Month: January 2018

Spain’s top court said Saturday that Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president must return to the country and be present in the regional parliament to receive the authority to form a new government.

The Constitutional Court ruled that a session of Catalonia’s parliament scheduled for Tuesday would be suspended if former leader Carles Puigdemont tries to be re-elected without being physically present in the chamber.

The court also said that Puigdemont must seek judicial authorization to attend the session.

Catalonia’s separatist lawmakers have been considering voting Puigdemont back in as regional chief without him returning from Belgium, weighing options that included another parliament member standing in for him or him addressing the lawmakers via video.

The separatist leader fled Spain after the regional parliament made an unsuccessful declaration of independence on Oct. 27 in violation of Spain’s Constitution. He is wanted in Spain on possible rebellion and sedition charges and is likely to be arrested if he returns.

The court also ruled that neither Puigdemont nor the four other former members of his Cabinet who also fled to Belgium to avoid a judicial summons three months ago could delegate their vote for Tuesday’s session in another candidate.

The court included a warning to the speaker of the Catalan parliament and the other members of his board that they would be breaking the law if they disobey the rulings.

It is still unclear whether the separatist majority in Catalonia’s parliament will heed the court’s ban on voting Puigdemont back into power unless he is there.

Nor is it a sure bet that Puigdemont won’t try to avoid police and return to the parliament come Tuesday, even if it would likely lead to his arrest either before or after the debate. 

The independence declaration in October brought to a head Spain’s worst political crisis in decades. Spain responded by invoking special powers allowing it to fire the regional government, dissolve Catalonia’s parliament and call fresh regional elections in December.

Contrary to the Spanish government’s wishes, separatist parties regained a slim majority, keeping the conflict alive and rallying secessionists around the call to bring back Puigdemont.

Polls consistently show that most Catalans want the right to decide the region’s future, but are evenly divided over splitting from Spain.
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia of using energy as a “political tool” in Europe as he held talks with his counterpart Saturday in Warsaw, Poland.

At a news conference with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz following the discussions, Tillerson said the U.S. is opposed to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, a proposed project that would connect Russia and Germany. Some Eastern European countries are also against the pipeline, which would give Russia a larger share of the natural gas market.

“Like Poland, the United States opposes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” Tillerson said. “We see it as undermining Europe’s overall energy security and stability and it provides Russia yet another tool to politicize energy as a political tool.”

Tillerson’s visit to Poland comes at a time when the U.S. is boosting exports of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to central Europe and taking on Russia’s stronghold on energy supplies.

Senior U.S. officials have said Washington will help European nations diversify their energy supply so they will not be solely dependent on Russia.

On June 7, 2017, the first U.S. LNG shipment to Central Europe arrived in Poland. The State Department said at that time Washington “has worked closely with European partners to diversify European energy supplies through new sources of natural gas.”

Talks between Tillerson and Czaputowicz were held before Tillerson placed a wreath and made remarks at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Tillerson said the genocide that occurred at German concentration camps in Poland must never be repeated.

“On this occasion it reminds us that we can never, we can never, be indifferent to the face of evil. The Western alliance which emerged from World War Two has committed itself to ensuring the security of all, that this would never happen again.”

Tillerson’s trip to Poland is aimed at strengthening Washington’s “strategic partnership” with Warsaw in meetings with Polish leaders, with security ties and energy cooperation high on the agenda.

Tillerson also met Saturday with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Law and Justice Party Leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, before wrapping up his European trip and returning to Washington.

 
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The United Nations says it will participate in the Russian-sponsored Syrian peace meeting at the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week now that some of its concerns have been allayed.  The U.N. has just wrapped up two days of U.N.-mediated peace talks with Syrian government and opposition delegations in Vienna.

The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres has decided to send his special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to the Sochi meeting, which opens Monday.  De Mistura said a Russian statement persuaded the secretary-general that the U.N. should participate in the so-called Black Sea Peace Congress.  

“I took note of the statement by the Russian Federation that the outcome of the congress would be brought to Geneva as a contribution to the intra-Syrian talks process under the auspices of the U.N.”  

Gutteres said he was confident the congress in Sochi will be an important contribution to a revived intra-Syrian talks process mediated by the U.N. in Geneva.

Critics of the Sochi Congress, which is backed by Turkey and Iran, accuse Russia of trying to hijack the Syrian peace process from the United Nations and come up with a result that favors the government of Bashar al-Assad.  Syria’s opposition group agrees and says it will boycott the Sochi meeting.

De Mistura says the only sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis is through an inclusive Syria-led political process.

“The ultimate goal of a constitutional process is to enable the Syrian people to freely and independently determine their own future in U.N.-supervised parliamentary and presidential elections meeting the requirements laid out in resolution 2254,” de Mistura said.

Security Council resolution 2254 sets out the U.N.’s road map for peace in Syria.  Under the mandate, de Mistura notes a new constitution will be drawn up in Geneva under the auspices of the so-called Geneva process.

 
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A defiant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday that he’s prepared to risk confrontation with the United States over Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria, vowing to next target a Kurdish-held town where U.S. Special Forces are stationed.

Speaking to members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, a belligerent Erdogan shrugged off U.S. calls for Turkey to limit the incursion launched a week ago, saying the next town to be targeted after the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, where Turkish tanks have been grinding through winter mud, will be Manbij, raising the possibility of American troops being drawn inadvertently into the bruising fight between Turks and Syrian Kurds.

The Reuters news agency reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday the United States needs to withdraw from northern Syria’s Manbij region immediately, suggesting that an attack might be imminent.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concerns in a phone call with Erdogan about the Turkish offensive aimed at ousting Kurdish militiamen the U.S. sees as allies in the battle against the Islamic State terror group. Trump urged him to limit the incursion and to avoid civilian casualties. The U.S. president, though, acknowledged Turkey’s legitimate security concerns, according to Turkish officials, who say that Trump asked Erdogan “not to criticize the U.S.”

Dramatic escalation

But speaking to AKP members, Erdogan outlined a far more expansive operation than he’s committed to before, indicating his readiness to order Turkish forces, along with thousands of allied Syrian rebels, remnants of the Free Syrian Army that led the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to drive right across northern Syria all the way to Iraq.

That would mean attacking east of the Euphrates River the Kurdish stronghold of Rojava, which Syrian Kurds hope one day will become their own independent state. It would mark a dramatic escalation of Turkey’s offensive – as well as adding a massive complication in the already complex Syrian conflict.  

“We will rid Manbij of terrorists, as was promised before. Our battles will continue until no terrorist is left right up to our border with Iraq,” Erdogan said.

Turkish officials refer to Kurdish militiamen with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorists. They say the YPG is an affiliate of the Turkey’s own outlawed Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Ankara.

The Turkish offensive, oddly named Operation Olive Branch, “will continue until it reaches its goals,” Erdogan pledged. He made no reference to the fact that as many as 2,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Manbij or nearby. We will “walk on our road until the end,” Erdogan added.

Turkey shares a 911-kilometer-long border with Syria, around two-thirds of which is under YPG control. Manbij is some 100 km east of the mountainous pocket of Afrin, which has been the focus of the Turkish offensive so far. U.S. troops have been located in Manbij since 2016, when Islamic State militants were driven from the city by the YPG with American assistance.

Kurdish officials say they are ready to deploy militiamen from Rojava to reinforce about 10,000 YPG fighters in the crowded city of Afrin, which would mean weapons, including anti-tank missiles, supplied by Washington for use against jihadist militants being turned instead on the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies.

‘Confusion and conflict’

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington would continue to pursue talks with Turkey and hoped to find a way to create a “security zone” that would meet Turkey’s “legitimate” security interests.” Senior Pentagon officials visited Ankara this week and sought to try establish a clear line between Afrin and other Kurdish-held territory and between different YPG units. Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that “the armed Kurdish groups in Afrin” are not part of the U.S.-backed coalition against Islamic State.

But some analysts say that distinction is false, and former U.S. envoy to Turkey James Jeffrey says there is “confusion and conflict” in Washington about what steps to take.

Gonul Tol, an analyst with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based policy research organization, says that persuading Erdogan not to move on Manbij will likely prove extremely difficult. He argues one of the driving factors behind the offensive is Erdogan’s goal of “galvanizing [Turkish] nationalists ahead of critical 2019 elections.”

Syrian Kurds have accused both the U.S. and Russia of stepping aside when it comes to Afrin, which has an estimated population of more than 300,000 after having been swelled by refuges from other parts of war-torn Syria. Russian advisers were based in Afrin but were withdrawn by Moscow just days before Operation Olive Branch was launched. Erdogan claimed last week that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have an agreement over the Turkish incursion.

A Kurdish official told al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper, that the Kremlin brokered a meeting between the YPG and the Syrian government 48 hours before the Turkish offensive. He said the Kurds were told to hand over Afrin to President Assad as a way to avoid a Turkish attack and it was when they refused that the Russian military advisers were removed from Afrin.

Russia has been wooing the Kurds but appears now to have chosen the Turks in the conflict with the Kurds. Russian analysts say Turkey is more important in Moscow’s plans for ending the Syria conflict in a way that benefits its ally Assad.

“Afrin’s defenders have a poor hand to play,” according to Aron Lund, an analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank. He says that while the Turks risk getting bogged down during the offensive and the YPG could drag out an insurgency, the Syrian Kurds face a powerful foe in Turkey “whose goal is not to win concessions but to destroy it.” Kurdish leaders may have no option but “to negotiate with Moscow and Damascus, self-interested actors whose assistance will come at a steep price, if at all,” he says.

Operation Olive Branch is enjoying widespread public support in Turkey. Three of the country’s four main parties support the incursion amid a media frenzy backing the offensive. Ankara has moved against critics, and dozens who oppose the offensive, including at least five journalists, have been detained. Erdogan has pledged to “crush anyone who opposes our nationalist struggle.”

 
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is focusing on strengthening Washington’s “strategic partnership” with Warsaw in meetings with Polish leaders, with security ties and energy cooperation high on the agenda.

Tillerson and Polish President Andrzej Duda met on Friday to discuss a range of issues, including global challenges, regional security and economic prosperity, according to the State Department. 

In Warsaw, Tillerson will also lay a wreath and make remarks at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

“The purpose of the secretary’s trip is really to underscore the importance and the deep alliance and friendship that we share with Poland and the Polish people, especially as one of our closest NATO allies,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Thursday.

Tillerson’s visit to Poland comes at a time when the United States is boosting exports of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to central Europe and taking on Russia’s stronghold on energy supplies.

Senior U.S. officials have said Washington will help European nations diversify their energy supply so they will not be solely dependent on Russia.

On June 7, 2017, the first U.S. LNG shipment to Central Europe arrived in Poland. The State Department said at that time Washington “has worked closely with European partners to diversify European energy supplies through new sources of natural gas.”

Tillerson is scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jacek Czaputowicz on Saturday, before wrapping up his European trip and returning to Washington.

​On Friday, Tillerson met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The United States has been a stalwart supporter of Ukraine since 2013, when a series of street protests over closer integration with Europe evolved into a major confrontation with President Viktor Yanukovych, culminating in his ouster in February 2014 and leading to a pro-Western government under Poroshenko.

The United States and the European Union have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia over its March 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its role in the war in eastern Ukraine.
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A Moscow cinema has been warned after defying a government ban on showing The Death Of Stalin. (Please see related stories link for VOA story on “The Death of Stalin”) The black comedy was screened to a packed audience on January 25, and many said they didn’t find the satirical film offensive. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service)
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The U.S. Treasury has announced new sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian citizens involved in the Russian annexation of Crimea, barring them from doing business with Americans and freezing any assets they hold under U.S. jurisdiction.

“The U.S. government is committed to maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and to targeting those who attempt to undermine the Minsk agreement,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday, referring to the agreement under which Russia and Ukraine are obligated to support a cease-fire, withdraw heavy weapons, and support electoral reform.

The new sanctions target several Russian officials, including deputy energy ministers Andrei Cherezov, who is already under European Union sanctions for his role in transferring energy turbines to Crimea, and Evgenia Grabchak. Also listed is Sergei Topor-Gilk, director general of Technopromexport, a Moscow-based engineering firm that builds hydropower, geo-thermal and diesel power plants, power lines and electricity substations in Russia and abroad.

Eleven of the other people targeted are Ukrainian separatists holding government titles in the separatist areas that have proclaimed themselves Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.

In addition to the individuals, the new sanctions target nine Russian companies involved with building infrastructure in the separatist-controlled areas of Crimea. The list also includes the foreign trade association Technopromexport, Power Machines, 12 subsidiaries of Surgutneftegaz, and Doncoaltrade, which is registered in Poland.

The United States and European Union say the separatists in Crimea are directly backed by Russian forces. They accuse Russia of sending personnel and weapons, funding, and supplies to Crimean separatists.

Russia announced in 2014 that it was annexing Crimea and denied accusations that it was arming and supporting separatist fighters there.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday that Russian company Abtronix had also been included on a separate sanctions lists. U.S. property and assets of Abtronix’s general director, Timofey Telegin, will be seized, and Telegin with be banned from entering the United States.

Treasury is expected to submit the list to Congress by January 29.

This story includes reporting from VOA’s Russian Service.
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North Korea shipped coal to Russia last year which was then delivered to South Korea and Japan in a likely violation of U.N. sanctions, three Western European intelligence sources said.

The U.N. Security Council banned North Korean exports of coal last Aug. 5 under sanctions intended to cut off an important source of the foreign currency Pyongyang needs to fund its nuclear weapon and long-range missile programs.

But the secretive Communist state has at least three times since then shipped coal to the Russian ports of Nakhodka and Kholmsk, where it was unloaded at docks and reloaded onto ships that took it to South Korea or Japan, the sources said.

A Western shipping source said separately that some of the cargoes reached Japan and South Korea in October last year. A U.S. security source also confirmed the coal trade via Russia and said it was continuing.

“Russia’s port of Nakhodka is becoming a transhipping hub for North Korean coal,” said one of the European security sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of international diplomacy around North Korea.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment sent on Jan 18. Russia’s mission to the United Nations informed the Security Council sanctions committee on Nov. 3 that Moscow was complying with the sanctions.

Two lawyers who specialise in sanctions law told Reuters it appeared the transactions violated U.N. sanctions.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the coal unloaded at the Russian docks was the same coal that was then shipped to South Korea and Japan. Reuters also was unable to ascertain whether the owners of the vessels that sailed from Russia to South Korea and Japan knew the origin of the coal.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday put the owner of one of the ships, the UAL Ji Bong 6, under sanctions for delivering North Korean coal to Kholmsk on Sept. 5.

It was unclear which companies profited from the coal shipments.

Russia urged to ‘do more’ on sanctions

North Korean coal exports were initially capped under a 2016 Security Council resolution that required countries to report monthly imports of coal from North Korea to the council’s sanctions committee within 30 days of the end of each month.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia had not reported any imports of North Korea coal to the committee last year.

The sanctions committee told U.N. member states in November that a violation occurs when “activities or transactions proscribed by Security Council resolutions are undertaken or attempts are made to engage in proscribed transactions, whether or not the transaction has been completed.”

Asked about the shipments identified by Reuters, Matthew Oresman, a partner with law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who advises companies on sanctions, said: “Based on these facts, there appears to be a violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution by the parties involved.”

“Also those involved in arranging, financing, and carrying out the shipments could likely face U.S. sanctions,” he said.

Asked about the shipments, a U.S. State Department spokesman said: “It’s clear that Russia needs to do more. All U.N. member states, including Russia, are required to implement sanctions resolutions in good faith and we expect them all to do so.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The independent panel of experts that reports to the Security Council on violations of sanctions was not immediately available for comment.

North Korea has refused to give up the development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States. It has said the sanctions infringe its sovereignty and accused the United States of  wanting to isolate and stifle North Korea.

An independent panel of experts reported to the Security Council on Sept. 5 that North Korea had been “deliberately using indirect channels to export prohibited commodities, evading sanctions.”

Reuters reported last month that Russian tankers had supplied fuel to North Korea at sea and U.S.

President Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview on Jan. 17 that Russia was helping Pyongyang get supplies in violation of the sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday imposed sanctions on nine entities, 16 people and six North Korean ships it accused of helping the weapons programs.

Two routes

Two separate routes for the coal were identified by the Western security sources.

The first used vessels from North Korea via Nakhodka, about 85 km (53 miles) east of the Russian city of Vladivostok.

One vessel that used this route was the Palau-flagged Jian Fu which Russian port control documents show delivered 17,415 tons of coal after sailing from Nampo in North Korea on Aug. 3 and docking at berth no. 4 run by LLC Port Livadiya in Nakhodka. It left the port on Aug. 18.

The vessel had turned off its tracking transmitter from July 24 to Aug. 2, when it was in open seas, according to publicly available ship tracking data. Under maritime conventions, this is acceptable practice at the discretion of the ship’s captain, but means the vessel could not be tracked publicly.

Another ship arrived at the same berth — No. 4 — on Aug. 16, loaded 20,500 tons of coal and headed to the South Korean port of Ulsan in Aug. 24, according to Russian port control documents.

Reuters was unable to reach the operator of the Jian Fu, which was listed in shipping directories as the China-based Sunrise Ship Management. The Nakhodka-based transport agent of the Jian Fu did not respond to written and telephone requests for comment. LLC Port Livadiya did not respond to a written request for comment.

The second route took coal via Kholmsk on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin, north of Japan.

At least two North Korean vessels unloaded coal at a dock in Kholmsk port in August and September after arriving from the ports of Wonsan and Taean in North Korea, Russian port control data and ship tracking data showed.

The Rung Ra 2 docked in Kholmsk three times between Aug. 1 and Sept. 12, unloading a total of 15,542 tons of coal, while the Ul Ji Bong 6 unloaded a total of 10,068 tons of coal on two separate port calls — on Aug. 3 and between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, according to the official Russian Information System for State Port Control.

The coal did not pass Russian customs because of the UN sanctions taking effect, but was then loaded at the same dock onto Chinese-operated vessels. Those vessels stated their destination in Russian port control documents as North Korea, according to a source in Sakhalin port administration who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Reuters has seen the port control documents which state the destination of the coal as North Korea. But the vessels that loaded the North Korean coal sailed instead for the ports of Pohang and Incheon in South Korea, ship tracking data showed.

The Chinese commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday included the owner of the Ul Ji Bong 6 under sanctions for delivering North Korean coal to Kholmsk after the sanctions took effect.

It was unclear which companies profited from the coal shipments.

Asked about the shipments, a South Korean foreign ministry official said:c“Our government is monitoring any sanctions-evading activities by North Korea. We’re working closely with the international community for the implementation of the sanctions.”

The official declined to say whether the ministry was aware of the shipments reported by Reuters.

The Japanese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The European security sources said the route via Russia had developed as China, North Korea’s neighbour and lone major ally, cracked down on exports from the secretive Communist state.

“The Chinese have cracked down on coal exports from North Korea so the smuggling route has developed and Russia is the transit point for coal,” one of the European security sources said.
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A partial jawbone bearing seven teeth unearthed in a cave in Israel represents what scientists are calling the oldest-known Homo sapiens remains outside Africa, showing that our species trekked out of that continent far earlier than previously known.

Researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of the fossil estimated as 177,000 to 194,000 years old, and said the teeth bore telltale traits of Homo sapiens not present in close human relatives alive at the time, including Neanderthals.

The fossil of the left part of the upper jaw of a young adult — the person’s sex remains unclear — came from Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel’s western slopes about 7.5 miles (12 km) south of Haifa. Also found inside the large collapsed cave, once inhabited by humans, were blades and other stone tools that were sophisticated for the time, several hearths and burned animal bones.

​Earlier migration, different route

Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa, with the earliest-known fossils roughly 300,000 years old. A key milestone was when our species first ventured out of Africa en route to populating the far corners of the globe.

Until now, the oldest Homo sapiens fossils outside Africa had come from two other cave sites in Israel, including one also on Mount Carmel, about 90,000 to 120,000 years old.

The new discovery supports the idea that humans migrated out of Africa through a northern route, the Nile valley and the eastern Mediterranean coast, and not a southern route across the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the southern coast of Saudi Arabia, the Indian subcontinent and East Asia, said Tel Aviv University paleoanthropologist Israel Hershkovitz, who led the study.

“This is an exciting discovery that confirms other suggestions of an earlier migration out of Africa,” added paleoanthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University in New York, a co-author of the study published in the journal Science.

Fossil, DNA evidence

“Now we finally have fossil evidence of this migration, in addition to inferences drawn from ancient DNA studies and archaeological sites,” Quam said, referring to genetic research suggesting a migration from Africa at least 220,000 years ago and probably earlier.

Hershkovitz said he believes Homo sapiens may have originated some 500,000 years ago.

The Misliya humans were likely nomadic, moving around the landscape following the movements of prey species or according to the seasons of the year, Quam said.

“They were capable hunters of large-game species including wild cattle, deer and gazelles. They also made extensive use of plant materials, including perhaps for bedding,” Quam added.
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Grocery shopping went a little nuts in France when a supermarket chain deeply discounted jars of Nutella.

Aficionados of the chocolate hazelnut spread jostled and fought each other when the Intermarché supermarkets offered the treat at a 70 percent discount.

“They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand,” one customer told French media.

Videos posted on social media showed huge crowds gathered around pallets of Nutella, with people grabbing as many jars as they could carry.

In some stores, including in Ostricourt in northern France, police had to be called as scuffles broke out between customers.

In L’Horme, an employee told a newspaper that he saw a customer with a black eye in the crowd. “We were trying to get in between the customers, but they were pushing us,” he said.

France is the second-biggest consumer of Nutella, eating around 100 million jars per year, behind Germany.
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