Albanians voted in parliamentary elections Sunday as the country looks to bolster its democratic credentials ahead of potential European Union membership talks.

After polls closed, officials said preliminary turnout was just over 45 percent based on data from more than half of the polling stations, compared to 53.5 percent four years ago. 

Preliminary election results are not expected until Monday.

The ruling Socialists and the rival Democrats are the leading parties looking to gain an outright majority in the parliament of the NATO-member country of 2.9 million people.

The country gained EU candidate status in 2014, but movement has been slowed by its perceived lack of reforms, including those involved with the election process.

Eighteen political parties are running for 140 seats in parliament in Sunday’s vote. The main contenders are Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party led by Lulzim Basha.

Opinion polls showed the Socialists slightly ahead of the center-right Democratic Party. 

 All main parties campaigned on a reform agenda, pledging faster economic growth, pay increases and lower unemployment, which stands at about 14 percent. 

Some 6,000 police officers were on duty for election security, while more 300 international observers came to monitor the vote.
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A forest fire in southern Spain forced the evacuation of at least 1,000 people and threatened a national park famous for its biodiversity and endangered species, authorities said Sunday.

The fire started on Saturday night on Spain’s southern coast, then advanced east to reach the Donana Nature Reserve, one of the country’s most important wildlife sanctuaries and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994.

“The fire has entered in the limits of the reserve, and that is where we are focusing our efforts,” Jose Gregorio Fiscal Lopez from the regional Andalusian authority in charge of the environment told Spanish national television.

The reserve protects over 107,000 hectares (264,403 acres) considered of extreme ecological value for their mix of ecosystems, including wetlands, dunes and woods. It is a key stop for migratory birds home to a variety of animals, including about a fifth of the 400 remaining Iberian lynxes.

Ecologists who work in the park are concerned that the fire could wipe out some of the area’s prized species and terrain.

“We are worried because the impact could be huge,” Carlos Molina, an ornithologist who works inside the reserve, told The Associated Press by phone from his home nearby.

“Donana is probably one of the most important areas for birds in all of Europe, and we just happen to be in a nesting season for several species,” Molina said.

While Molina said the reserve’s endangered Iberian imperial eagle should not be in danger, the area in immediate threat from the fire is territory for the extremely endangered lynx.

Juan Sanchez, director of the Andalucia’s forest fire prevention unit, said the fight was “in its critical phase” due to strong winds whipping up the flames.

“Right now the fire is developing how we expected. The wind is shifting, gaining strength, which is normal as we get to the afternoon,” Sanchez said. “We are managing it, but a change in the direction of the wind could alter the situation.”

Susana Diaz, the regional president of Andalusia, said no people have died in the blaze and “there’s no risk to the population” after about 1,000 were evacuated from campsites and houses near the town of Moguer, where the fire started on Saturday night.

Diaz said fighting the fire was proving difficult due to hot, dry weather, with temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit), and shifting winds. Over 550 firefighters, soldiers and police officers supported by 21 air units were combating the blaze Sunday.

“It’s still very early, but we are not ruling out the human factor” as a possible cause of the fire, said Diaz.

Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said from a control post near the fire that since “we are taking special measures, even though the wind is pushing the fire toward (the reserve) to keep the damage to a minimum.”

The fire comes a week after wildfires killed 64 people in neighboring Portugal, which like Spain is suffering from a lack of rain and high temperatures.
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Hundreds marched in Warsaw on Saturday to protest widespread logging in Europe’s last primeval forest, a project undertaken by Poland’s conservative government.

The ruling Law and Justice party has allowed increased logging in the Bialowieza Forest, a vast woodland that straddles Poland and Belarus, alarming environmentalists who say it threatens a natural treasure. The forest has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The government says it has increased logging to fight an outbreak of bark beetle, which has infected many spruce trees. But ecologists see that as a pretext to increase timber production for profit, saying authorities have been felling not only infected trees but also healthy ones, some 100 years old. Young trees are to be planted in their place.

Speakers at the rally organized by Greenpeace and other groups said they want the entire forest to be declared a national park to ensure its protection. They fear the virgin forest, home to a complex ecosystem of bison, woodpeckers and many other species, is being transformed into what will be essentially a tree plantation.

Robert Cyglicki, director of Greenpeace in Poland, called the logging “a crime against our heritage.”

Protesters rallied in central Warsaw and then marched to the Environment Ministry.

Currently only the forest’s core is protected as a national park on the Polish side.

The march came several days after Environment Minister Jan Szyszko called for Bialowieza to lose its UNESCO natural heritage status.

“The Bialowieza forest was granted UNESCO natural heritage status illegally and without consulting the local community,” Szyszko said. He said a complaint was lodged with prosecutors over the decision, which occurred under a previous government.

Last year he approved a decision to triple logging above a level that had been considered environmentally sustainable.

The European Union says the increased logging is illegal under EU law.

In recent days, protesters have sought to stop logging in the forest, at times by trying to block the heavy equipment.
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Britain’s Parliament was investigating a “sustained and determined” cyberattack on its email user accounts Saturday.

Parliamentary officials said the attack seemed designed to identify weak email passwords.

As a precaution, remote email access for MPs was disabled, said a statement released by the House of Commons.

“Earlier this morning we discovered unusual activity and evidence of an attempted cyberattack on our computer network,” an email sent by parliamentary officials to those affected said. “Closer investigation by our team confirmed that hackers were carrying out a sustained and determined attack on all parliamentary user accounts in an attempt to identify weak passwords.”

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected or what the extent of the damage was. The National Cyber Security Center and the National Crime Agency were investigating.

Liam Fox, Britain’s international trade secretary, told ITV News the attack was “a warning to everyone. We need more security and better passwords. You wouldn’t leave your door open at night.”

Passwords for sale?

The incident followed reports in the past few days in British media that hackers were selling MPs’ passwords online.

“We’ve seen reports in the last few days of even Cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online,” Fox said. “We know that our public services are attacked, so it’s not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails.”

Just over a month ago, a massive global cyberattack disrupted Britain’s health care services and targeted vital computer systems in as many as 100 other countries.

It appeared to be the biggest cyberextortion attack in history and exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was identified in leaked documents by the U.S. National Security Agency earlier this year.

The hackers attempted to trick victims into opening malicious attachments to spam emails by saying they contained invoices, job offers, security warnings and other seemingly legitimate files.

The extortionists then demanded payments of $300 to $600 to restore access once computers were crippled by the scam. Cybersecurity firms said criminal organizations were probably behind the attack.
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The Ukrainian military has said that two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a cease-fire that began Friday.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday, the military accused anti-government rebels of firing artillery rounds in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The statement did not provide details about the casualties.

The two sides and representatives of Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on the cease-fire on June 21. It is intended to last until August 31 to allow locals to harvest crops.

Representatives of the Russia-backed rebels on June 24 accused government forces of violating the cease-fire 10 times, adding that information about the purported violations had been sent to the OSCE monitors. 

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it began in early 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

Some information for this report came from AFP.
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With snipers on the roof and armored vehicles surrounding the Council building, Europe’s leaders met in Brussels with security topping the summit agenda. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said leaders had agreed on greater cooperation in intelligence sharing and defense spending.

“We are spending half of the military budget of the U.S. but our efficiency is 15 percent. So there is room for improvement and that’s exactly what we decided today,” Juncker said.

Migrants issue

Outside a band of refugees called “Syrians Got Talent” aimed to send a musical message to EU leaders — that they should stand up for migrant rights.

Not all of Europe shares that sentiment. The EU is taking legal action against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to accept refugee quotas.

More than 81,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in 2017, and close to 2,000 have died so far.

French President Emmanuel Macron, attending his first EU summit, said Europe would look to address the causes of the crisis.

He said it is a long-term challenge whose long-term solution is to stabilize Africa, and the near and Middle East.

WATCH: EU agrees to defense cooperation

Optimism in the EU

Despite the challenges there is a renewed optimism in the bloc, says Professor Anand Menon of the U.K. in a Changing Europe program at Kings College London.

“And the Eurozone’s growing again. So all that looks good,” Menon said. “But what I would say is the fundamental structural problems that confront the European Union, whether it’s the migration crisis, whether it’s the Eurozone crisis, whether it’s the problem of democratic backsliding in countries like Hungary and Poland, are no nearer being solved than they were last year. And they will come back again.”

Britain’s exit from the bloc was also discussed. EU leaders described Prime Minister Theresa May’s offer on the future rights of European citizens living in Britain as “below expectations,” signaling tough negotiations ahead.
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European Union leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed to greater cooperation on defense and intelligence as the continent grapples with a series of terror attacks. But little progress was made on Brexit and the migration crisis. The latest numbers show 81,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2017, with more poised to make the challenging journey. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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The Muslim leader in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska says security is improving for his followers, although harsh poverty remains an intractable issue as they prepare to observe Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

“There is no more desecration of the Muslim tombstones, which used to happen often after the war,” Mufti Osman Kozlic told VOA’s Bosnian Service in an exclusive interview.

However, if Muslim youths remain impoverished, he said, they’ll be increasingly vulnerable to extremist ideologies and recruitment by radical groups such as the Islamic State (IS).

​Hundreds had gone to Syria

In previous years, IS leaders tailored their propaganda to lure impoverished young Muslims affected by the small Balkan nation’s high youth unemployment rate and intermittent political paralysis.

Hundreds of Bosnians traveled to Syria to fight alongside IS militants before Bosnia banned travel to Syria and Iraq in 2013; that same year, Sarajevo began prosecuting fighters returned home from the battlefield.

Since 2016, according to Bosnian security officials and counterterror experts, Bosnian Muslims have all but stopped traveling to fight.

“The biggest problem among Muslims in Srpska is poverty, they can barely make ends meet,” Kozlic said, adding that both preventing radicalization, and deradicalizing returning extremists, requires cooperation by all regional stakeholders.

“It is not up to the Muslim leaders only,” he said.

​Restoring mosques

The 2016 “restoration and reopening of the Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka was significant symbol not only for Muslims in Srpska, but for all Muslims, for all citizen’s of Srpska,” Kozlic told VOA. “It is so because it meant a big step in reconciliation, and peace.”

On May 7, reconstruction of Arnaudija, a 16th century Ottoman-era mosque, the last of 15 that were destroyed during the 1992-95 war in Banja Luka, finally got underway.

Both Arnaudija and Ferhadija mosques were under the protection of UNESCO until the war, but were both razed May 7, 1993. During the war, almost all of the mosques in parts of Bosnia held by Bosnian-Serb forces were destroyed.

“The holiday after the holy Ramadan arrives is happiness,” Kozlic said. “If one is a real Muslim, during the Ramadan fast you must detoxify together with one’s body and one’s soul as well, by getting rid of hatred, envy, bad deeds toward any living being.”

In Bosnia, where Muslims represent the largest faith community, militant Islam was nearly nonexistent until the 1990s Balkan wars, when radicalized Arab Muslim mercenaries intervened to help battle Serb forces. Some foreign extremists who stayed in Bosnia embraced a radical brand of Islam that Bosnia’s Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic has adamantly opposed.

The 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody 1990s conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, split the country into two semi-independent entities, the Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation, linked by a weak federal government.

This story originated in VOA’s Bosnian Service. Some information is from Reuters.
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Israel has paid total compensation of $20 million to the families of the victims of an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid flotilla that killed 10 people in 2010, Turkish media quoted Turkey’s Finance Minister Naci Agbal as saying on Friday.

The payment, which will be divided among the 10 families, comes some nine months after Israel, which had already offered apologies for the raid — one of Ankara’s conditions for rapprochement — agreed to pay the families of those killed.

“Compensation has been paid to the families of those who lost their lives during the Mavi Marmara attack,” Turkish broadcasters quoted Agbal as saying.

Relations between Israel and Turkey broke down in 2010 when Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The soldiers raided a ship, the Mavi Marmara, leading a flotilla towards the Islamist Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

In June 2016 however, the two countries said they would normalize relations — a rapprochement driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals as well as mutual fears over security risks in the Middle East.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan named a new ambassador to Israel in November last year, reciprocating a move by the Israelis, in a move towards restoring diplomatic ties between the once-close allies.
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Serbia’s first gay and female prime minister is set to take office in staunchly conservative Serbia next week after ruling populists gathered majority support for her in Parliament.

Officials said on Friday that the assembly will convene on Saturday to start the proceedings for the election of Ana Brnabic and her government. The vote is likely next week.

Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic has proposed U.S.-educated Brnabic for the post. Her election was thrown into doubt amid reports that hardliners in the ruling coalition have refused support because of her sexual orientation.

Vucic, who switched from premier to president in April, is hosting a formal inauguration ceremony on Friday. Top regional leaders and representatives of foreign governments, including the U.S. and Russia, are attending.
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Hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanted “Death to Israel” in nationwide rallies on Friday at which they also burned flag of the Islamic State militant group which claimed responsibility for attacks in Tehran this month, state TV reported.

Iranian state media said millions of people turned out for the rallies to mark Al-Quds Day that was declared by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and which is held on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Opposition to Israel is a touchstone of belief for Shi’ite-led Iran, which backs Palestinian and Lebanese Islamic militant groups opposed to peace with the Jewish state, which Tehran refuses to recognize.

Israel, the United States and its chief Sunni Arab ally Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of fomenting tension in the Middle East and of sponsoring terrorism. This is denied by Tehran. Tensions have risen sharply in the Gulf between Qatar and four Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, in part over Doha’s links with Iran.

“This year’s rally … shows people want our region to be cleaned up from terrorists, backed by the Zionist regime [Israel],” President Hassan Rouhani told state TV.

State TV covering the rallies showed crowds chanting anti-Israel slogans in solidarity with Palestinians whom they urged to continue their fight against the “occupying regime”.

Demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel, Death to America,” carrying banners reading “Israel should be wiped off the map” while people were shown burning the Israeli flag.

People meted out the same treatment for the banner of Islamic State (IS) which has said it carried out deadly twin attacks in Tehran on June 7. Iran blames regional rival Saudi Arabia for being behind the attacks. Riyadh denies this.

“Daesh [IS], America and Israel are all the same. They are all terrorists,” a young woman marcher in Tehran told TV.

Marchers included soldiers, students and clerics. Black-clad women with small children were among those flocking the streets of central Tehran, many carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In Tehran’s Vali-ye Asr street, three mid-range surface-to-surface ballistic missiles were displayed, including the Zolfaghar missile that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards used on Sunday to target bases of the IS in eastern Syria.

Top Guards’ commanders have repeatedly said that Israel is within range of Iran’s missiles. Sunni Muslim states in the Gulf and Israel say Tehran’s ballistic missile program is a threat to regional security and has led to the United States imposing new sanctions.

“With this rally our nation is telling America that we are determined to continue our path,” Rouhani said, referring to the U.S. Senate’s decision to impose new sanctions.
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When President Emmanuel Macron reshuffled his cabinet after four ministers with judicial probes hanging over them said they were quitting, he snubbed well-known heavyweights to fill the posts.

As his chief of staff read out the names for vacant portfolios including defense, justice and European affairs, the reaction of many French was: who?

It was unusual in a country where politics has long been perceived as the preserve of an old boys network, where political careers begin at an elite school for civil servants and last decades.

And it pointed to Macron’s inclination to run government more like a business.

Among the picks were Nicole Bellbouet, a 62-year-old public law expert and member of the Constitutional Court, as justice minister. Florence Parly, who spent the last 15 years working among the senior ranks of Air France and the SNCF state-owned rail company, became defense minister.

Neither are household names.

“You have a president and a prime minister who both have corporate backgrounds, and who want to ensure that people are appointed on the basis of their competences,” said a Macron adviser.

Macron spent four years at Rothschild bank before entering politics, while his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, a lawyer, worked for nuclear giant Areva.

The adviser said Macron also wanted to avoid competition between ministers and their junior secretaries of state – something he experienced himself as economy minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande – which is why he had not given precise portfolios to many of them.

“The objective is managerial in as far as they are in a way the ministers’ deputies,” the adviser said.

More Freedom

Macron’s reshuffle, tapping more people from the non-political world, reflects the profile of many of his newly elected members of parliament.

Heavyweight names from the Socialists and conservatives swirled, but in the end Macron largely picked relative unknowns, technocrats or private sector figures with either little or distant political experience.

Daily newspaper Le Monde described the reshuffle as “a good way for the head of state to give himself even more freedom to act.”

Macron won a commanding majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election with which to push through the deep-reaching social and economic reforms that he promises to revive France’s regulation-laden economy.

Philippe told TF1 his new government is one that “brings together”, a reference to the inclusion of members from the left, the right and the center.

On Thursday Philippe’s government spokesman fended off questions over the suitability of businesswoman Parly – who served as junior budget minister under socialist Lionel Jospin from 2000-2002 – to head the defense ministry.

Government spokesman Christophe Castaner told reporters that what counted was her managerial background.

“She’s a manager who has proven herself,” he said. “To have someone with that quality is a strength.”
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German lawmakers on Thursday approved a plan to annul the convictions of thousands of gay men sentenced for homosexuality under a Nazi-era law that remained in force after World War II.

The parliament’s lower house voted unanimously for the bill, which calls for canceling convictions under what’s known as Paragraph 175.

The legislation criminalizing homosexuality was introduced in the 19th century, toughened under Nazi rule and retained in that form in both East and West Germany. In all, more than 68,000 people were convicted under various forms of Paragraph 175 in both German states before it was scrapped in 1994.

The vote Thursday also foresees compensation of $3,340 for each conviction, plus $1,670 for every year of jail time.

An estimated 5,000 of those found guilty under the statute are still alive.

In addition to individual compensation, the government plans to give an annual $557,500 in funding to a foundation that is documenting the stories of men convicted under Paragraph 175.

In October, the British government announced that thousands of men convicted under now-abolished laws outlawing homosexuality would receive posthumous pardons, while those still alive will be eligible to have their criminal records wiped clean.
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The president of the European Parliament said Europe needs to be pragmatic in dealing with Britain following the country’s decision to leave the bloc, but urged cooperation in future dealings.

“The U.K. will leave the European Union not Europe. This is important to pave the way also for good relations after the separation,” Antonio Tajani, the EU Parliament’s President said Thursday at a gathering of European leaders in Brussels.

EU leaders opened a two-day summit Thursday in Brussels to address everything from Britain’s planned exit, along with terrorism, migration and other issues facing Europe.

May looks to future

British Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters prior to the summit she was looking forward to constructive negotiations. She said the talks Thursday would focus on the way British citizens living in the EU and EU citizens living in Britain will be affected by Britain’s exit.

“Today I’m going to be setting out some of the U.K.’s plans particularly on how we propose to protect the rights of EU citizens and U.K. citizens as we leave the European Union,” May said.

European Union chief Donald Tusk said the remaining 27 EU nations are ready to choose new locations for the Europe-wide agencies currently headquartered in Britain.

France to work with Germany

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to work together with Germany to relaunch the European project as member-states argued over how to manage refugees after Britain leaves the union.

“Europe is not, to my mind, just an idea. It’s a project, an ambition,” he said, noting that France is working “hand-in-hand” with Germany to implement the refugee resettlement plan.

Tajani, in his opening remarks, called it “vital” that Europe devise a solution to the current migration crisis affecting Europe. He said Europe needs to do more to stem the tide of migrants traveling to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa through Libya.

“So we’ve got to strengthen the stability of Libya and help this country as the prime minister asked yesterday, but also act in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
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The chief executive of a London borough where a tower block fire killed at least 79 people in Britain’s worst blaze since World War II has resigned.

Nicholas Holgate, chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea council, said he was forced out by Prime Minister Theresa May’s government after the blaze at the 24-story Grenfell Tower.

Holgate said in a statement the Communities minister Sajid Javid had required the leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, to seek his resignation.

“Despite my wish to have continued, in very challenging circumstances, to lead on the executive responsibilities of the Council, I have decided that it is better to step down from my role, once an appropriate successor has been appointed,” Holgate said.

On Wednesday, May said support for families in the initial hours after the fire was not good enough.

“That was a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most,” she told Parliament.
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The British government is being urged to do more to tackle violence by right-wing extremists, following the attack outside London’s Finsbury Park mosque in the early hours of Monday morning.

One person died and at least 11 were injured when 47-year-old Darren Osborne from Wales drove his van into a crowd of worshippers, reportedly shouting, “I want to kill all Muslims.” He was pulled from the vehicle and held by members of the public until police arrived.

Just two days earlier, activist Fiyaz Mughal had addressed worshippers at the same mosque warning them of the dangers of attacks. He told VOA that authorities are failing to recognize the danger.

“I think the government has been slow in seeing the threat that is also emanating from some of those sources, which repeatedly daily pump out anti-Muslim rhetoric, which in a way creates the environment for the potential for violence,” he said.

Mughal founded the organization Tell Mama, which collates and reports attacks on Muslims. The website lists recent incidents: physical violence, windows smashed, bacon left on cars, a bag of vomit thrown at a Muslim driver. It says anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased fivefold since the Islamist terror attack in Manchester last month.

“It has social impacts, it certainly has mental health and emotional impacts, and it creates this ‘them and us’ thinking, which is particularly problematic and in some cases dangerous because extremists play on that,” said Mughal.

The London mosque attack came almost exactly one year after a terrorist with extreme right views killed British MP Jo Cox. The number of right-wing extremists flagged to the government’s anti-terror ‘Prevent’ program has soared by 30 percent, according to British media reports. Terror expert Paul Jackson of the University of Northampton said Islamist and extreme right terrorism must be addressed in different ways.

“Especially the way the Prevent agenda in the UK is very focused on tackling Islamist extremism and is using that as a way to tackle the far-right and the extreme right and the issues that it poses — I think it still needs to be looked at.”

Critics blame conservative media and politicians for stoking tensions against Muslim communities. Jackson said the link is difficult to pin down.

“My sense is that there’s got to be some sort of relationship between wider mainstream perspectives that seem to be normalizing very extreme attitudes towards Muslim people.”

The opposition Labour party has called for an overhaul of the Prevent program — while the government insists it is committed to tackling all forms of terror.
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Federal officials say Russian cyber-operatives targeted voting systems in 21 U.S. states last year and had varying degrees of success in penetrating them. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, testimony before House and Senate panels Wednesday revealed significant tensions between state election officials and federal agencies whose cooperation is deemed essential to safeguard future elections.
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Russia’s foreign intelligence agency says that Yuri Drozdov, the Soviet spymaster who oversaw a sprawling network of KGB agents abroad, has died. He was 91.

The Foreign Intelligence Service, a KGB successor agency known under its Russian acronym SVR, said Drozdov died Wednesday. It didn’t give the cause of his death or any other specifics.

In 1979, Drozdov came to head a KGB department overseeing a network of undercover agents abroad, the job he held until resigning in 1991. The agents who lived abroad under false identity were called “illegals” and considered the elite of Soviet intelligence.

In December 1979, Drozdov led an operation to storm the palace of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin that paved the way to Soviet invasion.

Drozdov also founded the KGB’s Vympel special forces unit.
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II formally opens parliament Wednesday with a speech outlining the legislative goals of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government.

The package includes a number of items related to Britain’s exit from the European Union, a process set off by a referendum last year and the terms of which are currently under negotiation with the EU. Members of parliament will vote next week on whether to approve the items laid out in the speech.

WATCH: Queen’s message to lawmakers

May’s party lost its majority in parliament during a snap election she called for earlier this month hoping to strengthen the government’s position for the Brexit talks. The result has left her seeking partners for a minority government.

“The election result was not the one I hoped for, but this government will respond with humility and resolve to the message the governate sent,” May said in a statement ahead of the queen’s speech.

The Brexit process is due to be completed by the end of March 2019, and due to the complex talks about what to do with issues such as trade agreements and freedom of movement Britain’s session of parliament is due to last for two years.
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Belgian authorities say the man killed Tuesday during a foiled terrorist attack at a Brussels train station was a 36-year-old Moroccan native who had not been previously linked to terrorism.

Federal prosecutor’s office spokesman Eric Van der Sypt identified the man only by the initials O.Z. as he spoke to reporters Wednesday, and said that investigators had searched the man’s home overnight.

The attack unfolded at Brussels Central Station where authorities say the man approached a group of passengers, shouted and set off a partial explosion involving his suitcase.  They say he then went down to a platform and ran after a station master at which point the bag, which contained nails and gas canisters meant to hurt people, exploded more violently.

A soldier confronted the man and shot him several times, and he died on the spot.  Van der Sypt said the man did not have an explosive belt.

No one else was hurt in the incident, which happened just before 9 p.m. local time, well after the rush hour had ended.

Photos posted on social media showed a small fire in the station, which was evacuated along with the main Brussels square and the nearby Grand Place, a major tourist destination.

The city has been on high alert for more than 18 months since Brussels-based Islamic State militants carried out attacks in Paris that killed 130 people in November 2015.  In March of last year, attacks on the Brussels airport and on the city’s metro system killed 32 people.

Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at the Brussels airport, and moments later a suicide bomb at Brussels’ Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 on March 22.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports the planet Earth is experiencing another exceptionally warm year with record-breaking temperatures occurring in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States.

At least 60 people have been killed in the devastating forest fires in central Portugal. The World Meteorological Organization says one of the factors contributing to these run-away wildfires are very high temperatures that have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius.

Extremely high temperatures also have been recorded in Spain and in France, which issued an Amber alert, the second highest alert level on Tuesday.  WMO reports near record heat is also being reported in California and in the Nevada deserts.

Meteorologists report North Africa and the Middle East are experiencing extremely hot weather with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius.  But WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis says the hottest place on Earth appears to be the town of Turbat in southwestern Pakistan, which reported a temperature of 54 degrees Celsius in May.

“It seems like this is a new temperature record for Asia.  If it is verified, it will equal a record … which was set in Kuwait last July. So, we will now set up an investigation committee to see if that indeed is a new temperature record for the region,” Nullis said.

WMO Senior Scientist Omar Baddour says the world heat record of 56 degrees Celsius was recorded in Death Valley in the United States in 1913.  

“It is very difficult to break a world record because it is not easy to have all the conditions in terms of pressure, invasion of air together at one place.  So, the concern now is we are close to cross that record.  We are now 54.  We are not that far.”  

The WMO says it expects global heat waves will likely trigger more deadly wildfires.  If necessary precautions are not taken, it warns many people will die from the heat, as happened in 2003, when heat waves across Europe killed 70,000 people.

Scientists predict climate change will cause heat waves to become more intense, more frequent and longer.
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The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday criticized a Russian law banning homosexual “propaganda.”

The law, which effectively bans most public mentions of homosexuality, was introduced at regional levels in 2003 and 2006 and at the federal level in 2013.

Nikolay Bayev, Aleksey Kiselev, and Nikolay Alekseyev filed a complaint against the law to the European high court. They were found guilty of administrative offenses and fined after staging demonstrations between 2009 and 2012. During the protests, they held banners stating that homosexuality is natural and normal.

On Tuesday, the court ordered Russia to repay the three men the amount of the fines, stating that “by adopting such laws the authorities had reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia, which was incompatible with the values of a democratic society.”

The decision was welcomed by gay rights activists across Russia, but Moscow has said it will appeal the decision.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but prejudice and discrimination have remained throughout the country. The EU court’s decision echoed rights groups that have said over the past years that Russia’s “homosexuality propaganda” laws have encouraged harassment and attacks against gay people.
…

Refugees are taking over restaurant kitchens in 13 European cities during the  Refugee Food Festival, which coincides with World Refugee Day on June 20.

For two weeks, restaurant kitchens will occupied by refugee chefs from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and others.

One popular and award-winning eatery in the center of the Belgian capital, Brussels, has been taken over by Syrian cook Abdell Baset.

On his first day in the restaurant’s kitchen, he is preparing a typical Syrian dish, and one of his favorites.

“It’s called Molokia. It’s with vegetables and coriander and garlic. And at the end, we put chicken on it, and we serve it with rice,” he said.

Customer Jolien Potemans came to eat especially because of the food festival.

“I think the perception of refugees in Europe is very bad at the moment, and also in Belgium,” she said. “And I think that’s why it’s very important to support events like these where refugees actually prepare meals, and this is my way to show my support to them.”

Baset left war-torn Syria in 2015. He had worked most of his life in the food industry. But when he heard that soon he would be conscripted for the Syrian army, he decided to flee. Just like millions of other Syrians, he fled to Europe in search of safety.

Baset says his passion for cooking will help him build a new life in Europe, as it brings people together.

“When it comes to cooking like now when I was cooking and I went to the people they were eating,” he said. “And I ask them, and they ask me about my life, how it was in Syria. So I think it’s a very nice opportunity to come together and share our points of views.”

Yannick Van Aeken, a well-known Belgian chef and owner of the restaurant where Abdel Baset is cooking today, believes the influences of foreign cooks can only improve the already high standards of the Belgian restaurant scene.

“It’s always nice to see different influences, and ingredients and the way they’re cooking from different parts of the world,” he said. “And then everybody can learn a little bit more about their traditions, and their culture of the countries that they come from.”

The food festival started as a citizens’ initiative in Paris and is backed by the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Marine Mandrila, one of the co-founders from the Paris food festival in 2016, wanted the project to change the negative perception of refugees.

“We saw we had to do something about all the negative images that are conveyed with the arrival of refugees,” Mandrila said. “And we thought that sometimes we forget that they are humans like all of us with skills and talents and a huge cultural background. And we believe food is an amazing tool to connect people.”

The hope is that the refugee cooks will find employment in the food industry, while also increasing cultural exchanges.

Eighty refugee chefs in 13 European cities are cooking in 84 kitchens until the end of this month. Next year, the Refugee Food Festival is expected to expand to include Canada and the United States.
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Talks begin this week on Britain’s exit from the European Union, which will leave the bloc with only one heavyweight military power — France. EU moves towards a common defense policy have raised fears in Britain that it could be frozen out of future security arrangements.

Europe’s security is at a turning point. Threatened by Russian aggression in Ukraine and Islamist militancy on its southern and eastern borders, the bloc is about to lose one its major military powers. Edward Lucas of The Economist.

“After Brexit, France becomes the most important military power in continental Europe. And I think that European security arrangements will have to reflect that,” he said.

Currently 4,000 French troops are fighting Islamist militancy in North Africa.

President Emmanuel Macron wants EU allies to do more.

Speaking on a trip to visit French forces in Mali last month, he said he wanted to strengthen European partnerships, in particular with Germany, and ensure the German engagement intensifies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want European security tied to a Franco-German military alliance, says Lucas.

“Because she is very keen to keep America fully involved in the defense of Europe,” he said.

The European Union is establishing a command center and $560 million defense fund, part of an emerging common defense policy. EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini says it will compliment existing military structures.

“We are not suggesting in any way to substitute duplicate or compete with NATO. This has to be clear,” she said.

NATO has deployed several thousand troops in Eastern Europe to deter Russia. The European Union is no substitute, says Michael Wolffsohn of the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich, who spoke to VOA via Skype.

“Most of the continental European armies are simply unprepared for any military intervention with the possible exception of the French armed forces. But the Bundeswehr [German armed forces] is completely overloaded, underfinanced and under-equipped,” he said.

Britain has long objected to an EU military force . But as Brexit talks begin, closer military integration is already underway, and France is taking the lead.
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TEASER: Britain’s calls north London attack on act of terrorism in bid to quell tensions.
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More than 1,000 firefighters were still battling Portugal’s deadliest forest blaze on Monday after it killed dozens over the weekend, and a fireman died from his injuries in a hospital, bringing the death toll to at least 63.

More than 70 people, including 13 firefighters, were taken to hospital on Monday with burns and injuries as the fires ravaged the central districts of Leiria and Castelo Branco.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who on Sunday visited the affected a mountainous area about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Lisbon, called it the biggest human tragedy in Portugal in living memory.

Despite government assurances that the first response by the emergency services was swift and adequate, media and residents questioned its efficiency and the strategic planning in a country which is used to wooded areas burning every year.

“So what failed this Saturday? Everything, as it has failed for decades,” read a headline in the newspaper Publico. It blamed a lack of coordination between services in charge of fire prevention and firefighting and poor forestry reserve planning.

Xavier Viegas, an expert on forest fires, said the blaze spread too quickly and violently for firefighters to respond in some villages, but the deaths have mainly shown shortcomings in communications to evacuate people in time.

At least half the victims died in their cars as they tried to flee along a local motorway. Many other bodies were found next to the road, suggesting they had abandoned their vehicles in panic. The firefighter who died on Monday had been helping people out of their cars when he was badly burned.

“It’s still hard to identify what failed, but it’s a bit of everything,” Viegas said. “Obviously, certain things that should have been done had not been done – especially in communicating with the population, telling them about the danger levels, areas to be avoided.”

An online public petition demanding an investigation into possible failures by the authorities has gathered 440 signatures. Some local residents said they had been without the support of firefighters for hours as their homes burned. Many blamed depopulation of villages that left wooded areas untended.

Other countries prone to forest fires have systems in place to warn people of danger. Australia, for example, revised its fire warning system after fires killed 173 people in 2009 and now uses text messages and emergency broadcasts to warn people.

“There’s an urgent need to organize that kind of alerting,” Viegas said. “Here, at best, someone from the parish council goes knocking on doors telling people to leave.”

Armindo Antonio, 67, was evacuated with his family on Sunday evening by civil protection workers who came to his village. He has no idea when he can go back and said he had received no information from authorities.

“All of this is so difficult to understand,” said Antonio, whose five family members had been housed in a packed old-age home with other evacuees. “It could have been our village.”

Civil protection commander Elisio Oliveira said the firefighting efforts were progressing well, but the fire was not yet under control. Water planes, including French and Spanish aircraft, flew overhead. Two army battalions were helping the emergency services.

“There is still a lot of forest that can burn,” said Rui Barreto, deputy chief firefighter at the makeshift emergency services headquarters in Pedrogao Grande, where the blaze began on Saturday.

Police said a lightning strike on a tree probably caused the blaze, in a region hit by an intense heat wave and dry, gusty winds that fanned the flames. However, the regional prosecutor still ordered a criminal investigation into the causes. Many forest fires in Portugal are caused by arson or carelessness.
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Police in London say a van collided with pedestrians outside a mosque late Sunday, killing one person and injuring 10 others.

London’s Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the attack.  British Prime Minister Theresa May said authorities are treating it as a potential terrorist attack, and called it a “terrible incident.”

Authorities said officers arrested the 48-year-old driver of the van, who had been detained by members of the public at the scene, and that as of early Monday no other suspects had been identified or reported to police.

The man killed in the attack was pronounced dead at the scene in northern London, and eight of the injured were taken to hospitals.

Harun Khan, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that based on accounts from witnesses the driver was “motivated by Islamophobia.”

“Given we are approaching the end of the month of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid with many Muslims going to local mosques, we expect the authorities to increase security outside mosques as a matter of urgency,” Khan said in a statement.

A Metropolitan Police statement said that due to the nature of the attack, “extra policing resources have been deployed in order to reassure communities, especially those observing Ramadan.”

Britain, especially London, has been on edge over several recent incidents, including last month’s terror bombing in Manchester and the recent car attack and stabbing near London Bridge.
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A Chinese naval fleet held a scheduled military exercise with the Russian navy in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad on Sunday in the first of planned exercises this year to strengthen their cooperation, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The “Joint Sea-2017” exercise follows similar ones held last year, and more exercises will be held in late July in the Baltic Sea, and in mid-September in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, it added.

The Chinese fleet, which sailed out from Hainan province in southern China, consisted of the missile destroyer Changsha, missile frigate Yuncheng, a comprehensive supply ship, ship-borne helicopters and marines, it said.

China and Russia are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, and have held similar views on many major issues such as the crisis in Syria, often putting them at odds with the United States and Western Europe.

They have previously held naval drills in the fiercely-contested South China Sea which China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims over.

Xinhua said the theme of this year’s drills was “joint rescue and protection of maritime economic activities”.
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Brexit Secretary David Davis starts negotiations in Brussels on Monday that will set the terms on which Britain leaves the European Union and determine its relationship with the continent for generations to come.

Almost a year to the day since Britons shocked themselves and their neighbors by voting on June 23 to cut loose from their main trading partner, and nearly three months since Prime Minister Theresa May locked them into a two-year countdown to Brexit in March 2019, almost nothing about the future is clear.

Even May’s own immediate political survival is in doubt, 10 days after she lost her majority in an election.

Davis, who unlike May has long campaigned to leave the EU, will meet chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, a former French minister, at the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT). They are due to give a joint news conference after talks among their teams lasting seven hours.

Officials on both sides play down expectations for what can be achieved in one day. EU diplomats hope this first meeting, and a Brussels summit on Thursday and Friday where May will encounter – but not negotiate with – fellow EU leaders, can improve the atmosphere after some spiky exchanges.

“Now, the hard work begins,” Davis said, adding he wanted a deal that worked for both sides. “These talks will be difficult at points, but we will be approaching them in a constructive way.”

Barnier, a keen mountaineer, spent the weekend in his native Alps “to draw the strength and energy needed for long walks”. Davis’s agreement to Monday’s agenda led some EU officials to believe that May’s government may at last coming around to Brussels’ view of how negotiations should be run.

Which Brexit?

May’s election debacle has revived feuding over Europe among Conservatives that her predecessor David Cameron hoped to end by calling the referendum and leaves EU leaders unclear on her plan for a “global Britain” which most of them regard as pure folly.

While “Brexiteers” have strongly backed May’s proposed clean break with the single market and customs union, finance minister Philip Hammond and others have this month echoed calls by businesses for less of a “hard Brexit” and retaining closer customs ties.

With discontent in europhile Scotland and troubled Northern Ireland, which faces a new EU border across the divided island, Brexit poses new threats to the integrity of the United Kingdom.

It will test the ingenuity of thousands of public servants racing against the clock to untangle 44 years of EU membership before Britain is out, 649 days from now, on March 30, 2019. For the officials sitting down on Monday, at least on the EU side, a major worry is Britain crashing out into a limbo, with no deal.

For that reason, Brussels wants as a priority to guarantee rights for 3 million EU citizens in Britain and be paid tens of billions of euros it says London will owe on its departure.

With a further million British expatriates in the EU, May too wants a deal on citizens’ rights, though the two sides are some way apart. Agreeing to pay a “Brexit bill” may be more inflammatory.

Brussels is also resisting British demands for immediate talks on a future free trade arrangement. The EU insists that should wait until an outline agreement on divorce terms, ideally by the end of this year. In any case, EU officials say, London no longer seems sure of what trade arrangements it will ask for.

But Union leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, are also determined not to make concessions to Britain that might encourage others to follow.

When 52 percent of British voters opted for Brexit, some feared for the survival of a Union battered by the euro crisis and divided in its response to chaotic immigration. The election of the fervently europhile Macron, and his party’s sweep of the French parliament on Sunday, has revived optimism in Brussels.
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The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze a detente with Cuba and his verbal attack on the Caribbean island’s leaders.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Trump is “returning us to the forgotten rhetoric of the Cold War.”

The statement says that “It’s clear the anti-Cuba discourse is still widely needed. This can only induce regret.”

Despite Trump’s campaign pledge to improve relations with Moscow, there has been no significant improvement in foreign policy cooperation between the two countries. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to back new sanctions on Russia.

Moscow maintains close ties with Havana, and in March signed a deal to ship oil to Cuba for the first time in over a decade.

 
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