming Oct. 28 in neighboring Hesse, where conservative Volker Bouffier is defending the 19-year hold of Merkel’s CDU on the governor’s office. Bouffier has criticized the CSU for diminishing people’s trust in Germany’s conservatives.

“Clearly the choices of subjects and the debates of recent weeks led to our friends in the CSU being unable to put their successful regional record at the center of their election campaign,” said the CDU’s general secretary, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

 
…

Britain’s former Brexit secretary is urging members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet to rebel against her proposed deal with the European Union over the terms of Britain’s departure from the bloc.

David Davis wrote in the Sunday Times that May’s plans for some continued ties with the EU under her Chequers plan is “completely unacceptable” and must be stopped. The fellow Conservative Party member said the time has come for ministers to shoot down May’s plan.

“It is time for the cabinet to exert their collective authority,” he said. “This week the authority of our constitution is on the line.”

May is struggling to build a consensus behind her Brexit plans ahead of a cabinet meeting Tuesday that will be followed by an EU summit Wednesday in Brussels.

If Davis’ call for a rebellion is effective, the cabinet meeting Tuesday would be a likely place for opposition to surface.

Davis and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned from the cabinet this summer to protest May’s Brexit blueprint. Both have become vocal opponents of her plan, calling it a betrayal of the Brexit vote that would leave Britain in a weakened position.

May also faces obstacles from the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which has played a crucial role in propping up her minority government in Parliament.

DUP leader Arlene Foster remains opposed to any Brexit plan that would require checks on goods traveling between Northern Ireland and Britain, as some EU leaders have suggested as part of a “backstop” plan.

The Chequers plan has also been questioned by some opposition Labour Party lawmakers, further complicating the prime minister’s hopes of winning parliamentary backing for any Brexit deal she reaches with EU officials.
…

Saudi Arabia has rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to punish it over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying Sunday it would retaliate with “greater” economic actions of its own if Trump were to sanction Riyadh.

The Saudi stock market plunged seven percent before recovering to a five percent loss for the day after Trump told CBS there would be “severe punishment” if it is determined, as Turkey believes, that Saudi agents killed Khashoggi inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The Saudis have said the allegation is “baseless,” but have provided no proof that Khashoggi left the diplomatic outpost alive after arriving to pick up documents for his impending marriage.

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed government source as saying, “The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures, or repeating false accusations.”

The statement said the Saudi government “also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action,” noting that its economy, as the world’s biggest oil exporter, “has an influential and vital role in the global economy.”

Trump, in excerpts released Saturday from an interview to be aired Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes show, warned there would be “severe punishment” for Saudi Arabia if it is determined that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the United States and had criticized Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in columns written for The Washington Post.

Trump said “nobody knows yet” what happened inside the consulate, “but we’ll probably be able to find out” if Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Trump added the United States “would be very upset and angry if that were the case.”

But Trump, who has frequently boasted about his business ties with the kingdom, suggested during the interview that ending U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia would not be an option, saying, “I don’t want to hurt jobs.”

A key U.S. lawmaker, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, told CNN on Sunday that if Saudi agents “went medieval” on Khashoggi, “that would be an outrage.”

He said any response to Khashoggi’s killing “needs to be strong, not symbolic,” including the possibility of cutting off U.S. weapons sales to Riyadh, or it would undermine the U.S.’s moral standing in the world.

In protest of Khashoggi’s disappearance, several U.S. businesses leaders have pulled out of next week’s Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” after the annual meeting of world economic interests in Switzerland. Rubio said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should also withdraw, but White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the Treasury chief is still planning to go.

Media reports say Khashoggi may have recorded his own death on his Apple Watch.

Accounts say Khashoggi turned on the sound recording capability on his device as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The watch is reported to have been connected to the iCloud and the cell phone that he left with his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, before he entered the consulate. Cengiz said she waited for Khashoggi to come out of the consulate, but he never left.

The reports say the watch recorded not only Khashoggi’s interrogation and torture, but also his murder.

The Washington Post reported in recent days that the Turkish government informed U.S. officials it was in possession of video recordings that prove Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, but have not made them public.

Saudi officials have denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance and said he departed the consulate shortly after entering. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Saud bin Nayef has called the reports the government ordered Khashoggi killed “lies and baseless allegations.”

A group of 15 Saudi men is reported to have flown into Istanbul the day that Khashoggi went to the consulate. Media reports say the men were in the consulate when Khashoggi was there. The men stayed at the consulate for a few hours and then took flights back to Saudi Arabia.

One of the members of the group, according to CNN, has been identified by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency and the Sabah newspaper as Salah Muhammed al-Tubaiqi, whom the media outlets say is listed on an official Saudi health website as the head of the forensic medicine department at the Interior Ministry.

 
…

The head of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, is “ready” to trigger a no-deal Brexit and now regards it as the “likeliest” outcome, The Observer reported Saturday, citing a leaked email.

The newspaper said Arlene Foster told Ashley Fox, leader of Conservative Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), she had a “hostile and difficult” exchange at her meeting this week with Michel Barnier, the French official leading the European Union’s negotiating team.

“AF said the DUP were ready for a no-deal scenario, which she now believed was the likeliest one,” according to the email, whose sender or recipient the newspaper did not identify.

The Observer said it was one of several emails “leaked from the highest levels of government” that it had seen.

A DUP spokesman declined to comment beyond what Foster wrote for an article published in Saturday’s Belfast Telegraph. In it, Foster said she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, describing current plans as amounting to “the annexation of Northern Ireland” by the EU.

British and European Union negotiators this month accelerated the push for a Brexit deal, but talks remain snagged over the issue of the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Irish Republic, an EU member state.

Without a comprehensive EU-UK trade partnership after Brexit, the EU is seeking a “backstop” arrangement whereby Northern Ireland would effectively remain subject to the bloc’s regulations to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

But the DUP, whose support May needs to pass legislation in the British Parliament, vehemently opposes any proposals that treat the province differently from the rest of the UK.

“I fully appreciate the risks of a ‘no deal’ [Brexit] but the dangers of a bad deal are worse,” Foster wrote in the Telegraph article.

“This backstop arrangement would not be temporary. It would be the permanent annexation of Northern Ireland away from the rest of the United Kingdom and forever leave us subject to rules made in a place where we have no say,” she added.

‘No game’

Britain wants any “backstop” arrangement to be time-limited. Hard-line supporters of Brexit in May’s ruling Conservative Party fear it could be used to indefinitely keep the entire UK inside a customs union with the EU.

The EU is opposed to any specific cutoff date.

Foster said her party, which has 10 lawmakers in the UK Parliament, was not bluffing in its tough stance.

“This is no game. Anyone engaging in this in a lighthearted way foolishly fails to grasp the gravity of the decisions we will make in the coming weeks,” Foster said. “The coming days, weeks and months will be critical. The decisions taken will shape the type of Northern Ireland that our grandchildren will live in.”

Foster said she wanted a workable deal for both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and would travel to Dublin for talks on Monday.

In an article in another Northern Ireland newspaper, the Belfast News Letter, former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson also took aim at the backstop, describing May’s agreement to accept it as a “dreadful mistake.”

“The only way to put things back on the right track is to ditch the backstop,” Johnson wrote.
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Pope Francis has defrocked two Chilean former bishops for sexually abusing minors, the Vatican said Saturday, after a meeting between the pontiff and Chile’s president.

The decision to expel former Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and former Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez — the latest heads to roll in a country hit hard by the clerical abuse scandal — is not open to appeal.

Both were stripped of their priesthood “as a consequence of overt acts of abuse against minors,” the Vatican said.

The announcement came a day after the pope accepted the resignation of Washington, D.C., Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who has been blamed for not doing enough to deal with pedophile priests.

Saturday’s defrocking was “an extremely unusual, if not unprecedented” move, wrote Ines San Martin, a Vatican expert working for specialist Catholic website Crux.

Defrocking is considered the church’s harshest penalty for priests, barring the offender from exercising any clerical duties at all, even in private.

Scores of new cases involving the abuse of minors by priests have come to light in Chile, deepening a crisis in the Roman Catholic Church that has also embroiled Pope Francis.

On Saturday, Francis met with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera at the Vatican for talks on the “difficult situation” in Chile.

They discussed “the painful scourge of abuse of minors, reiterating the effort of all in collaboration to combat and prevent the perpetration of such crimes and their concealment,” the Vatican said.

The leaders “shared the hope that the church could live a true rebirth,” Pinera said in a statement.

A total of 167 bishops, priests and lay members of the church in Chile are now under investigation for sexual crimes committed since 1960.

Years of allegations

Fernandez became a bishop in 2006, at age 42, but resigned just six years later, allegedly for health reasons.

It later transpired he had been accused of sexual abuse, sparking both a church and a civil investigation.

“The civil investigation is still ongoing because he’s never responded to a court subpoena to give testimony,” Vatican expert San Martin said.

Last seen in public in 2013, Fernandez has reportedly been living a life of penitence and prayer in Peru, she wrote.

The allegations of abuse against Cox date to the 1970s.

The Vatican said he would remain part of the Schoenstatt Fathers institute in Germany.

Now 85 and reportedly in poor health, the prelate has lived at the institute since 2002, San Martin said.

In a statement, the Schoenstatt Fathers reaffirmed its “willingness to collaborate” with anything that the judicial authorities required.

It pledged to “ask for a medical evaluation to determine whether it is possible for Francisco Jose Cox to return to Chile.”

Legal proceedings were initiated in Germany against Cox over the alleged abuse of a child in care in 2004, Deutsche Welle radio reported.

Good day for survivors 

Francis has already apologized repeatedly to Chileans over the scandal, admitting the church failed “to listen and react” to the allegations, but has vowed to “restore justice.”

In May, the Argentine pontiff accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops following allegations of abuse and related cover-ups.

Francis himself became mired in the scandal when, during a trip to Chile in January, he defended 61-year-old bishop Juan Barros, who was accused of covering up abuse by pedophile priest Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 1990s.

Karadima was suspended for life by the Vatican over allegations of child molestation.

Francis eventually accepted he was wrong to defend Barros and subsequently accepted his resignation.

On Saturday, Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima’s victims, tweeted that it was “a good day for the survivors of these monsters.”

“Now it’s up to the Chilean justice to do something!”
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A car carrying migrants collided with a truck in northern Greece Saturday, killing 11 people, police said.

Ten of the victims were believed to be migrants who crossed into the Greece from Turkey. The 11th person was the driver and a suspected migrant smuggler, police said. 

Police said the car in which the migrants were packed had another vehicle’s license plates and is suspected of having been used for migrant trafficking. The car had not stopped at a police checkpoint during its journey, but it wasn’t immediately clear how close to the site of the crash that it happened.

Increase in migrants

Police said the crash occurred just after 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) near the town of Kavala. The car, which had been heading to the main northern city of Thessaloniki, collided with a truck heading in the opposite direction and burst into flames. All of the victims have been burned beyond recognition. The truck caught fire as well. 

All those in the car were killed. The truck driver, a 39-year-old Greek man, was treated for minor injuries in a hospital in northern Greece before being discharged.

Greek authorities have been seeing an increase in people illegally crossing the Greek-Turkish border in recent months. Many are transported to Thessaloniki, where they head to police stations to be registered and apply for asylum.

Spanish rescues

Elsewhere, Spain’s maritime rescue service says it recovered the bodies of three migrants and feared that another 17 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The service says that its rescue craft found the three bodies in waters near a sinking boat it intercepted east of the Strait of Gibraltar. Rescuers saved 36 men of sub-Saharan origin from the boat. The saved migrants said that another 17 men who had traveled with them were missing. 

In total, the service pulled 509 migrants from 15 small boats Friday. 

The United Nations says that 337 of the total of 1,783 migrants who have died trying to reach Europe by sea in 2018 perished in waters near Spain.

 
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Russia’s top diplomat on Friday called the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decision to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from Moscow a Washington-backed “provocation,” from which he vowed to protect “the faithful” in Ukraine if the schism sparks violence.

On Thursday, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based head of global Orthodox Christianity, recognized Ukrainian churches as independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, ending the Moscow Patriarchy’s 332-year oversight of Ukrainian parishes.

The move has immediately restored Ecumenical Patriarchate jurisdiction over all Orthodox faithful in Ukraine, granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the right to autocephaly — the ecclesiastical term for self-governance. Under this decree, leaders of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian community will be able to form an independently administrated Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Calling the decision “a provocation by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, undertaken with direct public support from Washington,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the move as part of a conspiracy in violation of internationally recognized laws.

“Interfering in church life is forbidden by law in Ukraine, in Russia, and, I hope, in any normal state,” he said, according to a transcript of a press conference posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.

The decision, which has sparked celebration in Kyiv and outrage in Moscow, is a victory in Ukraine’s struggle to keep Moscow at bay since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and its continued support for separatists fighting against Kyiv in the east, where violence has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives.

Theologian Sergei Chapnin recently wrote in Bloomberg News that “there’s a real danger that the rift could lead to bloodshed, an outcome that all sides must act decisively to prevent.”

Although the Kyiv Patriarchy’s formal break from Moscow has been discussed intermittently since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian aggression since 2014 has widened fissures running throughout Eastern Europe’s Slavic Orthodox community, hastening the split being witnessed this week.

“This step by the Kyiv Patriarchy was expected for a long time, and it is in response to many factors,” said Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, acting director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

“The Ukrainian people are divided. There are millions of Orthodox people who don’t have an alternative to the Moscow Patriarchy … and those people want to belong to an independent church that is free from Russian propaganda, free from collaboration with the Russian regime,” he told VOA, calling the Moscow Patriarchy an ideological instrument of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“Because the church was intertwined with this aggressive policy of the Russian state, the response to the Russian aggression now includes also response to the ecclesial issue,” he said. “So, the ecclesial issue in Ukraine — the church issue in Ukraine — has become a part of the political and security agenda for the state.”

Even then, he added, the Kyiv Patriarchy’s divorce from Moscow will give the faithful more choice in terms of how they choose to practice their faith.

“This move is wise because it corresponds completely to the principle of freedom of consciousness, of freedom of religion,” he said, explaining that all Ukraine-based parishioners will be able to choose which type of Orthodox Church they want to attend — including those guided by tenets of the Russian Orthodox tradition.

“And the [Ukrainian] state really stressed that in the statements by [President Petro Poroshenko] and other political officials, that they will respect that choice of the people and that communities can belong to any jurisdiction they want.”

In September, Patriarch Filaret, head of Kyiv Patriarchy, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service that the process of unifying Ukraine’s Orthodoxy will guarantee that each parish will be free to determine its future.

“Religious infighting would be a justification for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs,” he said, vowing to avoid bloodshed at all costs. “We want this process to be free of violence. If they don`t want to join Ukrainian church, they can stay with Russian church.”

Kyiv’s formal split from Moscow, he added, means that the Russian Orthodox Church will not only lose most of its political and ideological influence over Ukrainian faithful, but also its standing as one of the leaders of global Orthodoxy.

“Currently, Moscow’s Patriarchy together with the Ukrainian church is the biggest Orthodox church in the world,” he told VOA, adding that Constantinople’s recognition of autocephaly cuts the Moscow Patriarchy to half its current size.

“It wouldn’t be able to fight for leadership in the Orthodox Church,” Filaret said, referring to a centuries-long geopolitical competition between Moscow and Constantinople to claim command of Orthodoxy’s quarter-billion followers worldwide.

Although more than two-thirds of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, Russia is home to the largest number of Orthodox faithful, bolstering its national identity as a bastion of traditional Christian values, an image the Kremlin goes out of its way to project globally.

The next step in Ukraine’s split from Russia is to reunite its various strands of Orthodox faith under the new church, which includes deciding the fate of church buildings and monasteries, some of which are aligned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the start of 2018, Ukraine was home to roughly one-third of the Russian church’s parish holdings, according to Kyiv’s official data.

Russia’s past efforts to undermine the Kyiv Patriarchy’s move toward self-rule involved a cyberattack on Bartholomew’s top clergy, according to the Associated Press.

Last month, the State Department endorsed support for Ukraine’s Orthodox religious leaders’ pursuit of autocephaly, saying it “maintains unwavering support for Ukraine and its territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and the Russian occupation of Crimea.”

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Some information is from AFP and Reuters.
…

Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe’s rapid rise to global fame has earned the teenaged World Cup winner an appearance on the cover of Time magazine’s international edition.

Time said Mbappe was a global superstar who “is the future of soccer.”

Mbappe made headlines in September 2017 when he moved from Ligue 1 side Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain for a staggering 180 million euros ($207 million), a deal that saw the then 18-year-old player handed a reported monthly salary of 1.5m euros ($1.8m).

But the 19-year-old’s stock skyrocketed during this year’s World Cup, where a series of phenomenal displays drew compliments from Brazil legend Pele on his way to helping France end their 20-year wait to win another World Cup trophy.

Mbappe became the youngest French goal scorer in World Cup history when he struck in a 1-0 win over Peru in the group stages.

The teenager from the gritty Parisian suburb of Bondy then tore apart Argentina, scoring twice and earning a penalty as Les Blues eliminated the highly-fancied South Americans 4-3 in the last 16 knockout round.

In doing so, Mbappe became only the second teenager, after Pele in 1958, to score two goals in a World Cup match.

When Mbappe scored with a 25-yard strike in the final, a 4-2 win over Croatia, he became only the second teenager to do so, after Pele, in 1958.

With a total of four goals in the tournament, Mbappe received FIFA’s award for Best Young Player of the World Cup.

Arguably better still were the plaudits from Pele himself, who said: “If Kylian keeps on equaling my records, I’m going to have to dust off my boots.”

Mbappe’s teenage days will end when he celebrates his 20th birthday on December 20.

He played a key role for France on Thursday, equalizing from the penalty spot in a 2-2 friendly draw against Iceland.

 
…

Britain’s Princess Eugenie wore an elegant voluminous dress by London-based label Peter Pilotto for her wedding to Jack Brooksbank on Friday, with the bride picking a low back to reveal scars she got from surgery as a child.

The 28-year-old granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth walked down the aisle of Windsor Castle’s 15th Century St George’s Chapel in a fitted corset and pleated skirt with a long train designed by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, who founded the label in 2007.

“The dress features a neckline that folds around the shoulders to a low back that drapes into a flowing full length train,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “The low back feature on the dress was at the specific

request of Princess Eugenie who had surgery aged 12 to correct

scoliosis.”

Eugenie, who announced her engagement in January, worked closely with Pilotto and De Vos for the bespoke dress, with the designers leafing through archives of frocks worn by British royals to pick a silhouette.

Motifs meaningful to the couple were woven into a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend, the palace said. The designs included the thistle and shamrock, the flowers of Scotland and Ireland, and the English rose.

Eugenie borrowed the queen’s Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara, decorated with rose cut diamonds and emeralds and made by jewelers Boucheron in 1919 in the style worn in the Russian Imperial Court.

She wore diamond and emerald drop earrings given to her by

Brooksbank and satin peep-toe heels by Charlotte Olympia.

Speculation over who would design the wedding dress had mounted over the last few weeks, with labels such as Erdem, Ralph & Russo among those mentioned in media reports.

“As soon as we announced the wedding, I knew the designer, and the look, straight away,” she was quoted as saying. “I never thought I’d be the one who knew exactly what I like, but I’ve been pretty on top of it.”

Eugenie, who works in art and Brooksbank, who is European brand manager for Casamigos Tequila, a brand co-founded by Hollywood actor George Clooney, married at the same venue that her cousin Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose for their nuptials in May.
…

Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle on Friday in front of celebrities and Britain’s senior royals including Prince Harry and wife Meghan who wed at the same venue in May.

Eugenie, 28, younger daughter of the queen’s third child, Prince Andrew, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, tied the knot with Brooksbank, 32, in the castle’s 15th Century St George’s Chapel.

It was the same setting as the wedding of Harry and Meghan earlier in the year, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the couple are now known, were among the star-studded congregation at Friday’s event.

The 92-year-old queen and her husband Philip, 97, who has retired from official engagements, were joined by other royals and celebrities including Hollywood stars Liv Tyler and Demi Moore, models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and singer Ellie Goulding.

Female guests had to cling on to their hats as a blustery wind threatened their wedding outfits and a page boy tripped on the stairs walking into the chapel.

Eugenie’s dress, by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos who founded the British-based label Peter Pilotto, was designed deliberately with a low back to reveal scars from surgery she underwent as a child. She was led down the aisle by her father, Prince Andrew.

“This is meant to be a family wedding,” Andrew said earlier. “There will be a few more people than most people have, there are a few more than Harry had, but that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack – they’ve got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in,” he told ITV’s “This

Morning” which broadcast the event live.

Camilla absent

Singing and cheering well-wishers gathered outside in the streets of Windsor in the shadow of the castle, although there were far fewer people than crammed into the town for Harry’s wedding.

“I’m a true royalist,” David Weeks, 77, bedecked in a “Union Jack” suit and bowler hat, told Reuters. “I was here for the queen’s 90th birthday. I was here for Harry and Meghan’s wedding, I wouldn’t miss it, I love the atmosphere.”

The ceremony was overseen by the Dean of Windsor David Conner and charity guests and 1,200 members of the public were invited into the grounds for the occasion.

One noticeable absentee was Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, as she was carrying out an engagement in Scotland.

Princess Charlotte, 3, daughter of Harry’s elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate, was a bridesmaid, and her brother, Prince George, 5, a page boy.

After the service, the couple made an open-top carriage tour of Windsor. The queen then hosted a reception at the castle.

Eugenie, a director at London’s Hauser & Wirth art gallery, and Brooksbank, who owns a wine wholesale business and is European brand manager for Casamigos Tequila, which was co-founded by U.S. actor George Clooney, met in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010.
…

Hundreds of Bulgarians queued silently at a church in Ruse on Friday to pay their last respects to Viktoria Marinova, the television journalist whose brutal rape and murder shocked the country and triggered debates over freedom of the press.

The body of the 30-year-old Marinova, a host of a regional current affairs show at a local TV station, was found in a park near the Danube port of Ruse, her hometown, on Saturday. Police said she had been raped, beaten and strangled.

A Bulgarian man, Severin Krasimirov, 20, was arrested in Germany over the killing, and German authorities said he would be extradited to stand trial in Bulgaria soon.

Bulgarian prosecutors said no evidence indicated Marinova’s death was related to her work. A random attack and sexual assault were the most likely motive, they said, although they were still investigating all possibilities.

In her last aired show, Marinova featured investigative journalists and pledged to engage in similar work, which stoked fears about retribution against journalists exposing corruption.

She is the third journalist to be killed in the European Union within a year.

Marinova, who left a seven-year-old daughter, is to be buried later on Friday in Ruse Cemetery. More than 500 grieving Ruse citizens, carrying red and white carnations and funeral wreaths, flocked to the funeral service at the Sveta Troitsa (Holy Trinity) Cathedral.

People who knew her talked about her determination, responsibility and kindness, her charitable work and commitment to social causes such as support for disabled and disadvantage children, about which she also reported.

“Viktoria’s death is a great loss for the whole city,” Zornitsa Koleva, 48, said. “She was so kind and ambitious at the same time. We all need to be united and show that we will do our best to prevent this from happening again in Ruse.”

Many were also angered at the horrific murder and called for the toughest sentence for the perpetrator.

Earlier on Friday, German authorities approved Krasimirov’s extradition, saying that he had agreed to an expedited procedure. That meant he should be sent to Bulgaria within 10 days.

The suspect told German magistrates he had hit a woman he did not know while drunk and on drugs but denied intending to kill her, rape her or rob her. His mother, however, said he had told her he had killed the journalist.

Marinova’s murder revived debate over the extent of press freedom in the Black Sea state, ranked 111 out of 180 countries this year in a world press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Bulgaria also ranks worst in the EU for violence against women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality.

 
…

The head of Russia’s space agency said Friday that two astronauts who survived the midair failure of a Russian rocket would fly again and would provisionally travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in spring of next year.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, was speaking a day after Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and American Nick Hague made a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan after the failure of the Soyuz rocket carrying them to the orbital ISS.

Rogozin Friday posted a picture on Twitter of himself next to the two astronauts and said they had now arrived in Moscow. Both men escaped unscathed and feel fine, Roscosmos has said.

The mishap occurred as the first and second stages of a Russian rocket separated shortly after the launch from Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era cosmodrome of Baikonur.

Thursday’s accident was the first serious launch problem experienced by a manned Soyuz space mission since 1983, when a crew narrowly escaped before a launch pad explosion.

The Interfax news agency Friday cited a source familiar with the Russian investigation as saying that a faulty valve had caused the first stage of the Soyuz-FG rocket to malfunction even though the valve had been properly checked before take-off.

NASA has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the United States retired its Space Shuttle program in 2011, although the agency has announced plans for a test flight carrying two astronauts on a SpaceX commercial rocket next April.

Space is an area of cooperation between the United States and Russia at a time of fraught relations. Asked about the mishap, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House he was “not worried” that American astronauts have to rely on Russia to get into space.

Moscow has suspended all manned space launches, while Rogozin has ordered a state commission to investigate what went wrong. Russia’s Investigative Committee has also opened a criminal investigation into the matter.

Unmanned launches of the Progress spacecraft, which carry food and other supplies to the ISS and use the same rocket system as Soyuz, might also be suspended, Interfax has said.

WATCH: US-Russian Space Crew Makes Emergency Landing
…

It’s time for another royal wedding at Windsor Castle — but this time it’s less of a global TV spectacle and more of a family affair.

Despite large signs at the castle’s ticket booth welcoming people to the wedding, many visitors seem unaware that Princess Eugenie, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, will marry tequila company executive James Brooksbank Friday.

“No interest,” said Michael Taylor, a drummer from Chicago who toured the imposing castle Wednesday — but didn’t know a wedding was being planned on the grounds. “I don’t know anything about her. If she walked past me right now, I wouldn’t even know.”

Eugenie is the 28-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and ninth in line for the throne. She has lived most of her life outside the media spotlight, and keeps a low profile compared to cousins Prince William and Prince Harry and their glamorous wives.

That’s reflected in the souvenir shops that line the streets leading to the imposing castle. Royal wedding merchandise fill the windows — but they feature Harry and Meghan Markle, who also married at Windsor Castle in May in a spectacular, globally televised ceremony.

Only a few Halloween face masks feature Eugenie, though some shopkeepers say that will change in the hours ahead of her wedding.

“It’s going to be shirts and some mugs. A few people have been asking for it, but compared to Harry-Meghan, it’s not that big,” said Salman Khan at The King and Queen gift shop. Eugenie items have been hard to find because only a few suppliers are manufacturing them, he added.

“This is different, but it’s still quite good for the town. The whole town is still excited. It’s going to be a good day for everybody,” he said.

Snippets of the wedding will be shown on British TV, but only one channel, ITV, is planning to provide live coverage of the proceedings.

Eugenie and Brooksbank are following a precedent set by Harry and Meghan by inviting 1,200 members of the public to the castle grounds for a better view of Friday’s festivities.

Like Harry and Meghan, the couple will also say their vows in St. George’s Chapel, a masterpiece of the “perpendicular Gothic” style with royal connections dating back to 1475, when construction began under King Edward IV.

Afterward, the newlyweds plan a carriage ride through the streets of Windsor to give the public a chance to see them up close.

It’s not clear how many visitors will come to Windsor, a riverside town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of London. Part of the draw will be the chance to catch a glimpse of the queen and other royals, including William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their two young children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

George, 5, will be a page boy in the bridal party, and three-year-old Charlotte will be one of six bridesmaids. It is not clear if their youngest brother, five-month-old Prince Louis, will attend.

Harry and Meghan, a former star of the TV show “Suits,” are also expected.

Eugenie is following tradition by not revealing who designed her wedding gown, but she has said it will be a British designer. She has asked her older sister, Princess Beatrice, to be her maid of honor.

Eugenie has worked for several years in a fulltime position with the Hauser and Wirth art gallery in London.

Brooksbank, 32, has asked his brother Thomas to be his best man. He and Eugenie have dated for many years. The couple says he got down on one knee and proposed in January during a trip to Nicaragua while the couple was visiting a spectacular lake next to a volcano.

The queen, who has only just returned from an extended summer holiday in Scotland, plans to host a champagne luncheon for the newlyweds shortly after the ceremony, and a second reception will be held that night.

The luncheon with the queen is expected to be a quiet, muted affair — reflecting the 92-year-old monarch’s advanced years — with the nighttime shindig seen as a chance for the younger generations to step out in style.

The presence of so many royals — and a number of celebrity guests — has prompted extra security measures to be put in place.

Police teams have been meticulously checking and sealing water drains near the castle, and sniffer dogs are checking for explosives in the royal-themed shops, restaurants and tea rooms frequented by tourists.

The royal family is paying for the wedding, but the anti-monarchist group Republic is lobbying Parliament to prevent any public money from being spent on security or other wedding-related costs.

The group says Eugenie does not carry out royal duties and that weddings are personal, private occasions, not affairs of state. It has criticized the royals for using weddings as “PR exercises” and expecting taxpayers to pick up part of the tab.

These concerns aren’t popular in Windsor’s business community, where the surging popularity of the royal family in recent years — and the afterglow of Harry and Meghan’s wedding — has helped bring in visitors in recent months.

“We are getting a lot of American and Chinese and Spanish visitors,” said Jag Khaira at the Nell Gwynn Tearoom. “A lot of tourists don’t even know about this wedding Friday, but it will bring in the crowds and should be a good day for us.”
…

A crowdfunding appeal launched in response to the #MeToo movement has paid out more than a million pounds ($1.32 million) to British charities fighting sexual harassment and abuse.

Organizers at the Justice and Equality Fund called for more donations as they announced the payouts, a year after the #MeToo campaign first swept the internet.

“We are just at the start,” said Samantha Rennie, executive director of women’s funding group Rosa, which organized the project. “The more people, companies and organizations that stand up and show their solidarity by giving to the fund, the quicker we will succeed.”

The #MeToo campaign spread across social media a year ago as women came forward with a slew of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in a scandal that sparked a wider, global debate over sexual abuse and harassment.

It led to the creation of the Justice and Equality Fund in February, backed by high-profile actors including Harry Potter star Emma Watson and Keira Knightley, who played a fanatical footballer in her breakthrough movie Bend It Like Beckham.

Watson put a million pounds into the fund and on Thursday hailed the campaign as a step toward “systemic change.”

“This year is just the beginning,” she said in a statement.

Rosa said it had received an extra million from the Comic Relief charity, bringing the total pot to 2.7 million pounds.

Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland was one of the biggest recipients, saying it would use the 200,000 pounds to re-establish a rape crisis center, 12 years after it had shut.

“To be able to fund the first rape crisis service provision in Northern Ireland for 12 years feels like a huge step forward,” said Knightley in a statement.

“I hope we can continue to raise funds to support more of the front-line organizations doing such critical work with women and girls.”

Other charities to benefit include a legal advice line Rights of Women, the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre and the London Black Women’s Project.
…

Real Madrid says it has taken legal action against a Portuguese newspaper that reported the Spanish club forced Cristiano Ronaldo to settle with the woman who accused him of rape.

Madrid says the information published by the Correio da Manha newspaper is “categorically false” and was printed in an effort to “seriously damage the image of this club.”

Madrid says it “has absolutely no knowledge of any of the information that the newspaper published with regard to the player Cristiano Ronaldo, and therefore the club was unable to take action on a matter of which it had no knowledge.”

The Correio da Manha published an article Wednesday saying that part of Ronaldo’s defense will be to say that Real Madrid forced him to settle. It said Ronaldo was against settling and always declared his innocence.

The newspaper said Thursday it stood by what it published and that everything that went into the article was properly checked.

Kathryn Mayorga filed a lawsuit late last month in Nevada saying she was raped by Ronaldo in Las Vegas in 2009. Police have re-opened an investigation.

The 33-year-old Ronaldo, who played nearly a decade with Real Madrid before joining Italian club Juventus in the offseason, has denied any wrongdoing.
…

Turkey’s finance tsar has declared war on soaring inflation and called on the country’s businesses to cut prices. 

Finance minister Berat Albayrak Tuesday called on business to cut prices by 10 percent to counter runaway inflation. The Turkish lira has fallen some 40 percent this year, driving up the price of everything from food to fuel and sending inflation to 25 percent last month, its highest in 15 years. 

Analysts warn that this radical strategy could hurt an economy that is already struggling. 

“It’s unusual to announce an anti-inflationary package without a reference to monetary policy,” said senior economist Inan Demir of Nomura International.

Most nations use monetary policy to fight inflation by raising interest rates to cut domestic demand and strengthen the local currency.

“I would say there is a reason, economic theory, and past experience favor monetary policy because measures to control prices have serious side effects,” Demir said.

Since the failed coup in 2016, numerous companies have been seized by Turkish authorities after being accused of conspiring against the government.

‘War on inflation’

In launching his “war on inflation,” the finance minister attacked unnamed companies for “speculation, opportunism and stockpiling.” Police have raided businesses, accused of speculation and shops and supermarkets are now being checked for “price gouging.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weighing in, calling on consumers to report shops and businesses for excessive price hikes.

Political analyst, Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, warns the government’s efforts to curtail inflation are more likely to hurt the economy than help it.

“Some people are obviously trying to benefit from the currency turmoil, but a lot of people simply have no idea how to price and cost things. This is why they are simply raising prices by as much as the exchange rate,” Yesilada said. “By trying to stop this kind of behavior, the government is simply making things worse because if people can’t price appropriately, they will stop producing or selling. I understand in some grocery stores, pharmacies and supermarkets there is a shortage of some essential goods.”

International investors 

Last month, the Turkish central bank won back some much need credibility by the international investment community by hiking interest rates by over 6 percent in a move to rein in inflation and defend the currency.

Analysts interpreted the rate hike as an essential step toward returning to economic stability and re-establishing the central bank’s independence.

A key factor cited by international investors for the weakness in the Turkish lira was Erdogan’s hostility toward interest rises and his apparent control over the central bank.

Analysts say the latest measure will likely unnerve investors again. However the Turkish lira only suffered a minimal fall following the controversial policy announcement.

“The most important agenda item for investors is the Pastor Brunson case, and any other news is overshadowed by the hearing Friday, which explains the short-lived sell-off,” said economist Demir.

An American citizen, Pastor Andrew Brunson, is on trial accused of terrorism in Turkey, charges Washington insist are baseless. U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade sanctions imposed on Turkey in August was, in part, retaliation for Ankara’s refusal to release Brunson. The sanctions resulted in the lira falling.

Brunson trial resumes

On Friday, Brunson’s trial resumes with growing expectation that he will be allowed to return to the United States. Such a move would lift the threat of further US sanctions. However, analysts warn about what will happen if Brunson is not released.

“If Brunson is not released, the markets will start to price in further sanctions by the U.S. And, as long as we don’t have much clarity on the U.S. sanctions, the market’s inclination will be to price in the more adverse scenario,” said analyst Demir.
…

U.N. human rights experts are calling for a prompt independent and international investigation into the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi.  He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 2.

Members of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances say they are deeply concerned over the vanishing of Kashoggi as well as over allegations of his state-sponsored murder.

They say they are disturbed the disappearance of the Saudi journalist may be directly linked to his criticism of his government’s policies in recent years.  They are demanding an immediate international probe into the events surrounding his case.  

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani agrees the apparent enforced disappearance of Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate is of serious concern.

“If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are confirmed, this is truly shocking.  We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and to make the findings public,” Shamdasani said.  

Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate more than one week ago to get divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancée.  He has not been seen since.  The journalist, a critic of the Saudi monarchy, has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for more than a year.

His disappearance has unleashed an international firestorm and warnings of serious diplomatic repercussions if the matter is not resolved.  U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, says he does not like the “bad stories” about this situation.

Turkish media reports allege Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate and his body dismembered.  Crown Prince Mohammed calls the reports about Khashoggi’s disappearance or death completely false and baseless.

U.N. human rights experts say an international probe is needed to learn the truth.  They say the perpetrators and masterminds of this alleged crime should be identified and brought to justice.

 
…

The White House said Wednesday that top Trump administration officials have spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials say they believe was murdered last week inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

National security adviser John Bolton and senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, talked with Salman Tuesday, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a follow-up call with the Saudi leader to reiterate the U.S. demand for information about the case, the White House said.

“In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” the White House said.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. is continuing to monitor the unfolding investigation in Istanbul, but offered no information what the crown prince told the U.S. officials about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Trump told reporters he had talked with officials in Saudi Arabia “at the highest level” about Khashoggi’s disappearance, but offered no indication on his whereabouts.

“It’s a very sad situation, this is a bad situation,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

“Nobody knows what happened,” Trump said, adding, “We want to get to the bottom of it. We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anyone.”

Trump declined to say whom he talked with in the Saudi government. He said his aides have been in contact with Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and hope to set up a meeting with her at the White House.

Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi, a critic of Salman who has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was murdered October 2 inside the consulate when he went there to pick up documents to allow him to marry Cengiz, a Turkish national, or perhaps spirited away to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has called the allegation “baseless,” but has offered no proof that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, nor has Turkey produced evidence that he was killed inside the diplomatic outpost.

Asked whether Washington might dispatch FBI technicians if Saudi Arabia requested it, Vice President Mike Pence said, “I think the United States of America stands ready to assist in any way.”

Pence did not indicate that either Turkey, which has launched an intensive investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance, or Saudi Arabia has sought U.S. assistance.

He told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Khashoggi’s disappearance is “a great concern for the United States of America. The suggestion that this journalist, Mr. Khashoggi, was you know, was murdered should be deeply troubling to everyone that cares as a free and open press around the world…. The free world deserves answers. Violence against journalists should be condemned, but at this point, we don’t know what happened.”

A key U.S. lawmaker, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, told VOA the unfolding drama could significantly affect U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, long an American ally in the Middle East.

“If it turns out that suspicions of Saudi involvement in the murder of this journalist are true,” Kaine said, “it could be a real sea-change in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could affect many things, including U.S. support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. So I think we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Turkey has focused much of its investigation on 15 Saudi nationals who arrived in Istanbul on two flights the same day as Khashoggi was at the consulate.

Khashoggi has written articles in The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi regime and its intervention in the war in Yemen. Cengiz, his fiancee, wrote in the newspaper Tuesday that Khashoggi had been “somewhat concerned that he could be in danger” when he first visited the consulate September 28, but after that visit was uneventful, seemed unconcerned when he returned last week to pick up the documents they needed to get married.

She called on Trump to “help shed light” on the journalist’s disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia’s leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area.

Turkish media Wednesday showed what it said was a team of the 15 Saudis arriving at the Istanbul airport on the same day Khashoggi went missing. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published names and pictures of the Saudi nationals, apparently taken at a passport control station.

Later, eight of the men checked into the Movenpick hotel near the consulate, with seven others checking into a different nearby hotel, the Wyndham. Nearly two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, video shows two vehicles with diplomatic plates leaving the consulate through police barricades and headed to the Saudi consul general’s residence. The 15 Saudis left Turkey at four different times, the Sabah report said.

Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper’s latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers.

“Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable.  We demand to know the truth,” Ryan said in a statement.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible.  The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said earlier in the week.

Crown Prince Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist.

Michael Bowman contributed to this report.
…

Journalists are familiar with the risks of reporting from war-torn lands, but the recent death or disappearance of three people in Turkey, Bulgaria and Mexico illustrates the growing dangers to reporters targeted for practicing their craft.

Authorities in Turkey are searching for Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing since walking into the Saudi Arabian consulate last week in Istanbul. There are concerns that Khashoggi, who has written critically of the Saudi regime, may have been killed there.

Elsewhere, Bulgarian national radio reported an arrest Tuesday in the death of television reporter Viktoria Marinova, host of a show that reported on the alleged misuse of European Union funds by a Bulgarian building company.

And in Mexico this past week, journalist and activist Sergio Martinez Gonzalez was shot and killed by two people on a motorcycle as he ate breakfast with his wife at a cafe.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 43 journalists have been killed in the line of their work so far in 2018. Last year, there were 46 deaths for all of 2017. The numbers aren’t that unusual and, in fact, have been higher: 73 in 2015 and 2013, 74 in 2012, the committee said.

What’s different is the way they are losing their lives. At least 27 journalists have been individually slain so far this year, compared with eight losing their lives in the crossfire of violent conflicts, CPJ said. Of all the journalists killed since 1992, 848 were individually killed and 1,322 were lost in crossfire, CPJ said.

“Conflict deaths are one thing, targeted assassinations another,” said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

Similarly alarming is the spread of slayings into Europe, as opposed to countries like Mexico, where drug violence has made journalism risky for years, said Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy executive director.

Besides Marinova’s death in Bulgaria, Jan Kuciak was found shot to death in Slovakia after investigating tax fraud among people close to the ruling party. In Malta, investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed after reporting frequently on government corruption for her blog.

“There are crooks everywhere you look now,” she wrote right before her death. “The situation is desperate.”

The killing of five staff members at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, by a gunman in June brought the threat home to the United States. Meanwhile, the United Nations has been involved in seeking the release from prison in Myanmar of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters reporters who had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohinga Muslim men and boys.

“It’s safe to say there is a pervasive worldwide threat directed to journalists and a perceived immunity for attacks,” Shapiro said. “And I think that’s very dangerous.”

The European cases appear to speak to the power of oligarchs involved in shady activities who act across borders without consequences, he said.

While careful not to place blame on President Donald Trump, experts say his attacks on the press as the “enemy of the people” have a corrosive effect that is noticed around the world. Journalists who may not have felt physical danger often find themselves the targets of threats and harassment online.

“We are conditioned to expect the United States to speak up for press freedom around the world and to defend it, not to belittle the press,” Mahoney said.

Journalism organizations have recognized the threat and have taken steps to protect reporters, the experts said.

“If there is an upside to this, I think that people who stand for democratic values are beginning to understand that scapegoating journalists and scapegoating the media is a step toward authoritarianism,” Shapiro said. 
…

Ireland’s finance minister boosted budget day spending for the second year in a row as the government warned of economic “carnage” if neighboring Britain crashes out of the European Union without a divorce deal.

Having already pre-committed 2.6 billion euros ($2.99 billion) on increased public sector and planned infrastructure spending for next year, Paschal Donohoe, in Tuesday’s annual budget speech, almost doubled the remaining pot to 1.5 billion euros to dish out on further tax cuts and spending increases.

The state’s fiscal watchdog warned ahead of the budget that the booming economy did not need such additional stimulus.

But with an election potentially looming and the fast-growing economy exacerbating deficits in areas such as housing, a scrapping of a reduced VAT rate for the hospitality sector mostly funded the extra 700 million euro of spending.

That allowed the government to keep giving workers a small annual tax break it has promised to continue in future budgets, reverse welfare cuts imposed during a series of austerity budgets a decade ago, and boost infrastructure spending. 

“The shared progress we have made is real. However the risks and challenges that we now face are equally real,” Donohoe told parliament in a speech that went long past the allotted hour as he reeled off measure after measure but also struck a tone of caution with 25 different mentions of Brexit.

Donohoe said the government’s “central case” was that Britain and the European Union would reached a Brexit deal in the coming weeks, but the possibility of a no deal had influenced the financial decisions made.

Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned of “carnage” if Britain crashed left without a deal, though he said that would mostly be felt by Britain, with Ireland likely to benefit from “huge solidarity” from fellow EU member states.

A further round of “Brexit-proofing” measures, which have had mixed results to date, were announced in the budget, including a 300 million euro loan scheme for small and medium sized businesses and the agriculture and food sectors to invest in future growth.

Balanced budget 

Donohoe said the best preparation for Brexit was responsible budgeting and he intended to balance the state’s books for the first time in more than a decade next year, an improvement on the tiny deficit originally planned but still not the surplus the central bank says should already be running.

The state’s independent fiscal watchdog, set up in response to the years of reckless spending that left the exchequer massively exposed when the 2008 financial crisis hit, voiced concerns over the “not very good budgetary practice” of recent years.

It is particularly worried by successive years of spending coming in over budget, which it fears will happen again next year.

Hotel and restaurant owners were unhappy at their return to the standard 13.5 percent VAT from the 9 percent rate introduced in 2011 to boost the then struggling sector. In a report in July, Ireland’s finance department said the lower rate had become a “significant deadweight.”

“#Budget19 will be known as an election budget paid for by the tourism industry,” Adrian Cummins, head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, tweeted.

Ireland’s betting tax was also doubled to 2 percent, hitting the country’s largest operator, Paddy Power Betfair, which said it would have cost it 20 million pounds  ($26 million) this year. Its shares closed down 5 percent.

Donohoe outlined his planned “exit tax” for firms that move assets or migrate their tax residence from Ireland, setting it in line with the corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent but surprising business by introducing it immediately and not by 2020 when Ireland was obliged to come in line with EU rules.

A company would be liable to pay the exit tax on gains built up in Ireland from any asset — such as intellectual property — it planned to move out of the scope of the Irish tax authorities. The measure is part of a new EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive.

The budget will be the last before the next parliamentary election if Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael-led minority government cannot agree an extension to its “confidence and supply” deal with the largest opposition party, Fianna Fail.

They agreed to open talks on Tuesday but while Varadkar said he wanted to complete the review and potential renewal by the end of the month, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin saw talks lasting until until Christmas.
…

Hacking computer networks, poisoning, election meddling — it’s hard to keep track of all the Russian spies and agents suspected of committing crimes abroad on the Kremlin’s behalf.

The latest development: Investigative group Bellingcat has revealed new information about a Russian doctor accused of the nerve agent poisoning in Britain in March.

These Russians aren’t just suspected of interfering in foreign elections or attacks on foreign soil. Western authorities believe Russian spies are working to thwart international investigations into Moscow’s past wrongdoing.

The Kremlin denies everything, calling it a Western smear campaign against Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia.

A look at some key plots and groups of alleged plotters:

Salisbury Suspects

Two Russian military intelligence officers are suspected of using nerve agent Novichok to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain in March. The attack prompted new Western sanctions on Russia and fears of a stepped-up Kremlin campaign against its enemies outside Russia’s borders.

British authorities published the passports that the two officers used to enter the U.K., apparently under assumed names: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

Bellingcat investigators reported Monday that Petrov is in fact Alexander Mishkin, a doctor who works for Russian military intelligence agency GRU. The group had earlier identified Boshirov as decorated GRU agent Anatoliy Chepiga.

Russia’s government, and the suspects themselves, deny involvement in the poisoning.

Parking Lot Hackers

Four other Russians are suspected of trying to hack into the world’s chemical weapons watchdog — which just so happened to be investigating the Skripal poisoning, as well as the widely believed use of chemical weapons by Syria’s Russia-backed military.

The four were arrested, and Dutch authorities revealed last week how they found a car full of hacking equipment near the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. Dutch authorities say they were trying to infect the agency’s Wi-Fi network, and identified them as GRU agents.

Russia’s foreign minister says they were ordinary officials on a routine trip.

Research by The Associated Press and other media has found apparent links between the GRU and the four men, identified as Alexei Minin, Yevgeny Serebryakov, Alexei Morenets and Oleg Sotnikov.

Enemy Athletes

Those four Russians — and three others — are also suspected of cyberattacks aimed at disrupting international investigations into Russia’s state-sponsored doping program. The seven suspects were indicted by the U.S. Justice department last week.

The indictment alleges they targeted some 250 athletes who had publicly supported a ban on Russian athletes in international sporting competitions.

Authorities also accuse the GRU of sustained efforts to breach the computer systems of global and national anti-doping agencies, the International Olympic Committee and soccer’s FIFA.

Plane Crash Hackers

Additionally, GRU agents are suspected of trying to collect information on the international investigation of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over war-ravaged Ukraine in 2014.

British and Dutch authorities allege that a GRU cyber operation targeted the Malaysian Attorney General’s office and Malaysian police.

Investigators say they have strong evidence the Buk missile that downed the plane came from Russia, a charge Russia denies.

Meddling in the US

Yet another group of GRU agents is suspected of a damaging hack of Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Special investigator Robert Mueller indicted 12 people identified as GRU officers in July as part of his probe into possible Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s campaign.

In addition, Mueller also indicted 13 Russians working for a so-called troll factory suspected of spreading disinformation and manipulating U.S. voters online during the 2016 campaign.

Russia denies any meddling in the U.S. election.
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The unmasking of a second Russian intelligence officer suspected of carrying out a nerve-agent attack in England earlier this year is prompting behind-the-scenes fury in the Kremlin, which is likely to respond by purging the senior ranks of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, Russian media is reporting.

On Monday, the investigative website Bellingcat identified the second suspect responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia as Alexander Mishkin, a medical doctor working for Russia’s GRU.

The website said it had been able to make the identification after obtaining a scanned copy of his actual passport and confirming the details about the man both with people who knew him and by using other open source information.

Last month, Bellingcat, along with its partner investigators at the news-site Insider, identified the other suspected poisoner as special-forces veteran Anatoliy Chepiga, a colonel in the GRU.  Chepiga used the alias Ruslan Boshirov and Mishkin used the alias Alexander Petrov.

Former British foreign secretary William Hague says the revelations by Bellingcat and others on the GRU assassination attempt have “illuminated the duplicity of the endless denials” by the Kremlin of any Russian involvement in the murder bid.  “The eyes of other governments and the wider public will have been opened to what is really going on,” Hague said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials have dismissed allegations about GRU operatives mounting the murder attempt on Skripal, and they also reject claims of the Russian intelligence services carrying out other so-called active measures in Europe and elsewhere as “fantasies.”  The Kremlin has maintained variously that the Skripal poisoning never happened, that it was carried out by the British spies in order to blame Russia or that murky third parties were responsible.

Skripal was a double agent for British intelligence in the 1990s. In December 2004 he was arrested by Russian authorities, tried, convicted of high treason and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was included in a Cold War-style 2010 spy swap and settled in the English cathedral town of Salisbury.

Moscow’s denials have not been helped by the trail left behind by the would-be GRU assassins.  Nor has the Kremlin been helped by other GRU agents in recent Russian espionage operations in Europe, who appeared also weak on the basics of traditional spycraft.  Last week, Dutch and British authorities revealed a four-man GRU team attempted earlier this year to hack the computers in the Netherlands of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog.

The poison used, according to British authorities, was novichok, an especially dangerous nerve agent, and, analysts say, it was almost certainly Mishkin’s role to apply the poison, which is thought to have been smeared on the handle of Skripal’s front-door.

“Dr. Mishkin probably knew, better than most assassins, exactly what he was trying to do,” commented Ben Macintyre, a spy historian, in Tuesday’s edition of The Times.

British lawmaker Bob Seely, a member of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said, “It is appalling that a medical doctor appears to have been part of a team of GRU operatives.”

A local woman not connected to the original attack in Salisbury died in July after being exposed to the same toxin, which was contained in a perfume bottle discarded in a trash bin.  The British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after unwittingly spraying the novichok on her wrists.

According to Bellingcat, Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin was born in 1979.  “He studied and graduated from one of Russia’s elite Military Medical Academies, and was trained as a military doctor for the Russian naval armed forces,” Bellingcat says, adding that the GRU recruited him while he was studying medicine and by 2010 had relocated to Moscow, where he received a national ID and travel passport under the alias Alexander Petrov.

Curiously, Mishkin’s cover identity retained a lot of his authentic biography, including his real birth-date, his first and patronymic names, and the first names of his parents.  For several years he used, inexplicably say analysts, the address of the GRU headquarters as his home address.

British Security Minister Ben Wallace warned Tuesday against underestimating Russian espionage.  While recent failings by the GRU had made it easy to mock the spy agency, he said, it would be foolish not to take them seriously.  

“It is easy to laugh at some of the GRU’s poor tradecraft and their abilities, but we should not underestimate them nor indeed the dangerous and reckless use of nerve agent on our streets,” he said.
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Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says authorities will search Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in connection with the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A ministry statement said Saudi Arabia indicated it was open to cooperation. There were no details about when the search would take place.

Khashoggi has not been seen since entering the consulate last week. Turkish officials have said he was murdered there, while Saudi Arabia says he safely left the building.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building after arriving last Tuesday to get a document for his upcoming marriage. His Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for him outside the consulate, said he never came out of the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said Monday on a visit to Budapest.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist.

Khashoggi, who had been critical of the Salman government, has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.

Protesters gathered outside the Saudi consulate Monday demanding to know what had happened to Khashoggi. Banners read, “We will not leave without Jamal Khashoggi.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saudi Arabia to support a thorough, transparent investigation.

“We have seen conflicting reports on the safety and whereabouts of prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi,” Pompeo said in a statement late Monday. “State Department senior officials have spoken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter.”

His comments came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the situation.

“Right now nobody knows anything about it. I do not like it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he and other lawmakers “agree if there was any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government, it would be devastating to the U.S.-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid – economically and otherwise.”

A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency, “The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr. Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate.”
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Around 12,000 people were evacuated after a fire and explosions at a rate of two to three a second hit a Ukrainian Defense Ministry ammunition depot early on Tuesday morning, officials said.

No casualties were reported.

Ukraine’s state security service said it was investigating possible sabotage, and the defense ministry’s spokesman said the fact that explosions were set off in different parts of the depot pointed to sabotage.

The depot is located in the Chernihiv region, 176 km (109 miles) east of the capital, Kyiv. A woman who lived 50 km away told the TV channel 112 she could hear the explosions.

“There are no victims, wounded, injured or killed among military personnel, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the local population,” a Defense Ministry statement said.” As of 7 a.m., the intensity of explosions is two to three explosions per second.”

The airspace in a 30 km radius was closed and road and rail transport suspended. The emergency services reported gas and electricity supplies to the area have been disrupted.

Hundreds of people and equipment were deployed to the site, a statement by the emergency services said, joined by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and the head of Ukraine’s armed forces Viktor Muzhenko. The president has called for a report.

Several large fires have hit ammunition and weapons depots in recent years, an additional drain on Ukraine’s military.

Fighting between Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed separatist rebels has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

Last year, massive explosions at a military depot in the Vynnytsya region, 270 km west of Kiev, forced the authorities to evacuate 24,000 people.

Following that, a parliamentary defense committee inspected other depots. It warned that there were significant shortcomings in how the depot in the Chernihiv region was managed, according to a lawmaker who was on the committee.

A “number of shortcomings, including significant ones, were identified,” Dmitry Tymchuk wrote on Facebook. “As a result of this trip, I sent an address to the heads of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, which listed the shortcomings identified with a request to intervene in the situation and solve existing problems.”

The defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says four Russians detained and expelled by the Dutch government on suspicion of spying were merely testing the IT systems of the Russian embassy.

The Netherlands said last week they had disrupted a Russian attempt in April to hack into the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an intergovernmental organization based in the Hague.  Authorities said they found the four accused with spying equipment in a hotel next door.

Describing the men’s trip as “routine,” Lavrov said Monday Moscow had not received a complaint from the Dutch government at the time.
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Turkey sought permission Monday from Saudi Arabia to search Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul, looking for clues to the disappearance of a Saudi Arabian journalist whom Turkish officials have concluded was murdered inside the diplomatic outpost.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist, 59-year-old Jamal Khashoggi.

But it was not immediately clear whether Turkish officials were granted access to the consulate after Monday’s request. Saudi officials say the Turkish investigators’ claim that Khashoggi was murdered are “baseless.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building after arriving last Tuesday to get a document for his upcoming marriage. His Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for him outside the consulate, said he never came out of the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said on a visit to Budapest.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing writer who had been critical of the Salman government, has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.

Turkish officials summoned the Saudi ambassador for the second time on Sunday, telling the envoy it expected “full cooperation” in its investigation.

Protesters gathered outside the Saudi consulate Monday demanding to know what had happened to Khashoggi. Banners read, “We will not leave without Jamal Khashoggi.”

The U.S. says it is “closely following” the investigation but has not confirmed Turkish officials’ conclusion that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Police said earlier that about 15 Saudis arrived in Istanbul on two flights last Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi.

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he and other lawmakers “agree if there was any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government, it would be devastating to the U.S.-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid — economically and otherwise.”

Erdogan told reporters Sunday, “I am following the [incident] and we will inform the world whatever the outcome” of the official probe. “God willing, we will not be faced with a situation we do not want.”

Erdogan said police are looking at surveillance video of the consulate’s entrances and exits, as well as at the Istanbul airport.

A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency, “The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr. Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate.”

Reuters’ Turkish sources did not say how they thought Khashoggi was killed.

The Washington Post editorial board said Sunday that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States “bear inescapable responsibility” to act in response to Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The board said Saudi Arabia has to identify the 15 officials who were at the consulate and exactly what happened inside. Turkey, it said, must back up its conclusion Khashoggi was killed by making public any evidence it has.

Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, said if the reports of Khashoggi’s killing are true, it “would be an abysmal new low” and “amount to an extrajudicial execution. This case sends a shockwave among Saudi Arabian human rights defenders and dissidents everywhere, eroding any notion of seeking safe haven abroad.”

A New York Times account reported Turan Kislakci, a friend of Khashoggi and head of the Turkish Arab Media Association, said Turkish officials had called him and confirmed two things — that Khashoggi was killed and his body was dismembered.

Multiple media reports say that the group of 15 Saudis descended on the consulate Tuesday and later left. Turkish officials are trying to identify them as part of their probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The New York Times account says its sources report the Saudis “had arrived to silence Mr. Khashoggi, but that it was not clear if the plan had been to bring him back to Saudi Arabia alive, and something went wrong, or if the intention was to kill him there.”
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Trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin has dropped to 39 percent among Russians amidst controversy over his decision to raise the age of retirement for men and women, according to a poll released Monday, the lowest rating he has received in four years.

Putin’s trust rating has fallen nine percent since June, and 20 percent since November of last year. Thirteen percent of Russians said they did not trust their president, according to the independent Levada Center.

Putin signed a bill last week that will increase the state retirement age for men to 65 and for women to 60. The decision, deeply unpopular among most Russians, has sparked street protests.

Adding to the Russian president’s fall in ratings are rising prices and a decline in earnings.  

Putin’s lowest-ever rating in a Levada poll was 30 percent in August 2013, following the 2008 economic crisis and a series of protests.
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Pro-Russia Serb leader Milorad Dodik declared victory Sunday in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia’s three-member presidency, deepening ethnic divisions in the country that faced a brutal war some 25 years ago.

Dodik said he was projected to win 56 percent of the vote in the election and his main opponent, Mladen Ivanic, 44 percent. The projection was made with 85 percent of ballots counted, he said.

“The people have decided,” Dodik said.

Preliminary official results are expected Monday. After polls closed, Dodik and Ivanic both said they were in the lead.

The presidency also has a Muslim and a Croat member. Dodik advocates eventual separation of Serbs from Bosnia. His election deals a blow to efforts to strengthen the country’s unity after the 1992-95 war.

The ballot was seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 war.

More than half of Bosnia’s 3.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, election officials said. Voters chose an array of institutions in Bosnia’s complex governing system, which was created by a 1995 peace accord that ended the war that killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless.

Election officials described the voting that took place as “extremely fair” despite several incidents.

The country consists of two regional mini-states — one Serb-run and a Muslim-Croat entity — with joint institutions in a central government. Along with the Bosnian presidency, voters were electing the Serb president and the two entities’ parliaments and cantonal authorities.

The campaign was marred by divisive rhetoric and allegations of irregularities that fueled tensions.

 
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