United Nations judges will decide next week on a verdict in the trial of former Bosnian Serb army leader Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes stemming from the conflict in the Balkans during the 1990s.

Mladic, dubbed “the butcher of the Balkans,” is the last soldier to face war crimes charges in the court, which was set up to deal with the fallout from the Bosnian war that raged from 1992 through 1995.

Mladic has been charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in leading sniper campaigns in Sarajevo and the killings of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

Prosecutors have asked the International Criminal Tribunal to sentence Mladic to life in prison. Last year, attorney Alan Tieger said anything less than a life sentence would be “an insult to the victims, living and dead, and an affront to justice.”

Mladic’s defense lawyer Dragan Ivetic has accused prosecutors of seeking to make the former general a “symbolic sacrificial lamb for the perceived guilt” of all Serbs during the war.

He called for Mladic to be acquitted on all charges.

 
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The European Union on Wednesday unveiled new measures to help counter deadly low-tech attacks following a spate of killings in major cities by extremists driving vehicles into crowds of people.

The European Commission, which proposes and ensures compliance with EU laws, said the measures aim to better protect major gatherings like concerts or sports events.

They include additional funding and training to improve cooperation between police and private security at malls or concerts.

“Terrorists don’t stand still. They change and adapt their methods. We need to be ready to adapt our response,” EU Security Commissioner Julian King said.

The response, he said, is meant to “build our resilience, to limit terrorist access to the means they use to carry out attacks, and to strengthen international cooperation.”

Brussels also wants to review rules for the sale of bomb-making material to make it harder for extremists to obtain the ingredients, and help investigators tackle encrypted phone or computer data. The Commission didn’t explain exactly how this would be done, though King said EU countries with more experience in tackling encryption should share the know-how.

To help protect public spaces and raise awareness about potential dangers at events, the Commission has earmarked a total of 118.5 million euros ($140 million) in funding for this year and 2018.

It also hopes to boost European police cooperation with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, notably to secure the transfer of personal data to combat serious crime.
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Hungarian police say they are carrying out a search at a Church of Scientology center in Budapest.

Police said the search by members of the National Investigation Bureau is related to an investigation into the suspected misuse of personal information and other crimes, but will not be releasing more information because the inquiry was ongoing.

Online publication ripost.hu said over 50 police officers surrounded the church’s Budapest headquarters on one of the Hungarian capital’s busiest roads early Wednesday.

The Church of Scientology is not among the 32 churches officially recognized by Hungary since a widely disputed law on churches and religious matters went into force in 2012.

The church did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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In a rare public speech Tuesday, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency said the terror threat in the country is worse now that it has ever been during his 34-year career.

“It’s clear that we’re contending with an intense UK terrorist threat from Islamist extremists,” MI5 chief Andrew Parker said. “That threat is multi-dimensional, evolving rapidly and operating at a scale and pace we’ve not seen before. But so too is our response.”

Parker said the MI5, also known as he Security Service, has noted a “dramatic upshift” in the threat this year, with a total of 36 people killed in separate attacks in London and Manchester.

“Twenty attacks in the U.K. have been foiled over the past four years. Many more will have been prevented by the early interventions we and the police make,” Parker said.

Last month, a makeshift bomb on the London subway injured at least 30 people. The blast was the fifth major terrorist attack in Britain this year.
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge say their third child will be due in April.

The royal couple had already revealed that they were having a child, but didn’t previously say which month the child is due. The brief statement released Tuesday by their Kensington Palace office offered no further details.

The former Kate Middleton had announced she was pregnant after missing a royal engagement in September. As with her other two pregnancies, she is suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, or acute morning sickness.

She has since appeared in other events, including one Monday in which she danced with a person dressed as the beloved British children’s book character, Paddington Bear.

William and Kate, both 35, already have two children: Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.
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A U.N. report warns gender inequality and the denial of reproductive rights and family planning threatens development goals, weakens national economies and will undermine efforts to eliminate poverty by 2030.

In its annual State of World Population report, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) describes the poorest women in most developing countries as the most powerless members of society.   It says the poorest women have the least access to care during pregnancy and childbirth. And it says the inequality has life-long repercussions for women’s health, ability to get an education and employment.

UNFPA Geneva Office Director Monica Ferro said family planning is not only a human right, but necessary for women’s empowerment.  She said a woman or adolescent who cannot enjoy reproductive rights cannot stay healthy.  She and her family will be locked into lifelong poverty and deprivation.

“Limited access to family planning translates into 89 million unintended pregnancies and 48 million abortions in developing countries annually.  This does not only harm women’s health, but also restricts their ability to join or stay in the paid labor force and move towards financial independence,” Ferro said.

Ferro also expressed regret over the decision by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump not to fund the U.N. Population Fund.  In April, the administration announced it was cutting the U.S. contribution which in 2016 stood at $63 million.  Ferro said that will take a heavy toll on the health and well-being of thousands of impoverished women in developing countries.  

“With previous United States contribution for UNFPA, we were really fighting gender-based violence and reducing maternal deaths, especially in fragile and crisis and disaster-hit countries,” Ferro said.

They include Iraq, Nepal, Sudan, Syria, the Philippines, Ukraine and Yemen.  Ferro added the U.S. contribution helped save the lives of thousands of women during pregnancy and childbirth.  In addition, she said the organization was able to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies and provide other crucial family planning services.
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Spain’s high court ordered two top Catalan separatists jailed for alleged sedition while the question of the region’s independence remains unclear.

Prosecutors accuse Jordi Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural movement and Jordi Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly of provoking violence against police during a pro-independence march last month.

Protesters trapped officers inside a building and destroyed several police cars.

“Spain jails Catalonia’s civil society leaders for organizing peaceful demonstrations,” Catalan President Carles Puigdemont tweeted Monday. “Sadly, we have political prisoners again,” an apparent reference to Francisco Franco’s military dictatorship that ended more than 40 years ago.

The High Court also placed Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero under investigation. The court declined to order him behind bars, but did revoke his passport to keep him from leaving the country.

Meanwhile, Puigdemont has still not said whether he will declare Catalan independence outright after the court and Spanish government declared a pro-independence referendum illegal.

Puigdemont had a Monday deadline to give a simple “yes” or “no” answer to the question whether he will declare independence. So far, he has only called for talks with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the deadline has been pushed to Thursday.

A frustrated Rajoy has said the uncertainty surrounding Catalonia is hurting the Spanish economy. The economic ministry Monday cut its economic growth forecast for 2018 because of the crisis.

Catalonia, Spain’s most prosperous region, is home to 7.5 million people. Its capital, Barcelona, is one of Europe’s major tourist attractions. Catalonia has its own language and distinct culture, and is deeply divided over independence.

The Catalan government said that 90 percent of Catalans voted for independence from Spain in the October 1 referendum. Many opponents of independence boycotted the vote, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.

VOA’s Isabela Cocoli contributed to this report.
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At least three people have been killed as Tropical Storm Ophelia battered Ireland on Monday.

One of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the northeastern Atlantic hit every corner of Ireland with wind speeds of 190 kilometers per hour recorded at the southernmost tip of the country.

Ophelia knocked down trees and power lines, leaving more than 330,000 homes without power.

About 200 flights from Ireland’s two main airports in Dublin and Shannon were canceled. The airports are expected to reopen Tuesday as cleanup begins.

“There are still dangers out there, but the cleanup has started in some areas and the job of getting the country back to work has begun,” the chairman of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Group, Sean Hogan, told a news conference.

Schools across Northern Ireland will remain closed Tuesday to “avoid any potential risk to life for children, young people and staff,” the Education Department said.
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Turkey has offered assistance to the Iraqi government in its effort to take control of the city of Kirkuk from Kurdish peshmerga forces.

The offer was made in a statement by the Turkish foreign ministry: “We once again emphasize the importance we attach to the protection of Iraq’s political unity and territorial integrity.”

Ankara strongly backs Baghdad in its opposition to an independence referendum passed last month by Iraqi Kurds. Turkey fears similar secessionist demands from its own large restive Kurdish minority.

“Ankara’s thinking is that if Kirkuk is taken back from Iraqi Kurds, then their dreams of independence are quashed permanently and there would be one less problem in Turkish foreign policy,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

Kirkuk has approximately 5 percent of world’s oil reserves, and Iraqi Kurds have been exporting around 60,000 barrels a day from the region under its control.

Pro-government Turkish media gloated over reports of the imminent fall of Kirkuk.

“[Kurdish president Masoud] Barzani’s childhood dream shattered,” wrote the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. Despite Kirkuk’s multi-ethnic population, the identity of many Kurds is linked to their capital. On Monday, Ankara stepped up its pressure on the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdish region, announcing an air embargo in the latest sanction to protest the referendum vote.

Monday’s foreign office statement also reiterated Kirkuk’s multi-ethnic identity, underlining the importance of the Turkmen population.

“Our relatives, our kinsman, rhetoric re-emerged [for] a while now,” observed former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who established Turkey’s consulate in the Iraqi Kurdish region. “It proves the fact, the oncoming presidential elections which will be held in 2019 effect the foreign policy of Turkey.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a widely predicted close re-election bid and is courting nationalist voters, many of whom care deeply about Kirkuk and the fate of their Iraqi ethnic kin.

“The nationalists consider Kirkuk and Mosul part of Turkey,” said analyst Yesilada. “Kirkuk city and Kirkuk province, there are up to more than a million Turkmens — more than 50 percent are Sunni and they have close ties to Turkey. This is an important issue for Turkey and, in particular, for [Turkey’s Nationalist Action Party leader] Mr. [Devlet] Bahceli, who is an implicit partner for Mr. Erdogan’s endeavors at home and abroad.”

Last month, Bahceli declared that 5,000 of his party members would go to Kirkuk to protect Turkmen against the city’s then-Kurdish rulers. But analysts warn the threat faced by Turkmen is far from removed, with Baghdad forces set to take back control.

“Baghdad’s policy so far has been to disenfranchise the minorities, which are Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. And this policy, if the Shia or Iraqi army take over Kirkuk, I am fairly sure they will not treat minorities with grace or favor,” Yesilada said.

Baghdad appears sensitive to such concerns.

“The Iraqi government was clever enough to use a Turkmen brigade among the PMU [Iraqi Shia militia force] that claimed Kirkuk province,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Selcen. “And not only the PMU is being used, but also the main duties are on the shoulders of the Iraqi army and Iraqi special forces Golden Division [Sunni military forces] elements.”

But Selcen says Ankara’s offers of military assistance will likely be rejected politically. A planned visit Sunday by Turkish Prime Minster Binali Yildirim was canceled, as was a high-level Turkish minister delegation Monday because of the Iraqi military operation in Kirkuk.

Analysts point out that while Ankara and Baghdad have found common ground on thwarting Iraqi Kurdish independence aspirations, strategic differences remain that potentially could come to the fore over the fate of Iraq’s ethnic Turks.
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Hillary Clinton has told an Australian state broadcaster that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was a tool of Russia in his release of hacked emails that hurt the U.S. Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign.

Clinton told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview broadcast on Monday that the Australian whistleblower had “become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator,” Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He’s a tool of Russian intelligence, and if he’s such a … martyr of free speech, why doesn’t WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia?” she said.

Clinton was complaining about WikiLeaks’ publication during the 2016 election campaign of politically damaging emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Assange, who is holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, hit back at Clinton’s interview, tweeting that she was “not a credible person.”

“It is not just her constant lying. It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement,” he tweeted. “Watch closely. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen.”

‘Concerted operation’

In the interview, Clinton rejected reporter Sarah Ferguson’s proposition that Assange was simply performing a journalist’s role by publishing information.

“There was a concerted operation between WikiLeaks and Russia and most likely people in the United States to, as I say, weaponize that information, to make up stories, outlandish, often terrible stories that had no basis in fact, no basis even in the emails themselves, but which were used to denigrate me, my campaign, people who supported me, and to help [Donald] Trump,” Clinton said.

“WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence,” she said.

The 45-year-old Australian fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over an investigation of sexual offense allegations. Despite a Swedish prosecutor announcing in May that he was no longer the target of an active rape investigation, Assange remains in the embassy for fear of extradition to the United States on charges over WikiLeaks’ aggressive publication of thousands of pages of classified U.S. government documents.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo in April denounced WikiLeaks as a “hostile intelligence service” and a threat to U.S. national security. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Assange’s arrest was a priority as the Justice Department steps up efforts to prosecute people who leak classified information to the media.

Their condemnation of WikiLeaks differed sharply from President Donald Trump’s past praise of the organization. Before last year’s election, Trump said he was happy to see WikiLeaks publish private, politically damaging emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. He was less happy about the release of CIA tactics, which the White House said was different because it involved information about secretive national security tools.

The president said in April that he was not involved in the decision-making process regarding charging Assange but that the move would be “OK with me.”

 
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The French government is unveiling a draft bill that focuses on sexual harassment on French streets and sexual violence against minors.

Speaking on French radio RTL on Monday, Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said she has been setting up workshops across France with the aim of eventually criminalizing threatening attitudes toward women in French streets. Schiappa also wants to extend the statute of limitations for sexual assaults to 30 years from the current 20 years when minors are involved.

The draft bill is expected to be voted on next year.

A parliamentary group of five lawmakers is studying the new law.

Schiappa said she has the support of President Emmanuel Macron, who has been urging victims of sexual harassment to speak out.

 
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The president of Spain’s region of Catalonia has responded to a Monday deadline, failing to clarify whether he will push ahead with efforts for the region to break away from Madrid and signaling that the secession crisis is far from over.

The Spanish government had given Catalonian leader Carles Puigdemont until Monday to provide a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

In a letter, Puigdemont told Spanish President Mariano Rajoy secessionists want to suspend initiating steps towards independence for two months. “For the next two months, our main objective is to bring you to dialogue,” Puigdemont wrote.

Following an independence referendum on October 1, Puigdemont said last week he was prepared for Catalonia to “become an independent state,” despite a court ruling that declared such a move would be unconstitutional.

But Puigdemont immediately said he was suspending the secession drive to allow time for negotiations with Madrid.

The contradictory statements prompted Rajoy to give Puigdemont until 10 a.m. (0800 UTC) Monday to clarify his position with a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Rajoy said Madrid was ready to suspend the region’s autonomy and begin to exercise direct control if Puigdemont decided to continue pressing for secession.

Spanish officials had said they would consider anything other than a simple “no” answer an indication that the independence drive would continue and thus begin steps to strip Catalonia of its autonomy. After receiving Puigdemont’s letter Monday, Spanish leaders indicated they would treat his reply as a “yes.”

“He has not answered the question clearly,” said Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria at news conference Monday. Saenz de Santamaria said the government would now give Puigdemont until Thursday to re-think his response.

Catalonia, Spain’s most prosperous region, is home to 7.5 million people, has its own language and distinct culture, and is deeply divided over independence.

The Catalan government said that 90 percent of Catalans voted for independence from Spain in October 1 referendum. Many opponents of independence boycotted the vote, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.

 
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Sebastian Kurz, leader of Austria’s conservative People’s Party (OVP), is set to become the world’s youngest leader after declaring his party’s victory in Sunday’s general election. At 31, Kurz is believed to be younger than North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and France’s Emmanuel Macron who is approaching 40. With most of the votes counted, The People’s Party won more than 31 percent of the vote and is expected to form a coalition with right-wing Freedom Party (FPO).VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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Ireland dispatched its armed forces to bolster flood defenses on Sunday and warned people against non-essential travel as the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia threatened the country with its worst storm in 50 years.

Ophelia, the sixth major hurricane of the Atlantic season, is due to make landfall on the south west coast of Ireland at around 0500 GMT on Monday, the Irish weather service said, describing the storm as “unprecedented.”

Hurricane force winds are likely off Ireland’s south coast but they are expected to ease before they reach the coastline, said the weather service, which has declared a Status Red weather alert.

The weather service has warned some gusts may exceed 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour).

The government has also warned of localized coastal flooding and likely disruption to transport and electricity services.

“You should not be out in this storm … this is an extreme weather event,” the chairman of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Group Sean Hogan said at a briefing.

Asked if it was likely to be the worst storm in half a century, he said the “comparable weather event” was Hurricane Debbie, which killed 12 in Ireland in 1961. Ophelia has the potential to be a life-threatening event in Ireland, he said.

The storm is likely to pass close to a west of Ireland golf course owned by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has been planning a wall to protect its greens from coastal erosion.

“The storm has the potential to reshape stretches of the Irish coast, John Sweeney, a climatologist at Maynooth University,” said.

“It is going to be perhaps an event comparable to Debbie in 1961 which has effectively marked many of the coastlines of the west coast of Ireland to the present day,” Sweeney told state broadcaster RTE.

Members of the armed forces have been sent to Tralee on the south west coast to build coastal defenses with sandbags.

Britain’s meteorological service said in a statement that the weather system may effect road, rail, air and ferry services.

British media are comparing the storm to the Great Storm of 1987, which subjected parts of the United Kingdom to hurricane strength winds 30 years ago to the day.
…

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton cautioned Britain on Sunday over its push to secure a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump after it leaves the European Union.

Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate who lost out to Trump in last November’s election, also said Britain would face serious disruption if it left the EU without a negotiated deal with Brussels.

The British government has talked up the prospect of bilateral trade deals with the United States and others as one of the major benefits of leaving the EU following last year’s surprise referendum vote to leave.

Asked about the prospects of a British-U.S. deal, Clinton told the BBC: “You’re making a trade deal with somebody who says he doesn’t believe in trade, so I’m not quite sure how that’s going to play out over the next few years.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Trump in January to talk trade. The countries share $200 billion of trade each year.

But May has since intervened in a dispute between U.S. aerospace firm Boeing and Canadian planemaker Bombardier, lobbying in the interests of Bombardier to try to protect jobs at its factory in Northern Ireland.

Clinton also said Britain would be at a “very big disadvantage” if divorce negotiations with the EU failed, and went on to compare the factors behind the Brexit vote to her own election loss.

“Looking at the Brexit vote now it was a precursor to some extent to what happened to us in the United States… The amount of fabricated, false information that your voters were given by the ‘Leave’ campaign,” she said.

She said her own presidential campaign was subject to similar treatment, citing the spread of false stories by online news outlets, and warned that Britain and other countries must be alert to the risks of such new media.

“The big lie is a very potent tool,” she said.
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After sitting fifty years in the National Geographic archives, 100 hours of footage on Jane Goodall and her groundbreaking observations of Chimpanzees in the African forest of Tanzania have been compiled into a documentary film. At a screening of the film in Los Angeles, Goodall spoke to VOA’s Elizabeth Lee about her work and thoughts on the film.
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Hurricane Ophelia, a rare storm for the North Atlantic, was expected to bring high winds and rough seas to five western counties of Ireland this weekend.

Ophelia, strengthening offshore near the Azores Islands, was a   Category 3 storm, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It had top sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph) and was expected to produce total rain accumulations of up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) over the southern Azores.

Seven of the nine islands of the Azores were on red alert as ordered by regional civil protection services. The islands were expecting heavy rainfall overnight.

The 245,000 people who inhabit the Azores were told to stay inside while the storm passes.

Ophelia was expected to wind down slightly before reaching Ireland as a tropical cyclone on Monday. Five counties were placed on red alert for severe weather conditions on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Irish Meteorological Service.

Ireland, which only rarely sees hurricanes, was expected to endure winds in excess of 130 kph (80 mph) on Monday.

Coincidentally, Monday will be the 30th anniversary of what has been nicknamed the Great Storm of 1987, a hurricane that took down 15 million trees in Britain and killed more than 20 people in Britain and France together.
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The United Nations warns some 4 million people across Ukraine are facing a desperate situation as winter approaches and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance to survive the bitterly cold months ahead.

Ukraine is into its fourth year of war, a war that the United Nations estimates has killed about 10,000 people and injured more than 23,500 others. No resolution is in sight to what has become a frozen conflict between the Kyiv government and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

This is causing immense suffering to millions of people living in zones close to the contact line that separates the areas controlled by each side. The UN reports some four million people need food, health services, shelter, water and sanitation and protection as winter approaches.

Jens Laerke is spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He says most of the people in urgent need of aid live in the rebel-controlled areas in the east, though pockets of need also exist in Government-controlled areas throughout the country.

“One of the results of this deteriorating crisis is that we now estimate that 1.2 million people in Ukraine on both sides of the contact line…are food insecure. So, that is certainly a concern,” said Laerke.

Laerke says some 600,000 people, most living in separatist east Ukraine, are unable to access their pensions, which are critical for their survival.

He warns aid agencies will not be able to provide the humanitarian aid needed to help Ukraine’s millions of vulnerable people this winter without more money. He notes only 26 percent of this year’s $200 million U.N. appeal for Ukraine has been received.
…

The Vatican trial over $500,000 in donations to the pope’s pediatric hospital that were diverted to renovate a cardinal’s penthouse is reaching its conclusion, with neither the cardinal who benefited nor the contractor who was apparently paid twice for the work facing trial.

Instead, the former president of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital and his ex-treasurer are accused of misappropriating 422,000 euros from the hospital’s fundraising foundation to overhaul the retirement home of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope Benedict XVI.

Prosecutors have asked for a guilty verdict, a three-year prison term and a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,910) for the ex-president, Giuseppe Profiti. They asked to dismiss the case against the ex-treasurer, Massimo Spina, for lack of evidence.

The trial, which began in July and resumes Saturday with the defense’s closing arguments, exposed how Bertone bent Vatican rules to get his retirement apartment in shape for him to move into after Pope Francis was elected in 2013 and named a new secretary of state.

Retirement nest 

After retiring in 2013, Bertone was assigned a 400 square meter (4,305 square feet), top-floor apartment in the Vatican-owned Palazzo San Carlo, which sits on the edge of the Vatican gardens and offers fabulous views of St. Peter’s Basilica and overlooks the Vatican hotel where Francis lives.

During the trial, Bertone was shown to have personally engineered the unprecedented maneuver to get an old friend, Gianantonio Bandera, to do the renovation. Bertone’s project jumped the queue for Vatican real estate repairs, and avoided the normal external bidding process required for such an expensive overhaul, presumably because he promised to foot the bill himself.

And Bertone did indeed pay some 300,000 euros ($355,000) out of his own pocket. The problem is the hospital foundation also paid Bandera’s firm 422,000 euros for a job that totaled 533,000 euros, including communal repairs to the palazzo’s leaky roof.

The chief engineer of the Vatican’s building maintenance office, Marco Bargellini, testified that Bertone’s August 2013 request for renovations was unique. Bargellini said he had never seen a case where a tenant proposed a project with the construction firm already chosen, since the Vatican has a list of contractors who would normally bid for the contract.

Bandera’s firm, Castelli Re, originally estimated the renovation at 616,000 euros, a fee Bargellini said was excessive compared to market rates. But he said the Vatican approved it after Bandera offered a 50 percent discount up-front.

In the end, Castelli Re went bankrupt, and the hospital’s 422,000 euros were sent instead to another Bandera company located in Britain. 

A donation made

The only hint of a potential kickback from Bandera’s apparent double-billing involved a proposed six-figure “donation” from Bandera to the hospital foundation. Profiti said he “didn’t exclude” that he had sought such a donation, and Spina testified that he tried to get the money out of Bandera. Bandera, however, pleaded financial hardship after his company went bankrupt and never paid up.

Neither Bertone nor Bandera were indicted in the case, though it’s possible prosecutors in the Vatican and Italy now have the evidence they need to mount a case against the builder over the apparent double billing.

At the trial, Bandera testified that he never billed twice for the work, though he acknowledged he was no longer fully in control of the company after it went bankrupt in early 2014.

Bertone has insisted he knew nothing of the hospital’s payment. After the scandal came to light in late 2015, Bertone quickly made a 150,000 euro ($177,300) “donation” to the hospital. He insisted it wasn’t a payback but a gesture of goodwill.

Profiti, for his part, admitted he used foundation money to spruce up Bertone’s flat because he planned to host hospital fundraising soirees there. None were ever held.

Profiti’s replacement as hospital president, Marella Enoc, testified that “it’s not my style to have fundraising dinners in the homes of cardinals or celebrities.”
…

UNESCO’s executive board voted Friday to make a former French government minister the U.N. cultural agency’s next chief after an unusually heated election that was overshadowed by Middle East tensions.

The board’s selection of Audrey Azoulay over a Qatari candidate came the day after the United States announced that it intends to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias.

The news rocked a weeklong election already marked by geopolitical resentments, concerns about the Paris-based agency’s dwindling funding and questions about its future purpose.

If confirmed by UNESCO’s general assembly next assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, whose eight-year term was marred by financial woes and criticism over Palestine’s inclusion in 2011 as a member state.

Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a runoff with a third finalist from Egypt earlier Friday. The outcome was a blow for Arab states that have long wanted to lead the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

UNESCO has had European, Asian, African and American chiefs, but never one from an Arab country.

In brief remarks after she won the election, Azoulay, 45, said the response to UNESCO’s problems should be to reform the agency, not to walk away from it.

“In this moment of crisis, I believe we must invest in UNESCO more than ever, look to support and reinforce it, and to reform it. And not leave it,” she said.

The new director will set priorities for the organization best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions. The agency also works to improve education for girls, promote an understanding of the Holocaust’s horrors, defend media freedom and coordinate science on climate change.

The next leader also will have to contend with the withdrawal of both the U.S. and Israel, which applauded its ally for defending it and said Thursday that it also would be leaving UNESCO.

The election itself had become highly politicized even before the U.S. announced its planned departure.

Azoulay started the week with much less support than Qatar’s al-Kawari but built up backing as other candidates dropped out. She went on to win a runoff with a third finalist, Moushira Khattab of Egypt. Egypt’s foreign ministry has demanded an inquiry into alleged “violations” during the voting.

Jewish groups opposed al-Kawari, citing a preface he wrote to a 2013 Arabic book called “Jerusalem in the Eyes of the Poets” that they claimed was anti-Semitic. He wrote, “We pray to God to liberate (Jerusalem) from captivity and we pray to God to give Muslims the honor of liberating it.”

In March, the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote an open letter to German Ambassador Michael Worbs, chair of the UNESCO Executive Board, to criticize the organization for accepting the former Qatari culture minister’s candidacy.

During the months leading up to the election, Egypt and three other Arab nations were engaged in a boycott of Qatar over allegations that the government funds extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran.

French media reported that Qatar recently invited several members of the UNESCO executive board on an all-expenses-paid trip to the country’s capital, Doha.

Azoulay’s late entry into the leadership race in March also annoyed many UNESCO member states that argued that France shouldn’t field a candidate since it hosts the agency. Arab intellectuals urged French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw his support for her.

She will be UNESCO’s second female chief and its second French chief after Rene Maheu, UNESCO’s director general from 1961-74. While she is Jewish, her father is Moroccan and was an influential adviser to Moroccan kings, so she also has a connection to the Arab world.

The Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, but the timing of the State Department’s announcement that it would leave at the end of 2018 was unexpected. Along with hostility to Israel, the U.S. cited “the need for fundamental reform in the organization.”

The outgoing Bokova expressed “profound regret” at the U.S. decision and defended UNESCO’s reputation.

The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. UNESCO says the U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.

Azoulay acknowledged the image of the organization — founded after World War II to foster peace, but marred by infighting between Arab member states and Israel and its allies — needed rebuilding.

“The first thing I will do will be to focus on restoring its credibility,” she said.

While UNESCO’s general assembly must sign off month on the executive board’s leadership pick, but officials said the confirmation vote typically is a formality.
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Iran’s president said Friday that the nuclear deal it signed with six world powers in 2015 could not be revoked, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would not certify that Iran was in compliance with it.

In a nationally televised speech following Trump’s remarks, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged all signatories to the agreement to honor their commitments. He called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “an outstanding achievement” in international diplomacy and said Iran would continue to comply with it.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first to withdraw from the deal. But if its rights and interests in the deal are not respected, it will stop implementing all its commitments and will resume its peaceful nuclear program without any restrictions,” Rouhani said.

The Iranian leader also hit back at Trump’s characterization of Iran as a “dictatorship” and “rogue regime,” calling the American president a “liar” and a “dictator.”

“Today the U.S. is more isolated than ever against the nuclear deal, isolated than any other time in its plots against [the] people of Iran,” Rouhani said.

He rejected Trump’s remarks listing Tehran’s support for international terrorism, calling the examples “baseless accusations” and adding that the “Iranian nation does not expect anything else from you.”

EU reaction

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini held a news conference in Brussels minutes after Trump spoke, saying the EU and the rest of the international community were committed to preserving the deal.

“It is not a bilateral agreement. It does not belong to any single country. And it is not up to any single country to terminate it,” Mogherini said.

She noted the multilateral agreement had been unanimously endorsed in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231.

“We cannot afford as an international community, as Europe for sure, to dismantle a nuclear agreement that is working and delivering — especially now,” Mogherini said.

The EU foreign policy chief noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency had verified eight times, via a “comprehensive and strict” monitoring system, that Iran was meeting all its nuclear-related commitments.

“There have been no violations of any of the commitments included in the agreement,” Mogherini told reporters.

IAEA Director Yukiya Amano released a statement saying Iran was already subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime and was implementing the deal’s requirements.

WATCH: Highlights of Trump’s Speech on Iran Nuclear Deal

In a joint statement, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they were concerned about the possible implications of Trump’s decision not to recertify the Iran nuclear deal.

“Preserving the JCPOA is in our shared national security interest. The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step toward ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program was not diverted for military purposes,” the European leaders said in the statement.

Opportunity seen

Asked whether he was confident he could get the Europeans to renegotiate the Iran deal, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that he thought there was a real opportunity to address all the threats posed by Iran.

“I fully expect that our allies and friends in Europe and in the region are going to be very supportive in efforts undertaken to deal with Iran’s threats,” Tillerson told reporters.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country was committed to supporting the Iran nuclear deal.

Ahead of Trump’s remarks, the Kremlin warned that if the United States abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran would be likely to quit it as well. Russia is a signatory to the JCPOA, along with the United States, Iran, Britain, Germany and France.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also voiced support for the Iran nuclear deal during Friday’s regular news briefing.

“China’s position on the Iranian nuclear issue has been consistent. The JCPOA has played a key role in upholding the international nuclear nonproliferation regime and the peace and stability of the Middle East region,” she said. “We hope that all relevant parties will continue to uphold and implement the JCPOA.”

Praise from Netanyahu

Praise for Trump’s tough stance on Iran came from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who released a video statement in English.

“I congratulate President Trump for his courageous decision today. He boldly confronted Iran’s terrorist regime,” Netanyahu said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also expressed strong support for Trump’s shift in policy toward Iran.

The Saudi Press Agency said Riyadh praised Trump’s “vision” and commitment to work with U.S. allies in the region in order to face common challenges, particularly “Iran’s aggressive policies and actions.”

But the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, strongly criticized Trump’s decision.

The group’s executive director, Beatrice Fihn, said Trump’s “attempt to disrupt” the Iran deal despite Tehran’s compliance was a reminder of the “immense nuclear danger now facing the world” and the “urgent need” to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

“In a time with great global tension, with increasing threats of nuclear war, the U.S. president is igniting new conflict rather than working to reduce the risk of nuclear war,” she said.
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The current diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States, sparked by the arrest of local U.S. employee Metin Topuz at a diplomatic mission, is underscored by growing fears in Ankara that Washington is conspiring against it.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech Friday, warned that Turkey is the target of daily attacks and plots, and in a thinly veiled reference to Washington added, “Those who supported terror groups such as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the PKK failed to corner Turkey … [and] now are taking direct action.”

In its war against Islamic State, Washington is arming the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. Ankara claims the group is linked to the PKK that has been fighting Turkey for decades and is designated by the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization.

Ankara blames FETO for last year’s failed coup in Turkey. Its alleged leader, Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, lives in the United States and has been subject to what so far have been failed attempts by Turkey to extradite him.

But behind the current war of words and reciprocal restrictions on the issuance of visas between the NATO allies is a pending New York court case.

“First and foremost is the case of Reza Zarrab, the Turkish Iranian so-called businessman, who [allegedly] has been involved in illicit trade with Iran, contravening the American embargo at the time. He is now in jail,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar.

Zarrab allegedly organized a multibillion-dollar scheme to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran. U.S. prosecutors say the scheme also has implicated a senior Turkish state bank employee and a former minister.

“On the one hand, you arrest the deputy manager of my bank, who has not committed any crime,” Erdogan said Thursday, attacking the U.S. legal probe. “But on the other hand, my citizen [Zarrab] has been in prison in the U.S. for two years without crime, trying to use him as a confessor.”

Analysts suggest Ankara fails to understand the limitations of Washington’s influence.

“The indictment against the Iranian trader, Zarrab, and then later on, against Turkey’s deputy manager of Halkbank, is essentially now being driven by the judiciary in the U.S.,” said Sinan Ulgen, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Institute in Brussels. “So the executive .. in accordance with the principles of the independence of the judiciary, has little influence on how this procedure will unfold. And that’s something that Turkey’s policymakers should take into consideration.”

But Ankara views the Zarrab case not as a legal matter, but more as a conspiracy.

“He [Erdogan] believes there is a massive conspiracy against him, and America is part of this, and so is this court case,” said Semih Idiz, political columnist for the al-Monitor website.

This case, he added, “has potential political land mines strewn in it as far as the present [Turkish] administration is concerned, in connection with previous allegations of corruption.

Idiz went on to say that three ministers had to resign over those allegations. “And it has also involved the president’s son,” he added. “And there is the fear within the government and party that this case may revive that all again, especially as we are heading for elections in two years.”

In December 2013, Erdogan’s government was almost brought down by Turkish prosecutors investigating Zarrab on graft charges that implicated senior ministers and extended to a member of Erdogan’s own family.

The probe was shut down, and the prosecutors were arrested and accused of being followers of Gulen. Erdogan claimed the investigation was the first attempt by Gulen to unseat him from power, calling it a “judicial coup attempt.”

Pro-Erdogan media have sought to link this month’s arrest of U.S. diplomatic employee Topuz to the Zarrab case, producing video allegedly showing Topuz meeting with one of the Turkish prosecutors involved in investigating Zarrab in 2015.

Pro-government media also point out that while the Zarrab case is about to begin, Ankara’s year-long demand to extradite Gulen has not even reached the court.

With the Zarrab trial due to start in November in New York, the potential for more damage to already frayed U.S.-Turkish relations is real.

“It does not bode well,” warned columnist Idiz, “because the number of names involved [in the case] are likely to grow. And the [court] revelations, if they anger Erdogan and the government again … will be seen as part of this conspiracy against Turkey and against Erdogan. And the allegations put forward will heighten Americanism here.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump, following impassioned appeals from some of America’s closest allies and members of his own administration, is likely to stop short Friday of calling for the abandonment of a 2-year-old nuclear deal with Iran while unveiling a more confrontational overall strategy towards Tehran.

The White House, early Friday, announced that the president, in consultation with his national security team, “has approved a new strategy for Iran.”

Lawmakers say that while Trump will no longer certify what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) he will not urge Congress to reapply sanctions on Iran.

“He’s signaling his intense dislike for the deal, but taking no concrete steps to undermine it or to leave it,” Democrat Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC.

​Against it from the beginning

Trump has strongly opposed the deal since it was approved in 2015 with Iran by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union. 

While accusing Iran of seeking to exploit loopholes in the deal and refusing to allow the United Nations’ atomic watchdog to inspect nuclear facilities on military sites, behavior the White House says “cannot be tolerated,” the Trump administration is now calling for the deal to “be strictly enforced.”

The Trump Iran policy instead focuses “on neutralizing the government of Iran’s destabilizing influence and constraining its aggression, particularly its support for terrorism and militants.”

White House officials said the goal will be to “deny the Iranian regime all paths to a nuclear weapon.”

If the president, as expected, announces he will no longer certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to re-impose U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Trump is “deep in thought, to say the least, about a way ahead in Iran,” White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told reporters Thursday. “He’s not the only one that thinks that maybe the deal that was struck under the previous administration is a deal that, in the long term, even in the medium and long term, will not protect America.”

“Iran is now a powerful nation state that remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” CIA Director George Pompeo said Thursday, adding that its intelligence and security ministry in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “are the cudgels of a despotic theocracy,” Kelly said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, pledged Wednesday a “tougher” response if Trump finds Tehran not in compliance with the deal. An Iranian military spokesman further promised that his country’s forces would teach the U.S. “new lessons” if needed.

​Concern at home, abroad

Word that the president would likely not certify the deal prompted an outpouring of concern earlier this week, both at home and abroad.

British Prime Minister Theresa May phoned Trump on Tuesday to urge him to think carefully about the consequences, calling the agreement “vital for regional security.” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called his counterpart Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to argue that the deal was “making the world a safer place.”

At a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday, the ranking Democrat, Rep. Elliott Engel, said he had originally opposed the JCPOA, when it was agreed to by the Obama administration. But he said he is now opposed to backing away from it.

“As the administration seems poised to take the first step from the JCPOA, I must say I view that course as a grave mistake,” Engel said. “Unless we see solid evidence that Iran is cheating, the United States has to live up to our word.”

Later, when questioned by a Republican committee member, Dana Rohrabacher, about whether they thought Iran is complying with the agreement, three of four witnesses testifying replied in the negative.

​What it required

The accord required Tehran to sharply restrict its nuclear program and allow more access to international inspectors. Iranian leaders also promised not to seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons. In return, Iran received relief from crippling economic sanctions, including the release of billions of dollars in frozen overseas assets and re-admittance to the international banking system.

The Iran Project, a group led by several former U.S. diplomats backing the accord, says not recertifying “would have grave long-term political and security consequences for the U.S. — including another regional war.”

The group’s statement argues “no American national security objective would be served by scuttling the nuclear agreement as long as Iran remains in compliance and without a nuclear weapon.

But current and former U.S. intelligence and military officials say any Iranian action is unlikely to be carried out directly and that such behavior would not be a dramatic departure from Iran’s behavior since the JCPOA went into effect.

Peter Heinlein, Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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Human rights group Amnesty International held events Thursday to mark 100 days since several of its Turkish staffers were detained in Istanbul.

This week, Turkish prosecutors officially filed an indictment against 10 of the human rights activists detained in July, along with Amnesty’s Turkey chairman Taner Kilic, and demanded jail sentences of up to 15 years on charges of supporting terrorist organizations.

Amnesty labeled the indictment “trumped-up and absurd.”

WATCH: Amnesty Marks 100 Days of Detention for Turkey Staff, as Ankara’s Rift With West Grows

“They were on day three of a workshop, a very routine workshop about digital security and also about maintaining the well-being of human rights defenders in difficult circumstances,” Amnesty’s Milena Buyum told VOA. “The imprisonment of human rights defenders is doubly problematic, because then the people who would be the defense against abuses are themselves being silenced.”

The detentions are part of a government crackdown following the 2016 failed coup, which has soured relations between Ankara and its Western allies, culminating this week in the mutual suspension of visa services between the United States and Turkey.

Bass announces visa suspensions

The outgoing U.S. ambassador, John Bass, announced the suspension of nonimmigrant visa services Sunday, following the recent unexplained arrests of two local employees.

“This arrest has raised questions about whether the goal of some officials is to disrupt the long-standing cooperation between Turkey and the United States,” said Bass, who is leaving Turkey to assume a new assignment in Afghanistan. “If true, this would put the people who work with, and work at, and visit our diplomatic facilities at risk,” he told reporters.

Turkey has accused the detained workers from the U.S. diplomatic mission of having links to U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for the coup attempt. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup.

War of words

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed the war of words at a press conference Thursday.

“The United States is trying to protect the rights of someone who has links to the Fetullah Terror Organization, who is hiding in their consulate with no diplomatic identity.”

Turkey’s rift with Berlin has also deepened as 11 German citizens go on trial on terror charges. Some German lawmakers want Europe to follow Washington’s lead.

“We still have a military cooperation with Turkey, our intelligences work together, we subsidize Turkey, the EU is in negotiations with Turkey about a customs union and visa liberalization is on the table as well. We see that the U.S. dealt with the issue differently. We have to ask ourselves what we need to do right now,” German lawmaker Heike Haensel said Wednesday before the start of the trial in Istanbul.

As relations between Turkey and its NATO allies continue to be strained, the United States says it is continuing to engage the Turkish government to seek an explanation for the arrests of its embassy staff.
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Human rights group Amnesty International has held events to mark 100 days since several of its Turkish staff were detained in Istanbul. Prosecutors filed terror charges against the activists this week, the latest trials in a widespread crackdown that has soured relations between Ankara and its Western allies, culminating this week in the mutual suspension of visa services between the United States and Turkey. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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The International Organization for Migration says there has been a dramatic drop in the number of migrants from West Africa crossing the Sahel region into Niger, on their way to Europe. 

Migration officials attribute the drop in African migration to strong action by the government of Niger against human smuggling networks.  

The International Organization for Migration reports Niger has closed three of six transit houses in the town of Agadez, where migrants often stop on their journey.

IOM Niger Chief of Mission Giuseppe Loprete says migrants used to wait in the houses for smugglers’ vehicles to take them to Algeria or Libya.

“Many vehicles have been withdrawn by the army along the migratory routes.  Smugglers have been arrested,” Loprete said. “So, all this created a context—sent across a message that transiting Agadez is not easy, is not that easy.” 

Loprete tells VOA fewer migrants are arriving and staying in Agadez because of the difficulty in finding smugglers to take them to North Africa.

“Last year, the first six months, we were estimating five to 7,000 migrants transiting per week going to Algeria or Libya,” Loprete said. “Right now, our numbers show that we are 5,500 migrants per month transiting.  So definitely less migrants.” 

While the Agadez route is drying up, Loprate says migration to Europe is not.  He says smugglers are finding alternate, possibly more dangerous routes to transport their human cargo. 

He says Africans desperate to carve out a better life for themselves in Europe continue to risk their lives, making the perilous journey across the Sahel and eventually, across the Sahara Desert.
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Kosovo’s prime minister has confirmed that the government will try to transform the nation’s security forces into a regular army through constitutional changes to satisfy the country’s international partners.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said during a visit to Kosovo Security Force headquarters on Thursday that “we should give the constitutional mandate” to the future army.

Haradinaj has been prime minister since September.

President Hashim Thaci bowed to pressure from NATO and the U.S. earlier this year and withdrew legislation aimed at accomplishing the transformation.

The draft law needed only a majority vote in parliament to pass. Constitutional amendments would require backing from lawmakers representing Kosovo’s ethnic Serbs and other minority groups. They say they won’t back the change.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Serbia refuses to recognize.

 
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Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Thursday she “absolutely” supports the public release of all advertisements produced by a Russia-linked organization during the 2016 presidential election.

Sandberg said the company is “working on transparency” following the revelation last month that a group with alleged ties to the Russian government ran $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook promoting “divisive” causes like Black Lives Matter.

“Things happened on our platform that shouldn’t have happened,” she said during the interview with Axios’s Mike Allen.

Later Thursday, Sandberg is set to meet with Congressional investigators who are looking into what role the advertisements which began running in 2015 and continued through this year may have played in the 2016 presidential election.

The $100,000 worth of ads represent a very small fraction of the total $2.3 billion spent by, and on behalf of, President Donald Trump and losing-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaigns during the election.

Multiple congressional investigations have been launched, seeking to determine what effect alleged Russian meddling may have played in the election.

In addition, Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is conducting a criminal probe, including whether President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian operatives during the election season. Trump has denied working with the Russians.

Facebook had previously agreed to disclose the thousands of Facebook ads to congress. Sandberg said Thursday she thinks “it’s important that [the investigators] get the whole picture and explain that to the American people.”

In response to the Russian ad buys, Sandberg said Facebook is hiring 4,000 new employees to oversee ads and content. She said the company is also using “machine learning and automation” to target fake accounts that spread fake news.

She defined fake news as “things that are false hoaxes” and said Facebook is working to stamp out the bad information by teaming up with third-party fact checkers and warning users before they share news deemed fake by Facebook.

She said it is important to be cautious when going after fake news because “a lot of what we allow on Facebook is people expressing themselves” and “when you cut off speech for one person, you cut off speech for all people.”

“We don’t check the information posted on Facebook before people post it, and I don’t think people should want us to,” she said.

Hundreds of fake accounts were used to distribute the Russia-linked advertisements, Sandberg said. But had those ads been posted by legitimate users, “we would have let them run,” she said.
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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a string of energy, military and other deals with Morocco during a North Africa tour.

Medvedev met Wednesday with Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani and presided at a signing ceremony for 11 bilateral agreements.

The agreements cover cooperation in areas such as customs, agriculture, the military and culture, as well as energy efficiency and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The disputed Western Sahara region that Morocco annexed in the mid-1970s also was a topic of the talks.

Medvedev is traveling with a large Russian government delegation and Russian business executives. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI hosted a lunch in the prime minister’s honor.

He arrived in Morocco after a visit to Algeria, where he discussed oil prices and energy cooperation.
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The Italian government on Wednesday won two confidence votes on a fiercely contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year’s national election.

The proposed voting system is backed by three of the country’s four largest parties, with the center-left government looking to rush it onto the statute books ahead of elections, which are due by May 2018.

Five-Star supporters protested in front of parliament as the Chamber of Deputies approved two confidence motions by a wide margin. A third such vote is scheduled for Thursday ahead of a final ballot in the lower house on the disputed bill.

Unlike the current rules, the new system would allow the formation of multi-party coalitions before the ballot, a factor likely to hurt 5-Star, which is topping most opinion polls and refuses to join alliances.

“They want to take away our right to choose,” said Nicola Zuppa, 45, who said he had paid 175 euros ($200) to travel from Padua in northern Italy to take part in the protest, which drew up to 2,000 people in the heart of Rome.

The use of multiple confidence motions allowed the ruling coalition to truncate discussion on the bill and sidestep dozens of planned secret votes on various amendments. The reform still needs the approval of the upper house Senate.

“If you allow the electoral rules to be changed again so that the scum of the country rises to the top yet again, it will be your children who pay the price,” 5-Star’s founder Beppe Grillo wrote on his blog on Wednesday.

Harmonization

President Sergio Mattarella, the only figure with the power to dissolve parliament, has called for new voting rules because the current system is very different for the upper and lower houses, meaning it could throw up conflicting majorities.

All previous attempts to harmonize the rules have failed, most recently in June when dissident deputies used a secret vote to upend part of the proposed legislation.

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) drafted the latest version, which is supported by right-wing parliamentary rivals Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the Northern League. Five small parties are also backing the proposed law.

Five-Star estimates that the new rules could cost it up to 50 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and potentially scupper its chances of being the largest group in parliament after the vote.

Mattarella is expected to give the formation that gets the most seats the first crack at forming a government. The PD has denied trying to stymie the 5-Star’s chances.

“No one is preventing (5-Star) from making alliances if they want to,” said Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the PD who has put his name to the reform. “If they don’t want to do them, they can continue to be an isolated party.”

Analysts say the new electoral system looks unlikely to throw up a clear parliamentary majority, with opinion polls showing the center-left, center-right and 5-Star splitting the vote three ways.

Such a result could lead to the creation of a grand coalition that would need to span the political divide.

($1 = 0.8452 euros)
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