Month: May 2018

Attraction park Legoland has unveiled a miniature model of this month’s royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor castle, built by a team of 11 model-makers who used almost 60,000 pieces of Lego bricks.

The replica includes a 60-brick Markle in her wedding dress and veil, with Harry by her side.

The couple are riding in a brick-built carriage being drawn by horses along Windsor Great Park’s Long Walk toward the castle, surrounded by 500 spectators, recreating the real-life procession that is planned for the big day on May 19.

The scene is completed by miniature models of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh along with best man Prince William, his wife, Kate, and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and Meghan Markle’s parents.

Lego said the wedding scene replica, which took 752 hours to build, will be on permanent display at its theme park, just three miles (5 km) from the real Windsor castle to the west of London.
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The double-Oscar winning filmmaker who opened the Cannes Film Festival has made a last-minute plea to Iran to let a fellow Iranian director – who is officially banned from working and traveling – come to the premiere of his own film.

Seated alongside Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, the stars of his new movie, Asghar Farhadi said Iran should allow acclaimed director Jafar Panahi to attend the festival where they both have movies competing for the Palme d’Or.

“I think there’s still time,” he said of getting Panahi to the Saturday premiere of his film “3 Faces.”

“I would like to send this message: I hope the decision will be taken to allow him to come,” Farhadi said at the end of a news conference on his own movie “Everybody Knows” on Wednesday.

Farhadi, who won foreign language Oscars for films made in Iran: “A Separation” and “The Salesman”, is free to come and go from his home country as he makes films there and in Europe.

But Panahi, who won the Camera d’Or in Cannes in 1995 for his debut “The White Balloon” was arrested after the 2009 protests against the re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was banned from making films.

Depite that, he has continued working under the radar, starting with “This Is Not a Film,” shot in his Tehran apartment on a mobile phone, and more recently “Taxi” in which he plays himself as a film director now working as a taxi driver – winning the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin film festival in 2015.

“It’s wonderful that he has continued his work in such adversity,” Farhadi told reporters. “It’s a very strange feeling for me to be able to be here but not him. It’s something I have difficulty living with.”

The gala screening of “Everybody Knows” on Tuesday evening coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was pulling of the 2015 nuclear deal – delivering a bitter-sweet moment for Iranians.

“It was a very strange moment, to have come out of the film and have all the emotions about how good or bad the film was and also the real, real worries that we have about the future of our country,” said Arash Azizi, a New-York based Iranian movie critic for website IranWire.

“Unfortunately, the reality of the world is that our fate is not being decided not by the Farhadis or other artists but by Trump or (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei – men in power who represent a very different face of Iranians.”

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to May 19.

 
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Unidentified assailants on Tuesday shot and wounded a Montenegrin journalist who has written about crime and corruption in the small Balkan country.

Olivera Lakic, a journalist for the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti, was wounded in the right leg outside her home in the capital, Podgorica. Lakic was taken to a hospital and was reported out of danger.

Police said the attack happened around 9 p.m. A search for the attackers was underway, including stepped up controls throughout the city and a review of surveillance cameras in the area, police said.

Vijesti’s chief editor, Mihailo Jovovic, said Lakic told him a man approached her and shot her in the leg, while two other men ran away.

Lakic, 49, was beaten six years ago after she wrote a series of articles about alleged murky dealings over a tobacco factory. That attacker was jailed for several months and Lakic had police protection for a while.

“I am speechless. For how much longer will this be happening?” Jovovic said in comments published on the Vijesti website. “A lot of stories she wrote have not been investigated (by the authorities). For how much longer must we live in fear of such cowards?”

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic condemned the attack and urged a “swift and efficient investigation” to discover the motive as well as who might have ordered it.

The U.S. Embassy in Podgorica tweeted that it was “following with concern the attack tonight on journalist Olivera Lakic.” It said journalists “are the guardians of democracy and must be protected so they can do their jobs in safety.”

Aivo Orav, head of the European Union delegation in Montenegro, called the attack “very worrying.” In the tweet, Orav said that “journalists must be protected.”

Montenegro is a former Yugoslav republic that joined NATO last year and is now also seeking EU membership. The long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists has faced accusations of widespread crime and corruption.
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Dolls, a memory jar, a magnifying glass, a used condom — each is a memento of heartbreak contributed by an anonymous contributor to the Museum of Broken Relationships, an eccentric display in Kosovo.

The traveling exhibition — tied to a permanent tourist attraction in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, dedicated to treasuring and sharing heartbreak stories and symbolic possessions — opened a monthlong stint in Kosovo last week as part of Europe Week. 

“Its mission is to connect people in public spaces through the stories of love and loss,” a statement from the EU office in Kosovo said.

Curator Kushtrim Fetahu said organizers launched an open call for stories on Facebook and Instagram, and managed to collect 30 objects for the Kosovo exhibition.

They all aim at “storytelling, story sharing, to explain all the relationships, what happened not only between lovers but also between friends and families,” he said.

One contributor from the western Kosovo city of Prizren writes of a memory jar: “This jar holds the beautiful days and nights of our relationship and that doesn’t deserve to be thrown away and not to be remembered.”

The collection in Pristina includes items from the museum’s permanent collection in Zagreb, such as a positive pregnancy test from Leipzig, Germany, as well as the wedding dress of a Turkish woman who lost her husband-to-be the day they would have gotten married — in June 28, 2016, when a terrorist attack killed him at the Istanbul airport.

The museum won the EMYA Kenneth Hudson Award in 2010 for the most innovative and daring museum project in Europe.

The EU statement said that the Museum “encourages discussion and reflection not only on the fragility of human relationships but also on the social, cultural and political circumstances surrounding the stories being told.”

When the project wraps up in Kosovo, some of the stories will be sent to the permanent museum in Zagreb.

“In this way, stories from Kosovo will be a permanent part of an international museum,” the EU statement said.
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As tens of thousands gathered in the central square of Armenia’s capital to celebrate Tuesday’s 59-42 vote to make Nikol Pashinyan prime minister, supporters of the longtime opposition figure called their political triumph the first step in a much longer journey.

Tuesday’s decision followed weeks of largely peaceful protests against corruption and poor governance that came after former President Serzh Sargsyan became prime minister in April, a move that critics called a manipulation of the country’s constitution to extend his hold on power.

Just last week, Armenia’s ruling Republican Party, which holds a majority in parliament, blocked Pashinyan’s initial bid to become prime minister, prompting further protests and city-wide blockades and strikes.

Republican Party leaders then agreed to grant Pashinyan the minimum number of votes required to secure the office with full support of Pashinyan’s minority opposition coalition.

In sharp contrast with the jubilance that erupted in Yerevan’s central Republic Square after Pashinyan’s election was confirmed, the atmosphere inside the national assembly was dour, said Gevorg Gorgisyan, a legislator aligned with Pashinyan’s Yelk, or “Way Out,” alliance.

“Republican Party members were not in a celebratory mood, and it reflected on everyone,” Gorgisyan told VOA’s Armenian Service.

Pashinyan, a one-time political prisoner whose years of street activism earned him the ire of establishment officials and legislators, had crusaded against entrenched corruption and oligarchical influence for decades.

“Our country and our people needed this,” Gorgisyan told VOA. “Now we have a chance to create a new, happy, independent and democratic Armenia. … The revolution is starting, it is not over and big changes are to come.”

Note from Russia

Shortly after the vote, Russian President Vladimir Putin telegrammed Pashinyan to say that Moscow is depending on him to “aid the further strengthening of bilateral, allied relations between our countries.”

Russia, which has strong strategic interests in Armenia, including a military base, has been watching the country’s political turmoil closely.

In a region dominated by “strongman” politics, the grass-roots demonstrations — which protest leaders had been careful not to paint as pro-Western or anti-Russian — are focused on a domestic agenda led by honest elections.

In weeks leading up to the vote, Pashinyan repeatedly said that he would not seek to change Armenia’s cooperation with Russia.

Unwilling to cooperate

Also within hours of the vote, however, Armen Ashotyan, vice president of the Republican Party and head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said the party now considers itself the opposition and will refuse to cooperate with the new government.

“We do not consider it expedient to cooperate with the new government; it would be hypocritical to consider the issue of our participation in the new government,” he said in a prepared statement. “We will find a place for ourselves. And this place is not in power, but in the opposition.”

Pashinyan now has five days to propose cabinet members and just over two weeks to file a government program for parliamentary approval.

While the new leader has vowed to establish a government of “national accord,” parliamentary failure to approve a program within 20 days of his ascension to office requires dissolution of parliament and a call for early general elections.

Although majority Republicans may resist any plan advanced by Pashinyan, some observers — such as former legislator Armen Martirosyan of the Heritage party, which is not represented in parliament — say all Armenians, regardless of party affiliation, should appreciate that non-violent political changes are under way.

“I am in a very good mood, I am happy that my people’s fight ended in celebrations!” Martirosyan said. “We did not have a leader who was popular among people for a long time, now we have one. I congratulate the people of Armenian and Nikol Pashinyan in his new role. I expect productive changes and reforms.”

For Syrian refugees living in Armenia in particular, Tuesday’s peaceful outcome was a welcome change from the broader geopolitics of the region.

“We were very nervous at the beginning, but now we are happy and celebrating with Armenia,” said Sevan Kilegyan, who crossed the border into Armenia after her native Syria was plunged into a bloody and grinding civil war.

“We came to Armenia from Syria. Now, our husbands are working outside of Armenia to be able to provide for our families. We want them to be able to come back and work here and be next to us,” she told VOA.

“I am a Syrian Armenian, and I am visiting my sisters,” said Suzi Nshanyan, a refugee who had just traveled to Yerevan from Germany.

“I see hope and happiness in people’s faces that I have not seen before,” she said.

This story originated from VOA’s Armenian Service. Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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The court examining war crimes against ethnic Serbs in Kosovo said on Monday it has appointed a new chief prosecutor, who will pick up the court’s efforts to issue its first indictments, three years after it was established.

The court said U.S. prosecutor Jack Smith will succeed fellow American David Schwendiman, who stepped down March 31, a setback for the court, which politicians in Kosovo have long tried to abolish.

The Specialist Chamber was set up in The Hague in 2015 to handle cases of alleged crimes by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas during the 1998-99 war that led to the country’s secession from Serbia.

The court has yet to hear any cases. Its prosecutors and judges are foreign, but it was established under Kosovan law and comes under Pristina’s jurisdiction. Kosovo lawmakers only this year gave up an attempt to repeal the law that created it.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian troops.

NATO launched the action in response to attacks by Serbian forces against Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority during a two-year counter-insurgency war against the KLA.

Crimes committed by Serbian forces were punished by a Yugoslavia tribunal that closed in December last year, but incidents carried out by the KLA were mostly not covered.
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The ruling Czech ANO party expects a deal on a coalition with the Social Democrats (CSSD) by Friday, ANO chairman and Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Monday.

The ANO won elections last October but fell short of a parliamentary majority and since then most parties have refused to cooperate with it because Babis faces fraud charges. An ANO minority cabinet lost a vote of confidence in January and has since ruled as a caretaker.

“[The agenda] is in the final stages, I believe it will be absolutely clear by Friday and then we will only wait for the (CSSD) referendum,” Babis told reporters after the meeting.

He referred to an internal vote among CSSD members, which the party leadership may launch as soon as Friday. The result is expected in early June. Babis said he planned to have a confidence vote in the parliament by the end of June.

Neither Babis, nor Social Democratic chairman Jan Hamacek would comment on specific items on the new government’s agenda such as a special tax on banks the Social Democrats want or steeper progression of income tax for the highest earners.

Notes from previous meetings of the ANO and CSSD seen by Reuters showed that the ANO would reject both ideas. CSSD chairman Hamacek said that the agreement should be acceptable to his party colleagues.

“Speaking for myself, the text which we have, is acceptable … all problems are solved. I regard the coalition agreement as solved,” he said.

The parties also agreed that if all CSSD ministers resigned, the whole government would follow suit, Hamacek said.

The leaders declined to comment on the other key CSSD demand: that Babis resign if found guilty in an investigation into charges of illegally tapping EU subsidies. He denies the police charges and the case is yet to go to trial.

If the agreement holds, the two parties would still need a support from a third party, the Communists, to win a confidence vote. It would be the first participation of the Communists on power, however indirect, since their  totalitarian rule fell during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

Their limited role, with no cabinet seats, would not bring the kind of policy changes that have sparked conflict between the EU and Hungary and Poland. But it would still anger many Czechs who suffered under their rule.

ANO has also cooperated with the far-right, anti-EU and anti-NATO SPD party in parliament, even considering leaning on it for support for a minority government. That helped the SPD to fill the post of the deputy speaker and chair some committees.

The Social Democrats have demanded SPD officials be ousted from these positions to prevent the ANO seeking support from the anti-Islam party in case of coalition squabbles. Both Babis and Hamacek declined to comment.
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European Union states are wrestling over how to reform their broken migration and asylum system, pushing for a deal at a leaders’ summit in June over the highly-politicized issue that has defied resolution for nearly three years.

The dispute has divided the bloc between southerners on the Mediterranean shore where most refugees and migrants land from the Middle East and Africa against ex-communist states that refuse to host part of the arrivals.

Wealthy destination countries such as Germany are also pushing for a deal under which no one could bail out completely from hosting those coming.

The latest proposal would let capitals avoid taking in a quarter of their “fair share” of asylum-seekers who make it to Europe. Instead they could bring in a handpicked person from across the sea or offer 30,000 euros to an EU host for each individual they refuse.

But Poland and Hungary staunchly oppose any obligatory immigration quotas and a diplomat involved in the talks for one of the two said the idea was “absolutely not” acceptable.

A joint paper by five Mediterranean states including Italy also rejected it – but for the exact opposite reason. It said such option would not have enough “immediate positive impact” in easing the burden on the main countries of entry.

The dissonance shows that another half year that has passed since the EU leaders last failed to break the deadlock saw little real progress on the most contested parts of the reform.

National envoys will discuss it in Brussels in mid-May, hand on to interior ministers meeting early next month and then to the leaders’ summit on June 28-29.

The bitter discussion started in the summer of 2015 as southern arrivals in the EU spiked, overwhelming EU governments and feeding support for anti-immigration parties. The wound has since festered, undermining trust between EU states.

A senior EU diplomat said on Monday the “very delicate and difficult negotiations” could still bear fruit.

Another diplomat from an EU country where refugees and migrants often want to go said the latest draft was a good basis for compromise since “everybody is almost equally unhappy with it”, but added Warsaw and Budapest were “still only against.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday the main task of his new government was to preserve Hungary’s security and Christian culture, rhetoric he has used in denying access to people from the mainly-Muslim Middle East and North Africa.

Not ready for another crisis

Those pushing for a deal are also looking at outvoting the two staunch critics if they could have on board their eastern peers Slovakia and the Czech Republic, seen as less ideological on the matter, said a different diplomat from a rich EU state.

The political limbo in Italy is also a problem since a strong government in Rome is needed to sign off on any deal.

“You win or lose elections on that,” said another diplomat, referring to former Italian Prime Minister Mateo Renzi who was voted out partly because voters felt Rome was not controlling migration enough, and Orban who claimed victory in Hungary on a tough anti-immigration platform.

Many in the EU warn the bloc is not ready for another mass influx of people. While overall arrival numbers have since dropped sharply, they point to data from Germany where many still arrive without proper registration on entering the EU, most notably through the overburdened Greek islands.

Germany, France and several other states introduced emergency border checks in what is normally Europe’s zone of free travel to control the situation better. They are now in place until October and many see them extended beyond that.

Highlighting how the matter is crucial to the bloc, the executive European Commission earmarked 35 billion euros ($41.7 bln) for protecting the EU’s external borders and managing migration in 2021-27, a nearly-threefold increase from the previous joint budget. But a deal still seems elusive.

“I don’t see consensus emerging,” said one of the diplomats.

 
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Air France’s share price dived Monday after its CEO quit and the French government warned that the country’s flagship carrier might collapse.

A new strike Monday over wage demands, meanwhile, prompted the cancellation of about 15 percent of Air France flights worldwide. The number of striking staffers appears to be slightly declining as the airline enters its 14th day of walkouts this year, but the labor action has already cost the company more than 300 million euros ($360 million) in a matter of weeks.

Air France’s share price plunged nearly 13 percent at the open Monday and was trading 10.9 percent lower at 7.21 euros early afternoon Paris time amid questions about its future management and direction.

The share price woes follow the resignation Friday evening of Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac after workers rejected the company’s latest wage proposal.

The Air France drama is posing yet another problem for President Emmanuel Macron’s government as he marks one year in office. The airline’s labor dispute come as separate strikes over Macron’s labor reforms are hitting France’s national railways.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Sunday said the government, which owns 14 percent of Air France, would not rescue the airline.

He urged striking pilots, crew and ground staff to be “responsible” and said “the survival of Air France is at stake.”

“Air France will disappear if it does not make the necessary efforts to be competitive,” he said on BFM television.

The strikes have taken a heavier toll on Air France than management and investors expected, and the company last week forecast a “notably” lower income this year compared to 2017.

Unions want a 5.1 percent pay rise this year, arguing that the company is making enough of a profit to meet their demands. They noted that their wages have been frozen since 2011 as the airline cut jobs and restructured.

The company argues that the union demands would wipe out hard-earned gains from the restructuring, which was aimed at stemming years of losses and keeping Air France afloat, as well as jeopardize efforts to win back market share from low-cost airlines and big-spending Mideast and Asian carriers.

After protracted negotiations, management last week offered a 2 percent pay rise this year and an additional 5 percent over 2019-2021.

Employees rejected that offer Friday, prompting the CEO’s decision to step down. He called the dispute a “huge waste that can only make our competitors rejoice.”

The Air France-KLM board asked Janaillac to stay on until May 15 when it will put a transitional leadership in place.

 
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Vladimir Putin, who has been either president or prime minister of Russia since 1999, was sworn in for a fourth term as president Monday at the Grand Kremlin Palace’s ornately-decorated Andreyevsky Hall.  With his hand on a gold-embossed copy of the constitution, Putin said, “I consider it my duty and my life’s aim to do everything possible for Russia, for its present and for its future.”

He will not be able to run for a fifth term as president unless there is a change to Russia’s constitution which prohibits more than two consecutive terms. 

Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine during his most recent term and also partnered with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for a military campaign in Syria. 

In the March election, Putin won against seven weak challengers, garnering almost 77 percent of the vote. International observers criticized the poll, saying there had been no real choice in the election and complained of widespread allegations of ballot rigging. Russian election officials described the violations as “minor,” but said they were investigating. 

Putin’s inauguration at the Kremlin comes just two days after demonstrations across the country were mounted to protest the beginning of another six-year presidential term for the former KGB chief.

On Saturday, Russia’s most widely known opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was arrested within minutes of his arrival at a demonstration in central Moscow. Navalny and hundreds of his supporters were detained during the protests in Moscow and 90 other cities. Navalny was released Sunday.

Baton-wielding riot police and even men dressed in traditional Cossack uniforms repeatedly waded into the Moscow crowd of most younger Russians to make arrests. 

Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said the “forceful dispersal” of the opposition’s demonstrations was “outrageous.” He denounced the scheme that Russian authorities used “once again” of refusing to authorize protests rallies and then using the ban to crackdown on those gathered in Moscow and elsewhere. 

“But what is worse,” Krivosheev said, “is the total police inaction, which allowed the beating of protesters by unknown men in Moscow. On what grounds people in ‘Cossack’ uniforms were allowed to use force remains a question.” 

Putin, however, is not without supporters.

A nationalist youth movement organized a counter-protest in Moscow, attempting to block Navalny’s supporters from gaining access to Pushkinskaya Square. Some chanted “Putin-Russia” and “No to Maidan,” a reference to the Ukrainian street revolution of 2014 that toppled the country’s pro-Russian government.

Maksim Slavin, a spokesman for the radical pro-Putin National Liberation Movement, said his members were there to show that Putin supporters represented the true voice of the people.

Russians, he insisted, would do anything to prevent a street revolution like those that had taken place in neighboring Ukraine or, more recently, Armenia.

“We’re against any change in power through unlawful means. … You should do it through referendums, changes in the constitution, or elections,” Slavin said.
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Britain’s Foreign Secretary is set to lobby the Trump administration to remain a party to the 2015 agreement struck between Iran and world powers to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Boris Johnson is meeting Monday with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton with Iran as one of the top agenda items, according to Johnson’s office.

“The UK, U.S., and European partners are also united in our effort to tackle the kind of Iranian behavior that makes the Middle East region less secure – its cyber activities, its support for groups like Hezbollah, and its dangerous missile program, which is arming Houthi militias in Yemen,” Johnson said ahead of his visit.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a frequent critic of what he calls a flawed deal, and has until May 12 to decide whether to renew sanctions waivers linked to the agreement. Trump wants added limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program and objects to the so-called sunset clauses in the nuclear deal that let certain provisions expire after a certain amount of time.

Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States negotiated the agreement with Iran amid allegations Iran was working to develop nuclear weapons. Iran repeatedly denied that was the case, and has further asserted that it has every right to its ballistic missile program for defense.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that if the United States does withdraw from the nuclear deal, “you will soon see that they will regret it like never before in history.”

He added Monday that Iran could continue the existing agreement with the rest of the signatories, but is also prepared to take its own “path.”

Britain’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch said in an interview Sunday with CBS that Johnson and Trump spoke about the nuclear deal in a phone call Saturday and that the president had likely not yet made a final decision.

“It’s not a perfect deal, no deal is ever perfect, and the president is rightly concerned about Iran’s regional activities, which are malign and damaging to security and stability,” Darroch said.

He added that Britain prefers the United States remain part of the agreement, but that as long as Iran remains in compliance, Britain “wants to stick with it.”
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Sunday to launch a new offensive against Kurdish militants along the country’s borders with Syria and Iraq.

Turkey has conducted two previous operations aimed at Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, militants Ankara considers an extension of Kurdish fighters the Turkish government has been clashing with for three decades for control of southeastern Turkey.

In an address to thousands of supporters in Istanbul in advance of June’s snap election, Erdogan said, “We will not give up on constricting terrorist organizations. In the new period, Turkey will add new ones to the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in order to clear its borders.”

He added, “We shattered the terror corridor being formed on our southern border with these operations. Our soldiers, who lastly wrote an epic in Afrin, are ready for new missions. The operations will continue until not one terrorist is left.”

Erdogan called for the June 24 election more than a year ahead of the planned vote, which analysts say was designed to capitalize on nationalist sentiment running in favor of the successful military operation in the Syrian border town of Afrin.

With the election, Turkey is transforming its governing system to an executive presidency, abolishing the position of prime minister and vesting the ruling power in the presidency.

Erdogan said that with the presidential and parliamentary votes, Turkey would “take the stage as a global power.”

 
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High school students in Germany have gathered tens of thousands of signatures in an online petition to complain about an “unfair” final English exam, saying the test was much harder than in previous years.

By Sunday, the students from the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg had gathered almost 36,000 signatures — even though only 33,500 people took last month’s statewide exam.

They complained that text excerpts from American author Henry Roth’s 1934 novel “Call it Sleep” were too difficult and obscure to analyze and asked for the grading to be more lenient this year.

The final high school exams in Germany — called the Abitur — are a rite of passage that all students who want to enter university have to pass.

Only those with excellent grades and test scores will get into the most coveted university programs, with medicine among the hardest. But other subjects like engineering or language studies also offer only a limited amount of places.

Many German students, parents and teachers have been stressed out for months over the Abitur. Often schools will cancel all regular classes for younger students during the tests so the Abitur students won’t be disturbed.

The online petition has created such uproar that even state governor Winfried Kretschmann weighed in, though he showed only limited compassion.

“There’s no right to a simple Abitur,” he told the frustrated teenagers. “You wish for it, but you don’t have a right to it.”

At the same time Kretschmann admitted that his own English skills were too weak to actually judge whether the disputed text had been overly difficult, the German news agency dpa reported.

Students said the passage from Roth’s novel that they had to analyze — a metaphorical description of the Statue of Liberty — was difficult to understand because of its “unknown vocabulary.” They also complained the questions they had to answer were not asked precisely.

They quoted some of the text’s most difficult sentences to illustrate their point: “Against the luminous sky the rays of her halo were spikes of darkness roweling the air; shadow flattened the torch she bore to a black cross against flawless light — he blackened hilt of a broken sword. Liberty.”

The state’s education ministry responded by asking external experts to evaluate the exam — who then concluded its level was appropriate. Educational authorities also noted that students in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania had to analyze the same passage and did not complain about it.

That has not stopped the number of signatures online from growing, as younger and out-of state students sign the petition in a show of solidarity.

“I was struggling like all the others, even though I spent a year abroad in America!” Aimee Schaefer wrote in the comment section of the petition. “You would think that I can understand everything by now, but I had to look up a lot of vocabulary… whoever compiled this exam must really hate us Abitur students.”

 
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French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that war could ensue if U.S. President Donald Trump withdraws from the 2015 deal in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

“We would open the Pandora’s box. There could be war,” Macron told German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. But he added: “I don’t think that Donald Trump wants war.”

Trump is set to decide by May 12 whether to pull out of the Iran deal. Trump has all but decided to withdraw but exactly how he will do so remains unclear, two White House officials and a source familiar with the administration’s internal debate said on May 2.

Trump could still figure out a way to stay in the deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Macron urged Trump not to withdraw when he met the president in Washington late last month.

Britain, France and Germany remain committed to the accord but, in an effort to keep Washington in it, want to open talks on Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 – when key provisions of the deal expire — and its role in Middle East crises such as Syria and Yemen.
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