The body of a popular Bulgarian TV journalist investigating alleged corruption involving politicians and EU funds was found over the weekend, police said.

Prosecutors said the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova was found Saturday in a park in the northern city of Ruse. Her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and some of her clothes were missing.

Police say she was raped before she was killed.

“Her death was caused by blows to the head and suffocation,” Ruse prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said, adding that investigators were able to obtain a lot of DNA evidence.

Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said there have been no signs linking Marinova’s death to her work as a TV investigative journalist.

Another reporter from Marinova’s television station also said no one at the station had been threatened.

But the owner of a website involved in the investigation of the alleged corruption, and whose own journalists were interviewed by Marinova, said his group had gotten credible information that there would be trouble.

“Viktoria’s death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution. It was meant to serve as an example, something like a warning,” Asen Yordanov told the French News Agency Sunday.

Marinova worked for the Ruse-based television station TVN and hosted a talk show Detector.

The Reporters Without Borders global index of press freedom rated Bulgaria 111 out of 180 countries in 2018 — the lowest of any EU member.
…

An opposition party favored by Latvia’s large ethnic Russian minority has won the Baltic nation’s parliamentary election, but it’s expected to face difficulties forming a ruling coalition after a vote that saw new populist parties surge and government parties falter.

Voters in Latvia, a member of the European Union and NATO, chose Saturday from more than 1,400 candidates and 16 parties to fill the country’s 100-seat parliament.

With all the votes counted, results Sunday from Latvia’s electoral committee showed the left-wing Harmony party winning with 19.8 percent support.

The country’s Russian minority is a major political force as it accounts about 25 percent of Latvia’s nearly 2 million people, a legacy of nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation that ended in 1991.

Harmony is led by Nils Usakovs, the mayor of Riga, the capital, since 2009. But it has been shunned by other Latvian parties and kept out of the Cabinet over suspicions that it’s too cozy with Moscow, despite the party’s pro-EU stance.

Sunday’s result would give the party 23 seats at the Saeima legislature, one less it has now.

Voters, however, dealt a severe blow to Latvia’s current three-party ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis.

His centrist Union of Greens and Farmers came in sixth place with only 9.9 percent support, while the government’s junior partners — the conservative National Alliance and the liberal New Unity — were fifth and seventh with 11 percent and 6.7 percent of the vote.

Two new smaller parties running on a strong anti-establishment, anti-corruption agenda moved into the forefront of Latvia’s complex political landscape.

The populist KPV party — abbreviation for “Who Owns the State?” — led by the colorful actor-turned-lawmaker Artuss Kaimins and the anti-corruption New Conservative Party took second and third place, with 14.3 percent and 13.6 percent of the votes respectively.

The liberal For Development/For! party also made a good run and got 12 percent support.

A total of seven parties exceeded the five percent threshold for getting seats in parliament.

Voter turnout was 54.6 percent according to preliminary data, the lowest since Latvia regained independence in 1991, the Baltic News Service reported.

The result means difficult weeks ahead trying to form a broad government coalition that has at least 51 seats in parliament. Only KPV has so far indicated it is open for talks with Harmony, the possible kingmaker.

But Harmony’s pro-Russian stance is still an issue.

Relations between Russia and Latvia have been frayed by Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimea Peninsula from Ukraine and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken a strong interest in defending the rights of ethnic Russians in the Baltics, and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been wary of increased Russian military presence in the region.

Earlier this year Harmony cut its cooperation deal with Putin’s United Russia party — a pact that was a major source of irritation to other Latvian parties.

 
…

Prime Minister Theresa May appealed to wavering British voters on Sunday ahead of a defining few months in which she hopes to secure a Brexit deal and face down opponents who say her EU exit plan is too hard, too soft, or just plain wrong.

May, tasked with delivering Britain’s exit from the European Union after a 2016 referendum which continues to divide the country, must find a way through deadlocked talks in Brussels and then convince a skeptical parliament to back the outcome.

On Sunday she launched an unusual plea for the backing of center-ground voters who had previously backed the Labour Party but felt alienated by a shift to the left under current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“I want voters who may previously have thought of themselves as Labour supporters to look at my government afresh. They will find a decent, moderate and patriotic program that is worthy of their support,” May wrote in an article for the Observer newspaper.

Hot off the heels of a speech at her annual conference which polls showed was well received, May sought to reinforce her message that the end of over eight years of austerity was in sight, and that she was capable of delivering reform beyond Brexit.

Labour called her message on austerity a con and said she was making “desperate pleas in an attempt to revive her failing administration.”

It looks increasingly likely May will have to rely on the support of so-called ‘moderate’ Labour lawmakers to win parliamentary approval for whatever Brexit deal she is able to strike with the EU.

On Sunday, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said her 35 lawmakers would likely vote against the deal, and could instead support a second public vote on the terms of Britain’s EU exit.

Labour’s left-wing leadership have promised to vote against May’s deal unless it meets their tests – which it currently is unlikely to do.

The 10 votes of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party which May relies on to prop up her minority government are also in doubt, depending on what kind of compromise May has to strike in Brussels to resolve issues over the Irish border.

Critics within May’s own party, among them former foreign minister Boris Johnson, want her to ditch the current Brexit plan. However the Sunday Telegraph reported that a sizable euroskeptic faction could be willing to drop some of their objections to secure a deal.

If May fails to win a vote in parliament, Britain faces an unmanaged exit from the bloc, which businesses and economists fear could badly damage the economy.

The outgoing chief executive of insurance market Lloyd’s of London, Inga Beale, said her firm is accelerating Brexit contingency plans to transfer contracts to a Brussels subsidiary as she feel Britain is getting closer to leaving the EU without a deal.

But Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said the possible negative consequences for Britain, Ireland and other EU countries meant he thought the chances of securing a deal with the EU were “good.”
…

Dissatisfied Latvians rejected the right-of-center ruling coalition in Saturday’s parliamentary election, but suspicion of the left-leaning pro-Russia party makes it likely the next government will be another formation of ethnic Latvian parties to the right.

The result means a confirmation of the European Union and NATO member’s role as a bulwark against Russia in the increasingly hostile relationship between the West and President Vladimir Putin.

Latvians, fed up with corruption and weak democracy in the Baltic country of 2 million, punished the ruling three-party coalition, which lost almost half of its votes, mostly to two newcomers.

Anti-corruption

The populist KPV LV and anti-corruption New Conservatives won 14.1 and 13.6 percent respectively to become the second- and third-biggest parties.

“Our voters want a change from the old post-Soviet politics, which has been very powerful up to now,” said Janis Bordans, leader of the New Conservatives. “They want to have a stable Latvia, but a one which doesn’t stagnate.”

The New Conservatives, whose leadership features several former officers from the country’s anti-corruption agency, want to beef up law enforcement and get rid of a number of current officials who they say are corrupt.

Bordans said he would like to be the new prime minister.

“If we count out Harmony then it’s logical that we take responsibility. We have to be ready to do it and it is very realistic,” he said.

Ethnic divide

The pro-Russia party Harmony, which is supported by ethnic Russians who make up a quarter of the population, took 19.9 percent of the vote but will find it almost impossible to be part of any government.

The ethnic divide is strong in Latvian politics, and other parties have always shut Harmony out of government. It has tried to rebrand itself as a Western-style social democratic party but severed official ties to Putin’s United Russia party only last year.

“I don’t think this is a norm-breaking election. It carries on the tradition we have seen in Latvia that a quarter of the seats go to the Russian-speaking party,” said Daunis Auers, professor of comparative politics at the University of Latvia, adding that other parties would have no problem shutting out Harmony.

“Now they have no reason to form a government with Harmony. They can form a coalition among themselves,” he told Reuters.

Concerns about Russia

Before the election, some Latvians were concerned that a strong result for Harmony and the populist KPV could lead to their forming a government and bringing Latvia’s foreign policy closer to Putin’s Russia.

The result will lead to a more fragmented parliament of seven parties, of which six won between 10 and 20 percent support each. The forming of a government coalition could take months.

Harmony will get 24 seats and remain the biggest bloc. It is followed by the New Conservative Party with 16 seats, KPV LV with 15 seats, the National Alliance with 13 seats, Development/For with 13 seats, the Greens and Farmers Union with 11 seats and New Unity with eight seats.
…

The Czech prime minister’s ANO emerged the strongest party in nationwide municipal elections Saturday, winning in all regional capitals except two, including Prague, in the first popular test for the minority government formed in July.

The municipal votes are held four times a year, and this one may carry more weight as local budgets have helped to keep the overall Czech fiscal balance in surplus in the past two years.

With 60 percent of the votes counted, the ANO of Andrej Babis came in third with 15.9 percent in Prague, where it won four years ago.

The capital’s budget is worth 70 billion crowns ($3.13 billion) or 1.4 percent of the Czech gross domestic product in 2018, surpassing the country’s 58 billion-crown defense spending.

ANO’s coalition partner in the minority government, the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), looked on course to have no member on the Prague city assembly for the first time ever as the oldest Czech party fared poorly across the country.

Babis, who called his party’s overall numbers a success, said after the vote that the CSSD result would not affect the two parties’ cooperation in government.

Czechs were also picking one-third of the upper chamber of parliament, the Senate. Most of the 27 seats contested will be decided in the second round, which takes place Oct. 12-13.

The CSSD will have just five candidates in the second round, not enough to retain the 12 seats it was defending in the vote, making the party likely to lose the post of the Senate speaker.
…

Turkish authorities believe that prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared four days ago after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, was killed inside the consulate, two Turkish sources said 

Saturday.

“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,” one Turkish official told Reuters.

The sources did not say how they believed the killing was carried out.

Saudi Arabia’s consul-general told Reuters on Saturday his country was helping search for Khashoggi, and dismissed talk of his possible abduction.

Khashoggi, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Washington for the past year, fearing retribution for his critical views on Saudi policies, entered the consulate on Tuesday to secure documentation for his forthcoming marriage, according to his fiancee, who waited outside. He has not been heard from  since.

Since then, Turkish and Saudi officials have offered conflicting accounts of his disappearance, with Ankara saying there was no evidence that he had left the diplomatic mission and Riyadh saying he exited the premises the same day.

Earlier on Saturday, Turkish officials said prosecutors had begun investigating Khashoggi’s disappearance, and a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party said authorities would uncover his whereabouts.
…

Pope Francis said Saturday that silence on sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church could “no longer be tolerated,” and he ordered a “thorough study” of all documents in Vatican offices that concern former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned in July.

Francis declared in a statement that the church had to “tackle the great scourge of abuse within and beyond” the institution. He said the church had a duty “to prevent such crimes from being committed in the future to the harm of the most innocent and most vulnerable in society.”

The pope, who has refused so far to comment on accusations he was aware of misdeeds and abuse committed by former American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick long before he accepted his resignation in July, now has called for an investigation of the paper trail on his case.

Francis ordered McCarrick, 88, the first cardinal in living memory to resign, to a life of prayer and penance.

The scandal reached new heights in August when Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., wrote a letter in which he called on the pope to resign because he had known of McCarrick’s sexual misconduct with seminarians for years without doing anything about it.

Vigano also accused other Vatican and American church leaders of being aware and covering up for the powerful cardinal.

The Vatican statement said Francis was “aware of and concerned by the confusion that these accusations are causing in the conscience of the faithful.”

Earlier this week and at this time of crisis for the church, because of the sexual abuse scandals, Francis opened a synod of bishops focused on youth, which will run until Oct. 28. More than 250 bishops from all over the world are attending the meeting, as well as 40 young people.

In a speech at the first working session, the pontiff said, “Brothers and sisters, may the synod awaken our hearts! The present moment, and this applies also to the church, appears to be laden with struggles, problems, burdens.”

During a morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the opening of the synod, the pope urged the bishops to dream of a future free of the mistakes and sins of the past.

American church leaders have been calling for an investigation into how McCarrick managed to rise in the church’s hierarchy despite his misconduct. Saturday’s statement appeared to be an initial response to the calls.

The statement said Francis “has decided that information gathered during the preliminary investigation be combined with a further thorough study of the entire documentation present in the Archives of the Dicasteries and Offices of the Holy See … to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.”
…

A Salvadoran woman whose unexpected recovery from a life-threatening condition was deemed a miracle, paving the way for the upcoming canonization of the late Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, said Friday she’s convinced he is a saint.

Speaking days before a planned pilgrimage to the Vatican along with her husband and thousands of others, Cecilia Maribel Flores also expressed hopes of meeting Pope Francis, who earlier this year approved the miracle and decided to elevate the martyred cleric to sainthood.

“We know that Romero is a saint, a man of God, who as a pastor defended his flock, defended the poor, the most needy, the victims,” Flores said during a visit to the hospital chapel where 38 years ago Romero was shot to death while celebrating Mass.

“What God has given me, I must share,” she added.

​Beloved archbishop

Romero, already known to many as “Saint Romero of the Americas,” was beloved among the working class and poor for defending them against repression by the army. He was equally loathed by conservative sectors who saw him as aligned with leftist causes as the country descended into a 1980-1992 civil war.

Crucial to Romero’s canonization, scheduled for Oct. 14, was Francis’ approval of a miracle attributed to his intercession in Flores’ case.

“If you believe in God or if you believe in anything, ask Him for your wife to be saved with a miracle” — that’s what a doctor told Alejandro Rivas in September 2015 after Flores, his wife, underwent an emergency cesarean section for their third child and was diagnosed with an infection that left her in a coma.

Suffering from internal hemorrhaging and with her kidneys on the verge of collapse, she was not expected to survive.

“They had told me that she was dying and I had to figure out what to do,” Rivas said Friday, “what was going to happen with her and with my children.”

​Prayers to Romero

Arriving back home he remembered his late grandmother had tried to instill in him her devotion to Romero, although it had never quite resonated for him. He asked his grandmother for help.

Later he picked up her Bible and inside found a card with Romero’s image. Kneeling, Rivas prayed to Romero for intervention.

He slept, woke up in the morning and returned to the hospital, where a nurse had stunning news: Flores had begun to improve around 2 or 2:30 a.m., the same time he had made his prayer.

“It left me frozen. I didn’t understand what was going on,” Rivas said. “Now I do understand, that it is an incredible miracle.”

Flores made a full recovery.

Beatified in 2015

Romero was previously beatified, a necessary step before canonization, in May 2015 in an emotional ceremony in the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador.

The day before his assassination, Romero sent a blunt message to the country’s military in his Sunday homily: “In the name of God and this suffering people, I implore you, I order you, in the name of God, to cease the repression.”

The gunman who killed him was contracted by right-wing death squads. A U.N. truth commission determined that one intellectual author of the assassination was Maj. Roberto d’Aubuisson, a founder of the conservative Arena party that governed the country from 1989 to 2009.

D’Aubuisson died in 1992. Neither he nor anyone else who may have ordered the killing was ever punished.

A 1993 amnesty decree prevented prosecution for civil war-era crimes for over two decades until it was declared unconstitutional in 2016.
…

The Yazidi community in Iraq and around the world expressed joy and hope after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2018 Peace Prize to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist and survivor of sexual slavery by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Murad will be sharing the prize with  Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist who treated thousands of women victims of rape and sexual violence.

The Nobel Peace Committee praised Murad’s courage because she did not accept the social codes that require women to remain silent and shamed after abuse.

“She has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings and speaking up on behalf of other victims,” the Norway-based Nobel Peace Prize Committee said.

Members of the Yazidi community told VOA their voices are now being heard and their plea for justice after the Sinjar massacre is being acknowledged by the world. 

Nagham Hasan, an Iraqi Yazidi activist and a gynecologist who offered treatment and counseling for many Yazidi women in refugee camps in Iraq including Nadia Murad, told VOA that the recognition of Murad is not just the recognition of the plight of Yazidi women, but also everyone else in Iraq who suffered at hands of extremists.

“When Nadia escaped her captivity and arrived to the camp in Sinjar she was traumatized and afraid, but now she blossomed into this strong woman and became the voice of all men and women victims of sexual violence,” Hasan said.

Hasan’s work was recognized in 2016 when she was awarded the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award for “promoting gender equality, combating gender-based violence, and providing psychological support for survivors of violence.”

Women struggle

Mirza Dinay, a Yazidi physician who helped hundreds of Yazidi girls seek asylum in Germany, told VOA that he is thrilled that Murad got this prize, which is a symbol of women’s struggle against sexual violence worldwide. 

“This is a win for Iraqis, Kurds and the Yazidi community and I hope this will encourage the Iraqi government to provide more support to the girls and women survivors of sexual violence,” Dinay said. 

Dawood Saleh, a Yazidi man from Sinjar who has resettled in the U.S., told VOA that Murad’s persistence in making the world listen to Yazidis’ plight has paid off.

“As a Yazidi survivor from IS genocide I feel happy that Nadia received this award. It means to me that Yazidis have value in the world,” Saleh said.

Murad’s reaction

According to United Nations, at least 10,000 Yazidis were either killed or abducted during the IS attack on Sinjar in 2014. The attack sparked international outcry and condemnation.  

Murad was one of those kidnapped by IS in Sinjar mountain in northwestern Iraq. She was sold several times as a sex slave to different IS members before she managed to escape after 3 months in captivity.

In reaction to Friday’s announcement, Murad told Nobel Committee that she did not think that she had the strength to do the work she has been doing. 

She said she derived her strength from thinking about what happened to her community and from the loss of many of her family members including her mother. 

“This prize will make the voices of women who suffered from sexual violence in conflict heard, especially the women in minorities like my community the Yazidis. It tells us that our voices will be heard,” Murad told the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Murad has been a strong advocate for justice for all Yazidis who were kidnapped and abused by IS and continues to raise her voice against sexual violence.

“Whatever has happened to Yazidis, from August 3rd (2014) till now, they should get their justice. An international tribunal should be formed as soon as possible and Yazidis and other minorities who cannot protect themselves should be protected,” Murad told VOA in 2016 during an exclusive interview. 

Yazidi rights groups estimate about 3,000 women and children remain missing, while thousands live under dire conditions in refugee camps in Iraq.
…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is stepping up his rhetoric over Cyprus in a move seen by analysts as taking on a more assertive approach that could result in a permanent partition of the divided Mediterranean island.

Addressing parliament Tuesday, Erdogan issued a stark warning. “No step can be taken in Cyprus or in the Aegean Sea at the expense of Turkey. Those who do disregard Turkey would put their own existence entirely at risk,” Erdogan said to his cheering deputies in the ruling AK Party.

Cyprus is divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since a Turkish military invasion in 1974 in response to an Athens-inspired coup. Ankara only recognizes the Turkish Cypriot government.

Tensions over the island are being stirred by the discovery of large offshore natural gas reserves. The find has sparked an exploration rush by international companies. Ankara maintains that both administrations on the island should control the energy exploration. The Greek Cypriots reject such calls, saying it is the only internationally recognized government on the island.

Erdogan has dispatched warships to back Turkish Cypriot claims. Analysts suggest the deployment is likely to be only saber-rattling.

“There is the new deal with France where it will position its warships in Cyprus in Larnaca [Greek Cypriot port],” former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen said. “According to some other reports, there will be U.S. warships escorting the Exxon [an American energy company] exploration, so Turkey will not be able singlehandedly to stop new exploration.”

EU membership

Ankara’s robust stance over Cyprus is seen by some observers as a sign of a broader shift in policy. “Erdogan has realized the classic Turkish policy to show muscle to show strength,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “I don’t expect any solution in Cyprus in political terms.”

The allure of Turkey joining the European Union has been a powerful impetus for Ankara backing reunification efforts of the island. With the Greek Cypriot side already an EU member and holding a veto over Turkey’s membership bid, Brussels says the island has to be reunified if Ankara’s bid is to succeed.

Ankara’s EU dream is now widely seen as over, with the economy in crisis and growing human rights concerns.

“With Turkey and the EU, there is no talk about EU membership; there are no talks about even a new customs union,” Selcen said. “Erdogan insists now that Turkey should have this businesslike transactional relationship with the EU. ”

The collapse in Turkey’s EU bid is seen as giving Erdogan a freer hand over Cyprus. “With Turkey not becoming a full member in the foreseeable future, why should Erdogan make any concessions on Cyprus to the Greek side?” asked international relations professor Bagci.

“In Turkish domestic politics, Tayyip Erdogan was very heavily criticized for making concessions to the Greek side,” Bagci added. “So he is now not going to make any more concessions.”

Previous reunification efforts

When coming to power as prime minister in 2003, Erdogan invested heavily in seeking a solution to reuniting the divided island. Under intense pressure by Erdogan, the then-Turkish Cypriot president, Rauf Denktas, reluctantly agreed to a U.N.-backed plan to reunite Cyprus. In 2004 simultaneous referendums, the U.N. plan was overwhelmingly backed by Turkish Cypriots but rejected by Greek Cypriots.

Subsequent U.N. efforts to reunite Cyprus have ended in deadlock, the most recent being last year. U.N. Security-General Antonio Guterres is to decide this month what to do to reunite the island.

Analysts say reunification efforts are likely to be further complicated by Erdogan’s announcement last month to increase the Turkish military presence on the island. Turkey’s military presence, estimated at around 30,000 strong, is a significant obstacle to reunification efforts. Nicosia is calling for a total Turkish withdrawal from the island.

“Not to reduce the military presence but to increase it, is showing muscles. Turkey is going back to the policy of the 1990s,” Bagci said. “That is a policy of showing military strength, and not to be open for any solution on the island.

“The Greeks have to realize there is only one solution, the recognition of the north [of the island] as an independent Turkish Cypriot state,” Bagci added.

Some observers suggest Erdogan’s shift on Cyprus is motivated by his courting of nationalist voters ahead of next year’s key local elections.

“The new muscular approach toward Cyprus could be to do with domestic politics rather than foreign policy,” said Selcen. “Because we are going toward the local elections, there is this delicate balance between AKP and nationalists, who call for a strong stance against Greek Cypriots.”

Turkish local elections are due to be held in March 2019; few observers expect any softening of Erdogan’s stance on Cyprus ahead of the crucial polls, declared a priority by the Turkish president. Analysts point out that even after the elections, there remains little incentive for Ankara to back reunification efforts given its EU bid is all but dead, at least for the foreseeable future.
…

The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery by Islamic State in Iraq.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement that the award recognizes “their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

“Mukwege is the foremost, most unifying symbol, both nationally and internationally, of the struggle to end sexual violence in war and armed conflicts,” the statement said. “His basic principle is that justice is everyone’s business.”

Murad, herself a victim of war crimes, “refused to accept the social codes that require women to remain silent and ashamed of the abuses to which they have been subjected,” the statement said. “She has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings and speaking up on behalf of other victims.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee received nominations for 216 individuals and 115 organizations. Only a few dozen of them are known, the committee keeps the list of nominations secret for 50 years, although some candidates are revealed by their nominators.

Among those put forward this year are the Syrian civilian aid group White Helmets, Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Edward Snowden and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Last year’s winner was the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, Physics and Chemistry were awarded earlier in the week.

The literature prize was not given this year because of a sexual misconduct scandal at the body that decides the award.

The Nobel Memorial Prize for economic sciences will be awarded Oct. 8.

​The prize will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. It comes with an award of $1.1 million.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
…

A Saudi Arabian journalist has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this week.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national and a contributor to The Washington Post, has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year when Saudi authorities began to crack down on dissident voices. The journalist has been critical of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.

Khashoggi went to the consulate Tuesday to obtain documents for his wedding.

Reported missing

His fiancee waited from him outside the consulate, but Khashoggi never came out of the building, she said.

She reported him missing, and Turkey summoned the Saudi ambassador.

Media reports say the Saudi ambassador met Wednesday with Turkey’s deputy foreign minister.

After the meeting, Saudi Arabia denied detaining Khashoggi.

Turkey, however, claimed to have information that Khashoggi was being held at the consulate.

“If Saudi authorities surreptitiously detained Khashoggi it would be yet another escalation of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s reign of repression against peaceful dissidents and critics,” said Sarah Leah Whiteson, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director. “The burden of proof is on Saudi Arabia to produce evidence for its claim that Khashoggi left the consulate alone, and that Saudi agents have not detained him.”

‘A missing voice’

On Friday, The Washington Post printed a blank column with the headline “A Missing Voice” in solidarity with Khashoggi.

The journalist’s fiancee told the newspaper that Khashoggi “had been concerned about going to the consulate.” She said, “How comfortable can one be if he is not liked by his country?”

Sherif Mansour, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said “Given the Saudi authorities’ pattern of quietly detaining critical journalists, Khashoggi’s failure to emerge from the Saudi consulate on the day he entered is a cause for alarm.”

CPJ said in a statement it has recently documented a steadily increasing number of bloggers and journalists detained in unknown locations without charges since the start of what Saudi authorities term an anti-corruption campaign in September 2017.
…

Western nations are warning Russia to stop aggressive behavior, including a violation of an arms control treaty, widespread cyberattacks and attempts to kill citizens in other countries. At a NATO meeting in Belgium Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Russia is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The Netherlands said it prevented a Russian cyberattack on an organization investigating chemical weapons use. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports on coordinated response.
…

The U.N. refugee agency warns populist politics and fear-mongering about immigration are eroding international protection for refugees fleeing conflict and persecution.  The UNHCR protection chief spoke about growing protection concerns at the agency’s annual refugee conference. 

Conflict, persecution and violence have displaced a record 68.5 million people around the world.  Most are internally displaced, while 25 million are refugees.  These are people who have crossed international borders and are entitled to international protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

But U.N. Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Turk says this right is slipping away.  He says some governments are taking political and legal measures to narrow the concept of who is a refugee.  He says being able to flee and be recognized as a refugee can be a matter of life and death.  

Unfortunately, he notes the issue of security is too often used to adopt restrictive approaches to deny refugees protection.

“Of course, there is no doubt governments need and must ensure the security of their citizens, but this is entirely complementary with providing refuge to people who flee persecution,” said Turk.

Turk says refugees are the victims, not the perpetrators, of violence and terror.  He says they often have rejected extremism and been targeted, forcing them to flee for their lives.  He says it is unjust to deny security to people who need it most.

“I think both in the global North and the global South, I have to say, it is our observation, that the dehumanization of refugees, of migrants, of IDP’s, of stateless individuals has become a worrying trend,” said Turk. “It results from inappropriate language, misinformation, deterrence, detention, separation of families and children, and ‘warehousing.”

Turk says xenophobia, racism, and bigotry often are driven by fear, anger and anxiety within communities.  He says they must be confronted and addressed.  He warns history shows how the mistreatment of the foreigner paves the way for the mistreatment of the citizen.
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday Russia’s violation of a global arms control treaty is “untenable” and warned the U.S. would be forced to match Moscow’s military capabilities if it continues to violate the pact.

The U.S. maintains Russia’s Novator 9M729 cruise missile violates the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement that bans medium-range missiles capable of striking Europe or Alaska. The treaty bans all nuclear and conventional ground-launched and cruise missiles of intermediate range.

Mattis told reporters Thursday after a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels the U.S. is reviewing its military and diplomatic options because of Russia’s continued violation of the treaty.

“Russia must return to compliance with the INF Treaty or the U.S. will need to match its capabilities to protect U.S. and NATO interests. Make no mistake, the current situation with Russia in violation of this treaty, is “untenable,” Mattis said.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchinson said if Russia does not comply with the treaty, the U.S. will explore ways to “take out” Russia’s cruise missile system. She later said she did not mean the U.S. would strike Russia pre-emptively, but wanted to emphasize the importance of Moscow’s adherence to the treaty.

Russia has consistently denied any such violation and has asserted that the U.S. has positioned missile defense systems in violation of the pact.

The U.S. initially accused Moscow early last year of deploying the cruise missile system.

Mattis’ remarks may exacerbate U.S.-Russia relations, which have deteriorated to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War due to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea, its continuous bombing of Syria and it’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
…

At an upcoming U.N. disarmament conference, the United States vows to push back against Russian and Chinese threats against the peaceful use of outer space. The U.N. General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security opens Monday in New York and is scheduled to run five weeks.

Ambassador Robert Wood, U.S. permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, laid out some of Washington’s main priorities in advance of the U.N. disarmament and security meeting.

He said the U.S. delegation plans to actively push against issues that go against U.S. and allied security interests. Foremost among these, he said, was the U.S. determination to counter Russian and Chinese outer space and cyber threats.

He said the U.S. dismisses claims that activities by Moscow and Beijing are aimed at preventing the militarization of outer space.  

“What they want to do is to limit the United States’ ability to operate in space by in essence going forward with an initiative that allows them to be able to attack satellites and other peaceful space vehicles through the use of anti-satellite weapons,” Wood said.

In 2014, the Russian and Chinese governments submitted a new version of a draft treaty on the prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space Treaty (PPWT).  When they introduced the draft treaty, they said, “We consider a legally binding ban on placement of weapons in outer space as one of the most important instruments of strengthening global stability and equal and indivisible security for all.”

Ambassador Wood, during a press conference, said the proposed treaty was “not verifiable” and does not deal with the fundamental issue, which is banning anti-satellite weapons – terrestrial based anti-satellite weapons. The treaty does not cover that subject. He said that was one of the major threats to the peaceful use of outer space.

“When we ask the Russians and Chinese why do you not take on this issue in full, they kind of fudge (obfuscate) and do not really address the issue,” he said.

Wood said a second priority is to uphold the norm against chemical weapons use. Over the past year, he noted, Russia has worked to discredit the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The main function of the OPCW is to ensure the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.   

“You have seen many public statements by Russian officials dismissing independent analyses, independent investigations, the work of the OPCW with regard to Syria’s chemical weapons use. So, this, first and foremost, is a major challenge trying to counter this very, very strong Russian propaganda effort,” he said.  

Wood said the U.S. and its allies have to push back against Russian claims that Syria never used chemical weapons. He said both Syria and Russia must be held accountable for these crimes.

 
…

Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops to dream of a future free of the mistakes of the past as he opened a global church leadership meeting Wednesday amid renewed outrage over the priestly sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Yet down the block from the Vatican’s synod hall, about two dozen abuse survivors staged a sit-in, demanding their cause be taken up at the meeting and voicing outrage that some of the delegates had covered up for abusive priests.

“Make ‘Zero Tolerance’ Real,” read one protest sign.

Francis welcomed more than 250 priests, bishops and cardinals — as well as 34 young Catholics — to a monthlong meeting on ministering to future generations, urging young and old to listen to one another without prejudice.

He prayed for God’s help to ensure the church “does not allow itself, from one generation to the next, to be extinguished or crushed by the prophets of doom and misfortune, by our own shortcomings, mistakes and sins.”

The Oct. 3-28 synod comes amid new revelations about decades of sexual misconduct by priests and cover-ups in the U.S., Chile, Germany and elsewhere. That has sent confidence in Francis’ leadership to all-time lows among the American faithful.

31 percent support

A new survey by the Pew Research Center found that just 31 percent of U.S. Catholics felt the pope was doing an excellent or good job in addressing the abuse issue, down from 45 percent in January and 55 percent in 2015.

It has been a disastrous year for the pope on the abuse front, after he botched a prominent cover-up scandal in Chile before changing course. More recently, he has been accused of rehabilitating an American ex-cardinal who pressured seminarians to sleep with him.

Those cases, coupled with the release of devastating studies about decades of abuses and cover-ups in Pennsylvania and Germany that predated his papacy, have fueled doubts about his oft-stated pledge of having “zero tolerance” for that, since implicated bishops remain in place.

“Pope Francis talks about ‘zero tolerance,’ and that bishops who cover up should be removed and put on trial,” said Alessandro Battaglia, who was 15 when he was abused by a Milan-area priest who last month was convicted and sentenced to over six years in prison.

The current archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini, testified at the trial of the Rev. Mauro Galli that he had transferred Galli to another parish rather than report him to police or keep him away from other potential victims, as Battaglia’s family had requested.

Despite publicity about the case, Francis named Delpini archbishop of Milan in July and named him a papal delegate at the synod.

“What is this ‘zero tolerance’?” Battaglia asked at the protest Wednesday. ‘If he wants to give a sign of zero tolerance and coherence and credibility, remove him [Delpini].”

Provolo Institute

Among those participating in the protest were the hearing-impaired victims of the notorious Antonio Provolo Institute in Verona, Italy, where deaf children were sodomized for years by Catholic priests and brothers. The victims have found no justice even though Francis and the Vatican were informed of their plight in 2014. They are now preparing a case to take to Italian prosecutors.

“We think young people should question the way the church has dealt with this in the past,” said Matthias Katsch of the Ending Clergy Abuse global advocacy group.

Francis didn’t refer directly to the abuse scandal in his homily at Mass or later Wednesday in his opening speech to the synod. He did, however, call for an end to the “scourge of clericalism” — the culture that puts clergy on a pedestal and unaccountable to their flocks, which Francis has blamed for the scandal.

“Clericalism is a perversion and is the root of many evils in the church,” he told the delegates. “We must humbly ask forgiveness for this and above all create the conditions so that it is not repeated.”

Francis choked up during his homily when he welcomed two Chinese bishops to the gathering, the first time Chinese bishops have attended a Vatican synod. That was made possible thanks to a landmark agreement with Beijing over bishop nominations that unified the Chinese Catholic leadership for the first time in decades.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Israel on Wednesday for the latest in a series of joint government consultations highlighting the countries’ close bond seven decades after the Holocaust, even as recent developments have tested the tight ties. 

Her two-day visit is expected to focus on bilateral economic issues, with an emphasis on innovation, technology and development projects. But looming in the background will be sharp differences in Israeli and German policies toward Iran and the Palestinians. 

Merkel, who is accompanied by much of her Cabinet, a large business delegation and her new czar for combatting anti-Semitism, will visit Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and receive an honorary doctorate from Haifa University. It’s the seventh such joint government meeting since Israel and Germany established the tradition a decade ago. 

Merkel headed to Jerusalem shortly after landing for dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Germany is Israel’s largest trading partner in Europe and for the past few decades has been perhaps its strongest ally. Israel was established three years after the end of World War II, and the German government has paid billions in reparations to Holocaust survivors and positioned itself as a leader in combatting anti-Semitism. 

But differences have been exacerbated following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Netanyahu has been one of Trump’s staunchest international supporters, lauding him for pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal that Merkel and other world leaders helped negotiate in 2015. Netanyahu says the deal, which curbed Iran’s nuclear program, does not include enough safeguards to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapons capability. 

Trump also has largely refrained from criticizing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank — a frequent European complaint — recognized Jerusalem as its capital and moved the U.S. embassy there. He also has cut funding to the Palestinians and fully pinned the blame for stalled Mideast peace talks on them. 

Netanyahu’s rapport with Merkel has been cordial and even cool at times. Merkel has continued to champion the traditional approach to peacemaking, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state and for Israel to refrain from unilateral steps to undermine its prospect. Germany, for instance, has been among the European countries calling on Israel to refrain from carrying out its plans to demolish a West Bank hamlet it says was illegally built. 

Israel has offered to resettle the 180 Bedouin Palestinian residents of the Khan al-Ahmar encampment a few miles (kilometers) away. But Palestinians and their European backers say the demolition is aimed at displacing Palestinians in favor of settlement expansion and would deal a devastating blow to hopes for Palestinian statehood. 

Israel’s Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against the plans and residents are bracing for the move any day. Israeli forces are unlikely to carry it out though during Merkel’s brief stay for fear of sparking a crisis. 

Regardless, Israeli officials say they don’t expect that issue — or Merkel’s long held preference to maintain the Iran deal — to overshadow the visit, which is expected to bring about new economic agreements, the creation of a formal youth exchange and a renewed commitment to combating anti-Semitism, after Israel raised alarm over several recent cases in Germany. 

Shimon Stein, a former Israeli ambassador to Germany, said that despite the Israeli government’s growing alliances with several eastern European countries in the battle against radical Islam, Germany remains its strongest and most significant European backer. 

“These routine consultations have created a symbolism for the relationship that should not be overlooked,” he said. “Germany doesn’t always see eye to eye with Israel … but it is the leading supporter of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965, after which Germany began paying reparations for the Nazi-led Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered. 

The first joint consultation was in March 2008, when Merkel and her Cabinet arrived to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence. During that three-day visit, Merkel addressed the Israeli parliament, in German, and expressed shame over the Holocaust. The 20-minute speech earned Merkel a standing ovation.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday strongly defended a prospective Russia-Germany natural gas pipeline as economically feasible and voiced hope that European Union nations will be able to resist U.S. pressure to thwart the project.

U.S. officials have warned that Washington could impose sanctions on the undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The U.S. and some EU nations oppose it, warning it would increase Europe’s energy dependence on Russia. The U.S. is also interested in selling more of its liquefied natural gas in Europe.

Speaking Wednesday after talks with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in St. Petersburg, Putin noted that Bulgaria caved in to pressure and dumped the Russian South Stream pipeline.

He added that he hopes that “Europe as a whole won’t look like Bulgaria and won’t demonstrate its weakness and inability to protect its interests.”

“Russia always has been and will remain the most reliable supplier,” Putin said, adding that the Russian gas supplied via pipelines is significantly cheaper than U.S. liquefied gas. “Supplies come directly from Yamal in Siberia. There are no transit risks.”

It would be “silly and wasteful” if Europe opts for a more expensive option, hurting its consumers and its global competitiveness, Putin charged.

Ukraine, which has served as the main transit route for Russian gas supplies to Europe, has strongly opposed the Russian pipeline, fearing that it would leave its pipeline empty. The two ex-Soviet neighbors have been locked in a bitter tug-of-war after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Kurz spoke in support of Nord Stream 2 but also emphasized the importance to continue supplies via Ukraine.

“It’s very important that Ukraine’s interests as a key transit country be upheld,” he said.

Putin has previously pledged to consider the continuation of gas supplies via Ukraine if it settles a commercial dispute with Russia over previous gas supplies.
…

Arrayed between elegant stone buildings and run-down railway tracks in the northwest of Paris lie bustling playgrounds, plant-filled ponds and stretches of lush grass.

The Clichy-Batignolles area, a former industrial wasteland, has morphed into the French capital’s first “eco-neighborhood,” billed as a model of sustainable development for the rest of the city.

Clarisse Genton, project coordinator for the Clichy-Batignolles district, said it aims to be “environmentally responsible” — with solar panels on homes and clean geothermal energy for heating, for example.

But the eco-effort also has a social aim: to address the city’s affordable housing crisis and ensure green benefits reach the poor as well as the rich.

“We wanted to create a district that’s accessible to all and to bridge the gap between poor and rich parts of the city,” said Genton, referring to the neighboring posh district of Monceau and the poorer La Fourche.

Paris is one of more than 70 cities worldwide that have pledged to become “carbon neutral” by 2050, meaning they will produce no more climate-changing emissions than they can offset, such as by planting carbon-absorbing trees.

Each is going about achieving the goal in its own way. But because cities account for about three-quarters of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.N., and consume more than two-thirds of the world’s energy, whether they succeed or fail will have a huge impact on whether the world’s climate goals are met.

“Cities are where everything comes together: homes, transport, public spaces — so there’s a real role for them to help create the living places of the future,” said Eliot Whittington, director of the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group, a coalition of businesses promoting climate action.

“We’ve got to a state of accepting a certain level of waste and energy [use], but climate change [and] heat waves affect us all and have a real toll on people’s lives,” he told Reuters.

Global warming is currently set to exceed the more ambitious limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degree Fahrenheit) called for in the 2015 Paris Agreement to curb climate change, according to a draft U.N. report due for publication in October.

Following public consultations, Paris adopted its climate action plan in March. It aims to make the city carbon-neutral and entirely powered by renewable energy by 2050.

From swimming pools heated by sewage to ensuring the city is fully “cyclable” by 2020, it includes more than 500 initiatives to reimagine Paris as a zero-carbon capital.

‘Green lung’

The Clichy-Batignolles area of 54 hectares (130 acres), once chosen as Paris’s Olympic village as part of the city’s failed 2012 bid, is built around a 10-hectare park containing a skate park, deck chairs and wooden bridges.

Martin Luther King Park acts as a “green lung” and an “island of coolness” for the neighborhood, said Genton, showing a miniature model of the district to two passersby.

“Rainwater is channeled toward wetlands rather than discharged into sewers, and household waste is collected through an underground pneumatic system — removing the need for garbage trucks,” she added.

Buildings are heated by a new geothermal plant, and about two-thirds of homes are equipped with solar panels on their roof.

But the eco-district is about more than energy efficiency and biodiversity, said Genton, adding that “we urgently need affordable homes in a city that cannot grow and where prices are skyrocketing.”

Half of the neighborhood’s newly built flats qualify as social housing and can be rented for about 300 euros a month, she said.

Local residents have so far warmed to their new neighborhood, and say they feel “more connected” to the rest of the city, she said.

But many still await the arrival of a promised metro line, which should help reduce traffic and public transport congestion in the area, Genton said.

Virgile Geraud, a retired carpenter who has lived in Clichy-Batignolles for 40 years and is considering renting one of the new homes, said that “this new park, these new buildings … it’s really nice, it’s a change of lifestyle.”

“But some people think the new buildings are too tall or too modern,” he added, pointing to a bright yellow crane looming over a half-completed building.

Denis Musanga, who two months ago moved to Clichy-Batignolles from the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, said he was “shocked by how clean it is, even at night.”

He is less convinced of the “affordable” label, however, saying that he pays 650 euros for one room in a two-bed flat — “much more than what I paid in the suburbs.”

Citizen-led

If zero-carbon initiatives are to succeed, citizens need to buy into them, according to the city of Paris’ climate plan, which received hundreds of proposals from residents to improve their city.

Fortunately, many ways of cutting emissions can also help people be more comfortable or save money, experts said.

Improving home insultation, for instance, can curb emissions, make people more comfortable and make a “significant difference” in their energy bills, Whittington said.

“Loft insulation for example is one of the easiest things to do, but what holds people back from doing it is the hassle. When do you do it? How do you clear the loft?”

European cities have come a long way in improving energy efficiency in buildings and homes, he said, but still have a “huge body of old, inefficient buildings.”

“That’s a missed opportunity to tackle energy waste and improve people’s lives,” he said.

Aiming to tackle this is France’s Passeport Efficacite Energetique (Energy Efficiency Passport) — a project led by think tanks and companies such as French utility EDF. It encourages householders to renovate their homes step by step.

Still in its pilot phase, the project involves auditing the energy efficiency of homes and storing any progress made — such as the use of more efficient lighting — with an online tool.

Musanga, whose building is not yet equipped with solar panels, said he is open to the idea but “wants proof” that going greener can save him money.

“If it helps the planet, then that’s a bonus,” he said, tying on his rollerblades before disappearing into the distance.
…

Russia has delivered an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria, it said Tuesday, in defiance of Israeli and U.S. concerns that the arms sale would embolden Iran and escalate the Syrian war.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting broadcast by Rossiya 24 TV: “The work was finished a day ago,” adding that the system would improve the security of Russian military personal in Syria.

Russia decided to supply the system after Moscow accused Israel of indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military jet near Syria in September.

Israel voiced regret at the death of 15 Russian air crew while saying Syrian incompetence was at fault and that it was compelled to continue taking action against suspected deployments of Iranian-backed forces across its northern border.

“We have not changed our strategic line on Iran,” Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said Tuesday.

“We will not allow Iran to open up a third front against us. We will take actions as required,” he told Israel Radio.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert could not confirm reports that the S-300 had been delivered.

“I cannot confirm that that is accurate. I hope that they did not,” she told a press briefing. “That would be, I think, sort of a serious escalation in concerns and issues going on in Syria, but I just can’t confirm it.”
…

Following are some of the many possible contenders to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as EU chief executive after elections to the European Parliament in May.

Apart from electoral uncertainty, it is unclear that national leaders will follow Parliament’s call for them to pick a European Commission president from among the lead candidates of parties contesting the ballot.

Conservatives

Manfred Weber — An MEP for 14 years, the 46-year-old German has led the biggest EU parliamentary group since 2014. He has declared he will run and he can be confident of support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel despite his youthful years and lack of the government experience that is usual for commission presidents. Diplomats in Brussels say, however, Merkel could still drop Weber to secure another prominent job for Germany, like the head of the European Central Bank, which also comes vacant next autumn.

Michel Barnier — The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator ruled himself

out of the race on Friday.

Alexander Stubb — The former Finnish prime minister announced he would challenge Weber at an EPP nominating convention in Helsinki on Nov. 8. Stubb, 50, competes in “Iron Man” triathlons and is multilingual, unlike Weber, who does not speak French, or Barnier, who rarely seems comfortable in English.

Other names cited have included Merkel allies Peter Altmaier and Ursula von der Leyen and French IMF managing director Christine Lagarde — not to mention the wild card of Merkel herself, who is now in her fourth term.

Socialists

Marcos Sefcovic — The Moscow-educated Slovak diplomat who has worked in Brussels since 2004 and is Juncker’s vice president for energy, said in June he would run. He is 52. Sources in Brussels say he stands no chance in the top job race but will be Bratislava’s pick for a portfolio in the next commission.

Christian Kern — Austria’s former chancellor, Kern is known for his strongly pro-European stance. He said earlier this month he would seek to win a seat in the European Parliament next May.

​Federica Mogherini — The 45-year-old was catapulted into the high-ranked commission post of EU foreign policy chief in 2014. She could benefit from efforts to promote female candidates and a better left-right balance in Brussels but may struggle to get the necessary support from the new populist coalition in Rome.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt — Danish prime minister until 2015, at 51 she is perennially cited as a center-left hope for senior EU roles but lacks backing from the ruling right in Copenhagen.

Frans Timmermans — Juncker’s Dutch deputy, 57, is a former foreign minister and passionate, multilingual advocate for the EU but his party’s national eclipse counts against him.

Pierre Moscovici — Former French finance minister, 60, now EU economics commissioner, his party’s national disarray is also a disadvantage, as is German wariness over his commitment to Berlin’s vision of a eurozone of tight public finances.

Nadia Calvino — Long a senior commission civil servant, at 50 she has the rare distinction for EU Socialists of being in government, having been named Madrid’s economy minister in June.

Liberals

Guy Verhofstadt — Former Belgian prime minister who leads the liberals in the EU parliament, his age (65) and outspoken advocacy of much more powers for Brussels may limit his appeal. 

Margrethe Vestager — As a woman, age 50 and with a star profile in Brussels from attacking tax avoidance and monopoly powers among U.S. multinationals like Google and Apple as the EU competition commissioner, the Danish former economy minister is widely talked about as a liberal who could win support beyond her party — even if Denmark’s ruling conservatives oppose her.

​Cecilia Malmstrom — Another straight-talking, 50-year-old Scandinavian woman who has had a big role in Brussels’ tussles with Washington, the EU trade commissioner and former Swedish Europe minister could tick similar boxes to Vestager.

Mark Rutte — Dutch prime minister for eight years, the 51-year-old may be tempted by a new job. He is solidly pro-EU but appeals to those who want its budgets and powers kept in check.

Xavier Bettel — In five years as Luxembourg prime minister, during which he married his male partner, the 45-year-old has built good relations with fellow national leaders. They might balk at choosing another Luxemburger after Juncker, but his friendship with the even younger Macron could be an asset.
…

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Arthur Ashkin of the United States, France’s Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland of Canada for their “groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”  

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences gave half of the $1 million prize to Ashkin, while the other researchers will share the other half.

The academy said their work in advanced precision instruments — described as “tools made of light” — has opened up “unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications.”

Ashkin was noted for his invention of so-called optical tweezers that use “the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects,” while Mourou and Strickland were honored for developing a new method for generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses that have led to such everyday practices as corrective eye surgery.

The remaining two Nobel Prizes of 2018, for chemistry and peace, will be announced on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.  The literature prize will not be given this year because of a sexual misconduct scandal at the Swedish Academy, the body that decides the award. The Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday, October 8.

 
…

A female suspect allegedly paid tens of thousands of euros for the assassination of a Slovak reporter, whose death shocked the nation and led to the resignation of its prime minister, prosecutors said Monday.

The suspect, identified as Alena Zs, allegedly ordered the murder, paying €50,000 ($58,100) and forgiving a debt of €20,000. The hitman was identified as Tomas Sz, a former police officer. Two other accomplices are in custody.

Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were found dead from gunshots wounds at their home near Bratislava in February.  Kuciak, 27, had been reporting on links between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia. Prosecutors say he was killed to prevent his story from being published. Kusnirova was apparently an unintended victim.

Kuciak’s death was the first targeted killing of a journalist in the country’s history. Public outcry against the murders and government corruption was so strong that Prime Minister Robert Fico was forced to resign in March.

Local media reported Alena Zs had been an interpreter for Slovak multimillionaire Marian Kocner, whose business activities were being scrutinized by Kuciak at the time of his death. Kocner is reportedly the godfather of the Alena Zs’ daughter. 

Kocner, 55, owns several companies. He has been in custody since June on suspicion of having forged promissory notes. He has not been charged in connection with Kuciak’s killing. 

Observers say the murders are characteristic of a European political climate that has increasingly shifted away from freedom of the press.

“Despite the fact that Slovakia is a democracy and is an EU member, there has been this somewhat negative trend in regards to media freedom for some time,” Gulnoza Said of the Committee to Protect Journalists told VOA News. “It climaxed this year when Jan Kuciak and his fiancée were found murdered.”

“That just shows that even the situation in countries that have always been, or at least for some time have been considered democracies, is changing,” she said.
…

Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Monday, sharpening the government’s criticism of the European Union for taunting Prime Minister Theresa May and souring difficult Brexit talks.

May’s ministers have come out one by one at their party’s annual conference in the city of Birmingham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show “respect” in the talks to end Britain’s membership.

Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, May faces growing criticism over her proposals not only in her governing party but also in Brussels.

Party unity is on British ministers’ minds, and they are encouraging the faithful to direct their anger at the EU rather than at their prime minister, who some eurosceptic Conservatives accuse of leading Britain towards a “Brexit in name only.”

But the new strident tone has annoyed many in Brussels, especially when foreign minister Jeremy Hunt compared the bloc to the Soviet Union, the master of several states in eastern Europe which saw membership of the EU as a measure of their freedom.

Other ministers, such as finance minister Philip Hammond, have taken a softer tone, pointing out that leaving without a deal could hurt Britain’s economy, the world’s fifth largest.

But Raab said he had called on the EU to match the “ambition and pragmatism” Britain had put forward with May’s Chequers proposals, named after her country residence where an agreement with her ministers was hashed out in July.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t on display in Salzburg,” he said, describing a summit last month in the Austrian city where EU leaders rejected parts of the Chequers plan. “Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders and we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation.”

“What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country’s interests,” Raab said, later calling again on the EU to move their position and meet Britain half way.

Instead of the much-hoped-for staging post, the Salzburg summit has become a byword for a sharp deterioration in the atmosphere of the talks, when British government officials felt May was ambushed by the other EU leaders over Brexit.

“No Cherries”

A tweet by European Council President Donald Tusk showing him offering May a selection of cakes with the comment: “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries” “certainly had an impact,” one official said.

With no divorce deal and a standoff over the shape of any future relationship, the possibility of a “no deal Brexit” has increased, with some businesses preparing for what they see as a worst case scenario.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the discussion in Britain over Brexit was still far removed from reality.

“The world is watching,” said Matthew Fell, chief U.K. policy director at the Confederation of British Industry.

“Every signal is hugely important in terms of setting the tone. So the more that people can coalesce around some areas of agreement such as an industrial strategy, innovation and skills would be hugely helpful,” he told Reuters.

But one source close to the government said there was now a sense that the EU had realized that the tone set in Salzburg was “perhaps a bit off” and, behind the scenes, conversations between the two sides were more constructive.

Raab later said the government was open to looking at regulatory checks to try to ease talks on a so-called backstop to prevent a return to a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland – one of the outstanding issues yet to be agreed.

Hammond, for one, was keen to pursue a more positive stance.

After Brexit, Britain and the EU will still “be neighbors and we are going to have to carry on living with each other,” he told the conference, again backing May’s Chequers plan. “Mr. Tusk says it won’t work. But that’s what people said about the light bulb in 1878. Our job is to prove him wrong.”

But Hunt’s popular line at conference, that the EU was acting like the Soviet Union, did little to soothe relations, provoking those eastern members of the bloc which only regained full independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They joined the EU more than a decade later.

Lithuania’s EU commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told Hunt he was born in a Soviet gulag forced labour camp and was jailed by the Soviet KGB state security agency.

“Happy to brief you on the main differences between EU and Soviet Union,” he said. “Anytime. Whatever helps.”

But back in Birmingham, it was Raab, winning a standing ovation for his story about his father’s journey from then Czechoslovakia after the Nazi invasion, who summed up Britain’s new combative stance.

“The EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise,” he said. “If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious.”
…

The United Nations’ highest court has rejected a request by Bolivia for its judges to order Chile to negotiate a way of granting landlocked Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean.

International Court of Justice President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said Monday a string of agreements between the two countries and Chilean statements over the years didn’t create an obligation on Chile to negotiate access to the ocean for Bolivia.

Bolivia lost its only coast to neighboring Chile during a 1879-1883 war and the nation has demanded ocean access for generations.

But Chile argued in court that its border with Bolivia was settled in a 1904 treaty and that it had no obligation to negotiate.
…

U.S. Ambassador to Romania Hans Klemm says the country’s legal system is being “dismantled” by legislators in order to protect their own interests.

Klem said Monday in a speech to University of Bucharest law students and faculty that judicial officials are being “increasingly targeted politically, and in the media for court decisions and public opinions that political leaders see as endangering their private interests.”

Klem said the result will be less accountability, more criminality, and less international cooperation in the fight against global threats, such as cybercrime, human trafficking, corruption, money laundering, and terrorism.

The Social Democrat government has made several changes to Romania’s legal code to decriminalize corruption since taking power in 2017.

Government crackdowns on civilian protests against the changes have led to accusations of police brutality.
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Pro-secession activists in Catalonia blocked major highways, train lines and avenues across the northeastern region Monday on the anniversary of a banned referendum that was crushed by police and failed to deliver independence from Spain.

Student strikes, emotional speeches and mass demonstrations were planned to commemorate the Oct. 1, 2017, vote that Spanish courts had deemed illegal and that caused the country’s gravest political crisis in decades.

The anniversary is being marked by a fractured Catalan independence movement fractured and amid a timid dialogue with the central government, now in the hands of a minority Socialist administration.

The day began with early protests called via online messaging apps by the Committees for the Defense of the Republic, or CDRs. They are local activist groups that emerged after last year’s independence declaration, based on the referendum’s results, was never implemented. Central authorities took control of Catalonia and a judicial investigation landed top separatist leaders in jail while others fled the country.

In Girona, north of Barcelona, hundreds of activists on Monday occupied high-speed railway tracks, halting train traffic for more than two hours before they peacefully left the local station. Some protesters then moved to the local headquarters of the Spanish government’s delegation, demanding the removal of the national flag from the building.

The CDRs also shared photos and posts on social media showing road blockages on regional roads and at several points along the AP-7 highway, the main north-south artery running through eastern Catalonia and leading to the French border.

Their presence also disturbed traffic on the main roads of Catalan cities like Lleida and Barcelona, the regional capital, where marches were planned throughout the day.

Maria Vila, a protester who was placing “Republic under construction” stickers in Barcelona’s main thoroughfare, said she wanted to highlight last year’s violence and demand more progress on secession.

“The Catalan government has not done much and we are determined to make the Catalan Republic happen, in any way we can, even if it is by holding another referendum, a legal one,” she told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, members of the regional government and other top authorities returned to Sant Julia de Ramis, the northern town that has become a symbolic place for Catalan separatists because one year ago police stormed into the local school to prevent people from voting.

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s president at the time, had been scheduled to vote there but had to find an alternative polling station when anti-riot police broke the gates of the school to confiscate ballot boxes and used batons to disperse and injure voters refusing to leave.

The incidents were broadcast live and brought pressure on the Spanish central government, at the time in the hands of conservatives. Separatists claimed a victory for independence in the vote despite its illegal nature, the police violence and a lack of oversight.

In a brief speech Monday, Catalonia’s current president, Quim Torra, called on supporters gathered outside of the Sant Julia de Ramis school to remember the lessons of the referendum and to press ahead with efforts to secede from Spain.

He spoke while some people held a banner behind him reading, in Catalan, “People demand, the government obeys,” a message that could be aimed at the Spanish government that says the country’s constitution doesn’t allow a referendum on a region’s secession, but also at regional separatist politicians who have been criticized for not delivering on the promise of independence.

Torra was hand-picked by Puigdemont from Belgium, where the separatist leader successfully fought off extradition and has been advocating for an independent Catalonia. On Monday, he released a video on Twitter calling on Catalans to remain united in persevering with the goal of breaking away from Spain.

“Let us not stray from the only possible way to live in a full democracy: the (Catalan) Republic and its international recognition,” Puigdemont said.

Torra has asked the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to authorize a binding vote on secession, and also to release the nine separatist leaders that are in pre-trial detention on rebellion and other charges.

Dialogue between the regional and national administrations has so far delivered some economic deals for funding the region but remains mired amid internal discord among separatists on the best strategy going forward and the weak parliamentary support for Sanchez’s government.

The spokeswoman of his new center-left government on Monday called last year’s police violence “a mistake” and blamed it for damaging the country’s reputation internationally. But Isabel Celaa also said the vote didn’t succeed: “There is nothing to celebrate” on Oct. 1, she told Cadena Ser radio.

Polls and recent elections show that the region’s 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question.

 
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Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year’s announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements begins Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

Since the first prizes were awarded in 1901, 892 individuals have received one, but just 48 of them have been women. Thirty of those women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine. In addition, only one woman has won for the economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel but is associated with the prizes.

Some of the disparity likely can be attributed to underlying structural reasons, such as the low representation of women in high-level science. The American Institute of Physics, for example, says in 2014, only 10 percent of full physics professorships were held by women.

But critics suggest that gender bias pervades the process of nominations, which come largely from tenured professors.

“The problem is the whole nomination process, you have these tenured professors who feel like they are untouchable. They can get away with everything from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions like assuming the woman in the room will take the notes, or be leaving soon to have babies,” said Anne-Marie Imafidon, the head of Stemettes, a British group that encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“It’s little wonder that these people aren’t putting women forward for nominations. We need to be better at telling the stories of the women in science who are doing good things and actually getting recognition,” she said.

Powerful men taking credit for the ideas and elbow grease of their female colleagues was turned on its head in 1903 when Pierre Curie made it clear he would not accept the physics prize unless his wife and fellow researcher Marie Curie was jointly honored. She was the first female winner of any Nobel prize, but only one other woman has won the physics prize since then.

More than 70 years later, Jocelyn Bell, a post-graduate student at Cambridge, was overlooked for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, took all of the Nobel credit.

Brian Keating, a physics professor at the University of California San Diego and author of the book “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” says the Nobel Foundation should lift its restrictions on re-awarding for a breakthrough if an individual has been overlooked. He also says posthumous awards also should be considered and there should be no restriction on the number of individuals who can share a prize. Today the limit is three people for one prize.

“These measures would go a long way to addressing the injustice that so few of the brilliant women who have contributed so much to science through the years have been overlooked,” he said.

Keating fears that simply accepting the disparity as structural will seriously harm the prestige of all the Nobel prizes.

“I think with the Hollywood (hash)MeToo movement, it has already happened in the film prizes. It has happened with the literature prize. There is no fundamental law of nature that the Nobel science prizes will continue to be seen as the highest accolade,” he said.

This year’s absence of a Nobel Literature prize, which has been won by 14 women, puts an even sharper focus on the gender gap in science prizes.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, said it would not pick a winner this year after sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals rocked the secretive panel, sharply dividing its 18 members, who are appointed for life. Seven members quit or distanced themselves from academy. Its permanent secretary, Anders Olsson, said the academy wanted “to commit time to recovering public confidence.”

The academy plans to award both the 2018 prize and the 2019 prize next year _ but even that is not guaranteed. The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, was quoted Friday as warning that if the Swedish Academy does not resolve its tarnished image another group could be chosen to select the literature prize every year.

Stung by criticism about the diversity gap between former prize winners, the Nobel Foundation has asked that the science awarding panels for 2019 ask nominators to consider their own biases in the thousands of letters they send to solicit Nobel nominations.

“I am eager to see more nominations for women so they can be considered,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation. “We have written to nominators asking them to make sure they do not miss women or people of other ethnicities or nationalities in their nominations. We hope this will make a difference for 2019.”

It’s not the first time that Nobel officials have sought diversity. In his 1895 will, prize founder Alfred Nobel wrote: “It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration shall be given to national affiliations of any kind, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.”

Even so, the prizes remained overwhelmingly white and male for most of their existence.

For the first 70 years, the peace prize skewed heavily toward Western white men, with just two of the 59 prizes awarded to individuals or institutions based outside Europe or North America. Only three of the winners in that period were female.

The 1973 peace prize shared by North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and American Henry Kissinger widened the horizons _ since then more than half the Nobel Peace prizes have gone to African or Asian individuals or institutions.

Since 2000, six women have won the peace prize.

After the medicine prize on Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the Nobel in physics on Tuesday and in chemistry on Wednesday, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. On Oct. 8, Sweden’s Central Bank announces the winner of the economics prize, given in honor of Alfred Nobel.
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Few Macedonians turned out to vote in a referendum on whether to change the name of their country — a move that could pave the way for it to join NATO and the European Union.

According to election officials, only about a third of eligible voters cast ballots Sunday. But more than 90 percent of those voting cast a ballot in favor of changing the country’s name to North Macedonia.

Macedonia’s electoral commission said two days ago the referendum results would be declared invalid if less than 50 percent of the eligible voting population went to the polls

Nationalists, including Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, had urged a boycott of the vote.

Macedonians are being asked to change the name of their country to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece and pave the way for the country’s admission into NATO and the European Union.

Athens has argued that the name “Macedonia” belongs exclusively to its northern province of Macedonia and using the name implies Skopje’s intentions to claim the Greek province.

Greece has for years pressured Skopje into renouncing the country’s name, forcing it to use the more formal moniker Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the United Nations. Greece has consistently blocked its smaller neighbor from gaining membership in NATO and the EU as long it retains its name.

President Ivanov said giving in to Athens’ demand would be a “flagrant violation of sovereignty.”

He steadfastly refused to back the deal reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, that put the name change to a vote.

“This referendum could lead us to become a subordinate state, dependent on another country,” Ivanov said. “We will become a state in name only, not in substance.”
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