Новини

Denying Albania the prospect of one day becoming a European Union member could fuel Muslim radicalization in the Balkan country, endangering regional stability, its prime minister Edi Rama said.

Rama, in Berlin to lobby for the opening of accession talks after the European Commission gave its go-ahead last week, also condemned European politicians who stoked anti-Muslim sentiments, labeling them “investors in radicalization”.

Ahead of a meeting later with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Rama warned that Russia was also intent on radicalizing Albania’s Muslims, and urged the EU not to “leave a space for other countries to fill”.

The EU’s executive is keen to offer the prospect of membership to six Balkan states, including Albania, seeking to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.

The EU’S chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said last week that the bloc needed to accept new members from the Western Balkans to avoid the risk of a new war there.

But member governments, mindful of popular skepticism about opening the EU’s doors to more poor countries, are more cautious.

From Britain to Hungary, populist parties have made electoral gains by playing on the alleged dangers of large-scale Muslim immigration, while the opening of west European labor markets to poorer new members has been blamed for stagnant wages.

“Statistically, Albania is a Muslim-majority country, but I would say the main religion in Albania is Europe,” Rama told Reuters. “So all these forces, they are practically the main investors in radicalization from the side of Europe. So I abhor them.”

The closing off of a European perspective for Albania would also leave a gap that Russia was poised to exploit, he added, warning that Moscow’s alleged interference in Montenegro’s 2016 election could be repeated elsewhere in the Balkans.

European officials have praised Albania’s progress in strengthening the independence of its judiciary, combating corruption and embedding its democracy, but many in Brussels have been stung by perceived democratic backsliding of Hungary and Poland since joining in 2004.

Acknowledging that Albania could not guarantee it would not follow suit, Rama said his country had no alternative to pursuing European integration.

“It’s like what you ask of people when they get married,” he said. “You can’t ask more than their commitment to be together for the rest of their lives – and then things happen.

“It is important that our idealism about Europe be respected and not taken as naivete,” he added.
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Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen was found guilty Wednesday of torturing and murdering Swedish reporter Kim Wall during a private submarine trip. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Judge Anette Burkoe at the Copenhagen City Court said she and two jurors unanimously decided Wall’s death was a murder, saying Madsen didn’t given “a trustworthy” explanation.

It was a “cynical murder” of a journalist who was performing her duties, the court said in its ruling, which was not broadcast live due to a court order.

In Denmark, life equates to 16 years, which can be extended if necessary.

Throughout the trial that started March 8, Madsen, 47, has denied murder, saying 30-year-old Wall died accidentally inside the submarine — though he changed his story about how she had died.

Wall embarked on Madsen’s submarine on Aug. 10 to interview the entrepreneur.

He initially denied dismembering her, then confessed that he had done so and said he’d thrown her body parts into the Baltic Sea.

He listened quietly as the verdict was read, looking down at the desk in front of him.

Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen claimed Wall’s murder was sexually motivated and premeditated because Madsen brought along tools he normally didn’t take when sailing, including a saw and sharpened screwdrivers.

Madsen’s defense lawyer had argued for his acquittal on the charge of murder, saying he had only been guilty of has said he should only be sentenced the lesser charge of cutting Wall’s body into pieces.

The cause of death has never been established but the court found that Madsen “cut the body into pieces to hide what had happened.”

It was not immediately clear whether Madsen would appeal the verdict.

 
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Thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Armenia’s capital on Wednesday after planned talks between an opposition leader and the country’s acting prime minister were canceled.

The meeting was meant to discuss steps for a political transition following Monday’s resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.

Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, a Sargsyan ally, said the opposition was making new demands. He also proposed holding snap parliamentary elections as a way to resolve the political turmoil.

Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian of the Armenian National Congress said his side would boycott such an election if a member of the ruling Republican Party remains prime minister. He earlier said he was prepared to lead the country.

Largely peaceful protests began two weeks ago, triggered by accusations that Sargsyan, who served as president for a decade, manipulated the constitution to remain in power.
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Cambridge Analytica unleashed its counterattack against claims that it misused data from millions of Facebook accounts, saying Tuesday it is the victim of misunderstandings and inaccurate reporting that portrays the company as the evil villain in a James Bond movie.

Clarence Mitchell, a high-profile publicist recently hired to represent the company, held Cambridge Analytica’s first news conference since allegations surfaced that the Facebook data helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica’s parent, also claims that the company has links to the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.

“The company has been portrayed in some quarters as almost some Bond villain,” Mitchell said. “Cambridge Analytica is no Bond villain.”

Cambridge Analytica didn’t use any of the Facebook data in the work it did for Trump’s campaign and it never did any work on the Brexit campaign, Mitchell said. Furthermore, he said, the data was collected by another company that was contractually obligated to follow data protection rules and the information was deleted as soon as Facebook raised concerns.

Mitchell insists the company has not broken any laws, but acknowledged it had commissioned an independent investigation is being conducted. He insisted that the company had been victimized by “wild speculation based on misinformation, misunderstanding, or in some cases, frankly, an overtly political position.”

The comments come weeks after the scandal engulfed both the consultancy and Facebook, which has been embroiled in scandal since revelations that Cambridge Analytica misused personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook accounts. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. congressional committees and at one point the company lost some $50 billion in value for its shareholders.

Details on the scandal continued to trickle out. On Tuesday, a Cambridge University academic said the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica lied to British lawmakers investigating fake news.

Academic Aleksandr Kogan’s company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, even if those friends hadn’t agreed to share their data.

Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to profile U.S. voters and target them with ads during the 2016 election to help elect Donald Trump. It denies the charge.

Kogan appeared before the House of Commons’ media committee Tuesday and was asked whether Cambridge Analytica’s suspended CEO, Alexander Nix, told the truth when he testified that none of the company’s data came from Global Science Research.

“That’s a fabrication,” Kogan told committee Chairman Damian Collins. Nix could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kogan also cast doubt on many of Wylie’s allegations, which have triggered a global debate about internet privacy protections. Wylie repeated his claims in a series of media interviews as well as an appearance before the committee.

Wylie worked for SCL Group Ltd. in 2013 and 2014.

“Mr. Wylie has invented many things,” Kogan said, calling him “duplicitous.”

No matter what, though, Kogan insisted in his testimony that the data would not be that useful to election consultants. The idea was seized upon by Mitchell, who also denied that the company had worked on the effort to have Britain leave the EU.

Mitchell said that the idea that political consultancies can use data alone to sway votes is “frankly insulting to the electorates. Data science in modern campaigning helps those campaigns, but it is still and always will be the candidates who win the races.”
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WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc, is raising its minimum age from 13 to 16 in Europe to help it comply with new data privacy rules coming into force next month.

WhatsApp will ask European users to confirm they are at least 16 years old when they are prompted to agree to new terms of service and a privacy policy provided by a new WhatsApp Ireland Ltd entity in the next few weeks.

It is not clear how or if the age limit will be checked given the limited data requested and held by the service.

Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens aged between 13 and 15 in order to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law.

It is asking them to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform, otherwise they will not see a fully personalized version of the social media platform.

But WhatsApp, which had more than 1.5 billion users in January according to Facebook, said in a blog post it was not asking for any new rights to collect personal information in the agreement it has created for the European Union.

“Our goal is simply to explain how we use and protect the limited information we have about you,” it said.

WhatsApp, founded in 2009, has come under pressure from some European governments in recent years because of its end-to-end encrypted messaging system and its plan to share more data with its parent, Facebook.

Facebook itself is under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world since disclosing last month that the personal information of millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, setting off wider concerns about how it handles user data.

WhatsApp’s minimum age of use will remain 13 years in the rest of the world, in line with its parent.

GDPR is the biggest overhaul of online privacy since the birth of the internet, giving Europeans the right to know what data is stored on them and the right to have it deleted.

Apple Inc and some other tech firms have said they plan to give people in the United States and elsewhere the same protections and rights that Europeans will gain.

European regulators have already disrupted a move by WhatsApp to change its policies to allow it to share users’ phone numbers and other information with Facebook to help improve the product and more effectively target ads.

WhatsApp suspended the change in Europe after widespread regulatory scrutiny. It said on Tuesday it still wanted to share the data at some point.

“As we have said in the past, we want to work closer with other Facebook companies in the future and we will keep you updated as we develop our plans,” it said.

Other changes announced by WhatsApp on Tuesday include allowing users to download a report detailing the data it holds on them, such as the make and model of the device they used, their contacts and groups and any blocked numbers.

“This feature will be rolling out to all users around the world on the newest version of the app,” it said.

The blog post also points to safety tips on the service, such as the ability to block unwanted users, and delete and report spam.
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Bavaria’s conservative government is ordering Christian crosses to be placed at the entrance of all state administrative buildings.

The regional government says the crosses shouldn’t be seen as religious symbols, but are meant to reflect the southern German state’s “cultural identity and Christian-western influence.”

German news agency dpa reported that Tuesday’s decree won’t affect municipal and federal government buildings in Bavaria.

Crosses are already compulsory in public schools and courtrooms in predominantly Catholic Bavaria.

The governing Christian Social Union — the Bavaria-only wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party — is hoping to avoid losing its state majority to Alternative for Germany, a party on the right whose anti-Muslim campaigns have struck a chord with some German voters.
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Nations attending a U.N. conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty warn the threat of nuclear weapons use is growing and efforts toward the elimination of such arsenals must be re-doubled.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into force nearly 50 years ago, has successfully prevented the widespread development of these weapons of mass destruction. But many nations worry global insecurity is eroding international commitments to disarmament.

At the opening session of the NPT conference, the United States singled out North Korea and Iran as two of the greatest threats facing the non-proliferation regime. The assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, Christopher Ford, noted that North Korea withdrew from the NPT after being caught violating the agreement’s terms. He said that while the North continued to violate legally-binding U.N. Security Council resolutions, the nonproliferation regime faced a real, but longer-term challenge from Iran.

“A country that for years unlawfully and secretly sought to develop nuclear weapons, suspended its weaponization work only when confronted by potentially dire consequences, continued to enrich uranium in violation of U.N. Security Council requirements, and retains the ability to position itself, several years hence, dangerously close to rapid weaponization,”  Ford said.

The Trump administration will decide by May 12 whether it will continue to participate in the Iranian Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal that was negotiated by the five nuclear powers and the European Union.

The special European envoy for disarmament and non-proliferation, Jacek Bylica, spoke on behalf of the European Union, which he says remains committed to the Iranian deal and expects all parties to implement it in full.

“It is in our common interest to preserve a deal that strengthens the global non-proliferation regime, contributes positively to reach international peace and security and provides the international community with necessary assurances on the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program,”  Bylica said.

The EU envoy received strong support from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring Iran’s nuclear program since 2016. It said Iran was subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime and was in compliance with its commitments under the JCPA.  
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In Turkey, commemorations are being held to mark the mass killings of Armenians during World War I by Ottoman Turks. The killings, recognized as genocide by much of the international community, remains contentious, with Ankara strenuously claiming the deaths were the result of a civil war in which Turks also perished.

Turkish-Armenian groups, along with nongovernmental organizations mainly in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, are organizing a series of events to remember the deaths. 

On Tuesday, public ceremonies are planned outside some of the homes of 270 Armenian intellectuals, religious and civic leaders arrested in Istanbul on April 24, 1915. The detentions marked the start of the mass deportations and killings of Armenians across Turkey. As many as one-and-a-half million people were killed as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, according to a version of events accepted by many historians.

Until Turkey’s ruling AK Party came to power in 2002, public discussion challenging the state’s official version of events was forbidden. 

“There has been some tolerance by the state, they were not participating themselves, but they were allowing the commemorations, publications of books, articles and the gatherings and so on,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “But this progress has come to a halt, because of the very restrictive environment of free speech,” Aktar added, referring to the current emergency rule, introduced after a failed 2016 coup.

Analysts say campaigners for the recognition of the killings as a genocide are focusing their attention on U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The only thing that might happen is Trump may pronounce the ‘G’ [genocide] word; we will see. It may happen; there are some indications Trump may pronounce it,” said Aktar. “The American administration, the Senate, House of Representatives, are getting more and more nervous with Turkey; the president may come with the ‘G’ word tomorrow.”

On April 24, U.S. presidents deliver a speech to mark the mass killings of Armenians. Last year Trump, like his recent predecessors, sidestepped using the word genocide, instead, using the Armenian phrase, “Meds Yeghern,” meaning great calamity. This month, more than 100 members of the U.S. Congress wrote to Trump, calling on the president to recognize the mass killings as genocide.

U.S., Turkish relations

Turkey has angered the U.S. recently over several issues, including Syria, the imprisonment of U.S. citizens and local employees of diplomatic missions, and Ankara’s deepening ties with Moscow. 

“Compared to years past, Turkey’s ability to influence Congress [against using the word genocide] has been vastly diminished, that is certainly true,” said analyst Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar of Brussels-based Carnegie Europe.

Ulgen suggests Ankara will be banking on Trump’s sensitivity toward Turkey.

“There is a sizable constituency on the part of the executive, including President Trump, who believes in and understands the value of Turkey,” he said. “So, there are certainly efforts that want to re-establish a sense of balance and direction to the bilateral relationship.”

If Trump were to use the word genocide, observers suggest Erdogan will seize on the occasion to whip up nationalist sentiment and anti-Americanism as Turkey prepares for presidential and general elections in June. 

Ankara, however, is likely to be more concerned by any move by Congress to legislate the recognition of an Armenian genocide.

“The Congress resolution is much more binding than a presidential statement,” said political scientist Aktar. “Ankara will be more concerned and irritated, and up until now Congress never passed a resolution. But with the anti-Turkish feelings, it may pass; there is something rumored to be in the pipeline, but not now.”

Growing recognition

In recent years, growing numbers of countries have recognized the Armenian mass killings as a genocide. Given the growing tide of recognition, experts suggest Ankara’s reaction has become more restrained.

“The Dutch parliament recently passed an [Armenian genocide] resolution; all we saw were a couple of strong words and nothing else,” said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

“Turkey’s government has decided that it is better to keep calm rather than raise hell every single time something important or unimportant happens. It may very well be the same as with the Americans; but, the American acceptance of a genocide is significantly more important than any other country,” Ozel added.

If Congress recognized the Armenian killings as genocide, experts suggest the move could open the door to numerous legal cases against Turkey by relatives of those killed. Genocide does not have a legal statute of limitations. Even though Ankara lost many of its allies in Washington, it may still retain some support.

“The Turkish side tried to keep relations with the Jewish or pro-Israeli lobbies pretty good,” Ozel said. “Every time the president [Erdogan] visited the United States, he made sure that he met with the Jewish organizations, so maybe they are on board, and if they are on board, you have a fighting chance.”
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Russia and Pakistan have held their first national security advisers-level bilateral talks in Moscow, focusing on prospects for closer cooperation in defense, space, cyber security, nuclear, intelligence-sharing as well as trade.

Pakistani National Security Adviser, Nasser Janjua, and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, led their respective delegations in the two-day meeting that ended on Monday.

A statement released after their meeting said the Pakistani delegation included senior military, civilian, intelligence and officials from the Strategic Plans Division, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons and missiles program.

The two sides expressed satisfaction at “the positive trajectory and progression” of mutual relationship at bilateral and multilateral levels, the statement noted.

Monday’s wide-ranging high-level discussions happened as a Russian business delegation is due to arrive in Pakistan later this week to explore investment opportunities in various sectors, including banking, railways and telecommunications, government and diplomatic sources told VOA.

The turnaround in bilateral relations comes as Islamabad’s decades-old, but often mistrusted, relations with Washington have again deteriorated in recent years.

The tensions primarily stem from allegations Pakistani security institutions harbor and support Taliban insurgents waging a deadly war on Afghan and U.S.-led international forces in the neighboring country.

Pakistan rejects the charges and insists Washington is scapegoating the country in the wake of deteriorating Afghan security.

Declining U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan was compounded this year by the Trump administration’s decision to also suspend military assistance until the country takes decisive action against militant sanctuaries on its territory.Last week, the U.S. announced new travel restrictions for Pakistani diplomats working in the United States.

Analysts say as the United States appears to be cooling its relations with Pakistan, regional powers like Russia and traditional ally China are courting the country.

“Russians have overcome bitterness of Afghan war days. They see U.S. interest in Pakistan is waning and Islamabad is looking for strategic alternatives,” said Syed Talat Hussain, senior newspaper columnist and television political talk show host.

Beijing and Moscow are “filling the power vacuum” as they try to “enlarge” their influence in Asia, Hussain noted.

“They [Russians] see Islamabad cash-strapped and investment-hungry and its army trying to come out of Washington’s embrace,” he said.

Pakistan sided with the U.S.-backed Afghan armed resistance of the 1980s that forced the Soviet occupation forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.

In a recent interview with VOA, Pakistani Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir said Islamabad and Moscow have been able to “transcend” their history of mistrust, leading to improved mutual ties.

“It is a beginning because, of course, that history of mistrust and essentially standing on two opposite sides is there; but, both countries, because of many geo-strategic reasons, now find it a more optimal path to be cooperating with each other,” noted Dastgir.

The bilateral re-engagement between Islamabad and Moscow gained traction in 2014 when the two signed a defense cooperation framework agreement during the Russian defense minister’s landmark visit to Pakistan.

Under the agreement, Pakistan has purchased four Russian Mi35 combat helicopters to bolster counterterrorism efforts. The delivery of more aircraft is in the works, along with other military hardware.

Pakistani and Russian special forces conducted joint military exercises in 2016 and 2017, and plan to do so again this year, focusing on how to counter terrorism in the region.

Russia and Pakistan are also in talks for potential multi-billion-dollar energy deals, while Moscow will also build a gas pipeline linking the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore.

China has invested an unprecedented $19 billion in Pakistan in the past three years to help the neighboring country build roads, railways, power plants, and ports.

Beijing has pledged to invest an estimated $62 billion by 2030 under the massive cooperation deal known as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC and declared as the flagship project of BRI.
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