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More than 3,000 firemen struggled to put out forest fires across Portugal on Sunday, after the country requested assistance from Europe to fight blazes that threaten to spread with more hot weather in the coming days.

Exceptionally dry and hot weather ignited Portugal’s worst fire disaster in memory early this summer, killing 64 people, and fires have continued to flare up in recent weeks with the arrival of each new hotter spell of weather.

Interior Minister Constanca Urbana de Sousa said the country sent the request for help to Europe late on Saturday because of concerns that high temperatures and high winds in the coming days could increase the number of fires.

The minister said the request was carried out “because of a question of prudence” due to the weather forecast for coming days, according to news agency Lusa. It covered requests for firefighting airplanes and firemen and is part of a European mechanism for cooperation to fight fires.

Emergency services said 268 fires broke out on Saturday, the highest number for any single day this year, with 6,500 firemen fighting to put them out. There are fears that many of them could flare up again later on Sunday, with higher winds and temperatures that hit in the afternoon.

The central district of Coimbra adopted a local state of emergency to deal with fires, as did four smaller municipalities in the region.

While fires have burned through the summer none has had the tragic impact of the one in late June, as emergency services have gone to far greater efforts to evacuate villages and shut roads early in affected areas.

But the country could face many more weeks of fires before the end of summer.

More than 140,000 hectares of forest have burned this summer in Portugal, more than three times higher than the average over the last 10 years, according to European Union data.
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Danish police say they have not found the body of a missing Swedish journalist inside an amateur-built submarine that sunk off the Nordic country’s eastern coast last week.

Copenhagen police spokesman Jens Moller Jensen says Sunday that investigators uncovered no trace of 30-year-old freelance journalist Kim Wall in the UC3 Nautilus sub, which was raised and transported for investigation Saturday.

Police will now continue to search for Wall in the waters near the island in Copenhagen’s harbor where the sub’s owner Peter Madsen allegedly dropped her off late Thursday.

Madsen made a last-minute escape from the sinking sub and has denied any responsibility on the fate of Wall. He was arrested Friday on preliminary manslaughter charges.

Moller Jensen said there are indications that the Danish inventor deliberately sank his submarine.
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The British government tried to fight back Sunday against criticisms that it is divided and unprepared for Brexit, saying it will set out detailed plans for the U.K.’s exit from the European Union and issuing a joint statement by two Cabinet rivals over Europe.

Trade Secretary Liam Fox, a strong supporter of leaving the European Union, and the more pro-EU Treasury chief Philip Hammond, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that they agreed there should be a “time-limited” transition period after Britain formally leaves the bloc in 2019, to avoid a “cliff-edge” for people and businesses.

Fox and Hammond said the transition period “cannot be indefinite; it cannot be a back door to staying in the EU.” They didn’t say how long the transition would last or what rules would apply during that period.

The government also said Sunday it wants to increase pressure on the 27 other EU nations to start negotiating a “deep and special” future relationship that would include a free trade deal between Britain and the EU.

The EU says those negotiations can’t start until sufficient progress has been made on three initial issues: how much money the U.K. will have to pay to settle its outstanding commitments to the bloc; whether security checks and customs duties will be instituted on the Irish border; and the status of 3 million EU nationals living in Britain.

The government’s Brexit department said Britain wants to show that progress on the preliminary issues has been made and “we are ready to broaden out the negotiations” by the time of an EU summit in October.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said that “with time of the essence, we need to get on with negotiating the bigger issues around our future partnership to ensure we get a deal that delivers a strong U.K. and a strong EU.”

The push comes after EU officials expressed impatience with the pace of Britain’s preparations.

The bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said last month there was “a clock ticking” on the talks. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said last week that Brexit advocates “already had 14 months” to issue detailed proposals, but had not.

Barnier is due to meet Davis for a new round of negotiations at the end of August.

Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, but did not trigger the formal two-year exit process until March.

Prime Minister Theresa May then called a snap election in an attempt to increase her Conservative Party’s majority in Parliament and strengthen her negotiating hand. But voters did not rally to her call, leaving May atop a weakened minority government.

In recent weeks, with May on her summer vacation, members of her Cabinet have openly disagreed about what direction Brexit should take.

Opponents of Brexit have become increasingly vocal, arguing that the public or Parliament must get the chance to vote on any final deal between Britain and the EU.

David Miliband, who was foreign minister in Britain’s previous Labour government, said leaving the EU was “an unparalleled act of economic self-harm.”

Writing in The Observer newspaper, Miliband said there must be “a straight vote between EU membership and the negotiated alternative.”

 
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The British government is fighting back against criticism that it is divided and unprepared for Brexit, announcing it will publish a set of detailed proposals on customs arrangements, the status of the Ireland-Northern Ireland border and other issues.

The Department for Exiting the European Union said Sunday that it would release the first set of position papers this week, more than a year after Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

The government says it hopes to persuade the 27 other EU nations to start negotiating a “deep and special” future relationship that would include a free trade deal between Britain and the EU.

Three issues

The EU says those negotiations can’t start until sufficient progress has been made on three initial issues: how much money the U.K. will have to pay to leave the bloc; whether security checks and customs duties will be instituted on the Irish border; and the status of EU nationals living in Britain.

The exit bill, estimated at tens of billions of euros, is to cover pension liabilities for EU staff and programs Britain committed to funding over the next few years.

The government’s Brexit department said Britain wants to show that progress on the preliminary issues has been made and “we are ready to broaden out the negotiations” by the time of an EU summit in October.

“Businesses and citizens in the U.K. and EU want to see the talks progress and move towards discussing a deal that works for both sides,” the department said in a statement.

EU impatience

EU officials have expressed impatience with the pace of Britain’s preparations.

The bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said last month there was “a clock ticking” on the talks. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said last week that Brexit advocates “already had 14 months” to issue detailed proposals but had not.

Barnier is to meet Britain’s Brexit minister, David Davis, for a new round of negotiations at the end of August.

Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, but did not trigger the formal two-year exit process until March.

Prime Minister Theresa May then called a snap election in an attempt to increase her Conservative Party’s majority in Parliament and strengthen her negotiating hand. But voters did not rally to her call, leaving May atop a weakened minority government.

In recent weeks, with May on her summer vacation, members of her Cabinet have openly disagreed about what direction Brexit should take. 
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Child beggars have long been part of the social fabric in Ashgabat, where some families acknowledge that they depend on such income for survival.

However, Ashgabat police have begun clearing the streets of those children as the Turkmen capital gears up for the Asian Indoor And Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) in September, according to residents and parents interviewed by RFE/RL.

Police officers, raiding the city in vans, order such children home and warn them not to return to the streets, said Ashgabat resident Amanmyrat Bugaev. 

An Ashgabat police officer within the juvenile-affairs department, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, described the process as rounding up repeat offenders, taking them home in police vans, and warning the parents that forcing children to beg is a criminal offense.

The officer said that in some cases the department summons the parents and issues official warnings.

He acknowledged that the “main” goal was to preserve the country’s “image,” although he said the measures were also aimed at safeguarding children.

Only source of income

“A disabled person in a wheelchair begging for money damages the image of any country,” the officer said. “The main goal is to fight something that might damage the [national] reputation.”

Some parents who acknowledge benefiting from alms collected by their children complained that the government’s effort deprives their families of their only source of income.

Turkmenistan is a mostly rural, post-Soviet country whose jobs and economy are heavily dependent on the state. The wealth from its sizable natural-gas and other exports, including cotton, has largely failed to trickle down to its 5 million or so people.

RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service spoke with four parents — all Ashgabat residents — who said the money their children made on the streets helped the family survive.

“Apart from my disabled son, there are three other small children in our family,” said one unemployed woman whose disabled child spends hours in the streets every day seeking handouts from strangers. She said the family also “depends on the monthly social allowance he gets from the government.”

“We would work, but there are no jobs, so we send our children to the streets, hoping for kind people’s donations,” said the woman, who didn’t want to give her name.

Widespread unemployment

None of the parents would say how much their children made in a day on Ashgabat’s streets.

Unemployment is widespread in Turkmenistan, although the government doesn’t release official figures. Regional media have put the jobless rate in the country at around 50 to 60 percent. 

Turkmenistan wants to use the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, the brainchild of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, to boost its image as a regional sports hub. The isolated nation expects tens of thousands of foreigners to visit during the September 17-27 event. 

In the months leading up to the games, authorities have restricted the movement of provinces’ residents to the capital, ordered former inmates to stay away from the games’ venues, and tried to clear the city of stray dogs and cats.

Farangis Najibullah wrote this article, based on a report by RFE/RL’s Turkmen service.
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Residents of St. Petersburg on Saturday paid homage to sailors from the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea exactly 17 years earlier.

Relatives and friends of crew members gathered for a memorial service and a commemorative meeting at St. Petersburg’s Serafimovskoye Cemetery.

All 118 crew members aboard the nuclear-powered Kursk submarine died on August 12, 2000, after an explosion occurred as the crew was preparing to fire a practice torpedo.

The Russian Navy’s final official report concluded that the explosion was caused by the failure of a torpedo.

The Kursk was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2001.

Reporting includes information from TASS and Interfax.
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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is appealing to the government of Ukraine in Kyiv and Russian-backed authorities in eastern Ukraine to provide basic services and pension benefits to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people struggling to survive in the rebel-held parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.  

With the conflict in Ukraine in its fourth year, more than 10,000 people have been killed as sporadic fighting continues between Russian-backed rebels and government forces in eastern Ukraine, and the death toll continues to mount.

Among the living, those who are suffering the most include nearly 1.6 million internally displaced in eastern Ukraine.  The U.N. refugee agency says they are struggling to find safety, adequate housing and employment.

UNHCR spokesman Andrei Mahecic says more than 580,000 retired and elderly people residing in the conflict zone have lost access to their government pensions and are having great difficulty making ends meet.

“This has affected the most vulnerable groups, as many of them depend on pensions and social [subsistence] payments as their sole source of income.  Those living in non-government controlled areas are required to register as internally displaced people with Ukrainian authorities in order to have access to their rightful pensions and social payments.”

Mahecic says these benefits should be de-linked from the place of residence.  Regardless of the political situation, he tells VOA these pensions belong to the elderly retirees and they should not be withheld.  

“That is why we are appealing that they have full access to their rightful pensions and social [subsistence] payments and other benefits that they have and that they have acquired during their working life,” Mahecic said.

The UNHCR says displacement is causing extreme hardship for more than 50,000 people with disabilities who have been forced to flee their homes.  It says they lack access to services and often face difficulties and discrimination based on their disability, ethnic or religious background.

It says one of its major concerns is the use of civilian houses along the frontline of the conflict zone for military purposes.  It says stationing combatants and weapons in residential areas puts civilians at great risk during fighting.
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Sixteen months after deadly clashes erupted in Azerbaijan’s autonomous breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, international mediators are saying it’s time for all parties to undertake confidence-building measures to jump-start the political settlement process.

Russia led mediation to settle the four days of shelling and rocket strikes between Azerbaijan’s military and Armenian-backed separatists over Nagorno-Karabakh. The clashes were the deadliest incidents since a 1994 cease-fire established the current territorial division. The brief but intense fighting of April 2016 claimed dozens of lives.

Since then, the United States, Russia and France, which co-chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group for conflict mediation, have continued advocating diplomacy to secure a binding peace resolution.

Steps toward demilitarization are essential to deterring accidental flare-ups of violence between the groups, said Ambassador Richard Hoagland, U.S. co-chairman of the Minsk Group.

“When you have two armed groups facing each other in difficult terrain not very far apart, there is always the chance for some kind of accident to happen that then spirals out of control,” he recently told VOA’s Armenian and Azeri services. “I know that at this point it will be difficult to ask for total demilitarization, although that would be good, so what we have to do is to look for those things that can help to reduce the possibility of some kind of military accident that then gets out of control.”

Removal of snipers along both sides of the Karabakh line of contact, which separates Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, would be a logical first step, Hoagland said.

Allowing the presence of international observers and installing new electronic equipment that traces cease-fire violations, he said, would be a second realistic benchmark to achieve.

“There is an actual document [that maps out the peace process], and it’s a very comprehensive, but there are steps and steps and steps, and stages and stages,” he told VOA. “So I would hope that in the next highest level of negotiations, the two sides will look very seriously and say even if they can’t come to a final conclusion, here are things we can accomplish.”

U.S.-Russian coordination?

Although some observers describe the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a rare point of shared strategic interests between the U.S. and Russia, others are skeptical.

Hoagland, however, struck an optimistic tone, saying the United States was continuing to work with Russia on this issue despite deteriorating relations between the two countries.

“I have seen absolutely no change in how we work together and how we regard each other,” he told VOA. “Just because sometimes the politicians are bumping up against each other, for us, the work continues and we do it arm in arm.

“Maybe at the top the headline news doesn’t look good, but when you get down to specific issues, specific problems to work on together, where we do cooperate, that continues and it continues today on Nagorno-Karabakh,” he added.

Although the conflict has yet to come under the focus of the President Donald Trump’s administration, former Ambassador John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, told VOA that might change in the coming six to 12 months.

While a planned U.N. General Assembly meeting between Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev may signal a loosening of tensions between the groups, Herbst said, “I still do not see any grounds for a reasonable settlement of the conflict.”

“Everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of the population of Karabakh are Armenians and they will have substantial autonomy, and this should be the basis of the settlement,” he said.  

Competing interests

The main obstacle to full settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the fact that there are too many interests involved in the problem, said analyst Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy research group.

“If the problem was only about the two countries, it would probably have been settled, but states like Russia want to maintain the conflict,” he said.

Echoing that sentiment, Anna Borshchevskaya of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said Armenian officials have complained that a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement has been hampered by Russian arms sales to both sides.

“Russia wants to play a serious role in this conflict, and if there is no conflict, there will be no such role,” she said.

Although Russian weapons deliveries to Baku remained a contentious issue throughout Armenia’s 2017 parliamentary elections, most political forces steered clear of the topic and the question of whether Armenia is more secure with Russia as an ally.

Russia plays an important role in the region as its former imperial and Soviet-era overlord. It is also the main seller of weapons to both Armenia, a close Moscow ally, and Azerbaijan, which has developed warm relations with ethnically kin Turkey.

The Kremlin has consistently stated that it intends to continue selling arms to both camps while supporting peaceful resolution of the conflict.

On July 17, Armenia’s president called Russian arms sales to Baku “the most painful side of Armenian-Russian relations.”

Baku

Armenian political scientist Suren Sargsyan said Baku officials need to assume a more proactive role in securing the front lines, touching on Hoagland’s calls for demilitarization as an example.

“Such an agreement has been reached between the parties,” she told VOA. “But the Azerbaijani side has not taken any practical steps in that direction for a long time. That is why the negotiation process goes to a deadlock.”

Fighting between ethnic Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 and a cease-fire was agreed to in 1994. But Azerbaijan and Armenia regularly accuse each other of carrying out attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Azeri-Armenian border.

On July 5, an Azeri woman and child were killed and another civilian wounded by Armenian forces near the boundary with Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said Wednesday.

Sporadic exchanges of fire in the fight for control over the region — inside Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians — have stoked fears of a wider conflict breaking out in the South Caucasus, which is crossed by oil and gas pipelines.

This story originated in VOA’s Armenian service. Some information came from Reuters.
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The next presidential election in Slovenia will be held on October 22 and the incumbent is expected to run for a second term.

Parliamentary speaker Milan Brglez on Friday formally set the date for the vote which must be held in the autumn. Recent opinion polls predict that President Borut Pahor will likely be re-elected if he chooses to run.

The 53-year-old Pahor is a former fashion model who has become known for his use of social media while in office.

The Alpine nation of 2 million people is the homeland of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.
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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is warning people against returning prematurely to war-torn Syria as the number of displaced going back to their homes reaches a record high.

An IOM report found more than 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned home in the first seven months of this year, nearly as many as the total number of returnees for all of 2016.

IOM spokeswoman Olivia Haedon said most of the returns are spontaneous, but not necessarily voluntary, safe or sustainable.

“As the security situation changes in different parts of the country, displacement can occur again,” she said. “As you noted, in the number of people who were displaced this year, which is over 800,000, some people are being displaced for the second or third time.”

The report said most of the people returning to their homes, 84 percent, are internally displaced, while 16 percent are returning refugees from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. It said an estimated two-thirds have returned to Aleppo Governorate. Others have gone mainly to Idleb, Hama, Raqqa, and Rural Damascus Governorates.

Haedon said people cite a variety of reasons for their decision to go home.

“They are going back with the hope that they can stay to protect their property and engage in a better, improved economic situation, or, protect themselves if they are leaving because of the area that they were living was less secure than the place that they originated from,” she said. “So, we do see that the people are hoping that they can stay for a longer term.”

Haedon said humanitarian organizations agree organized returns to Syria are not yet an option. Syria is not safe, she added, and the places to which people return are not equipped to provide essential services.

She said the IOM is not encouraging Syrians to go home.
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Opponents of Britain’s departure from the European Union are floating the idea of setting up a new anti-Brexit political party.

James Chapman, a former aide to Brexit Secretary David Davis, has become an outspoken critic of Britain’s looming departure from the 28-nation bloc.

He is calling for a new centrist political party because both the governing Conservatives and main opposition Labour parties say they will go through with the decision to leave.

Chapman said Friday “there is an enormous gap in the center now of British politics” that could be filled by an anti-Brexit force.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has also called for pro-EU politicians from all parties to unite.

Britain is currently negotiating its divorce from the EU and is due to leave in March 2019.
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Croatia revoked on Thursday its decision to raise import fees on some farm products by 220 percent, avoiding a trade war with its Balkan neighbors who had threatened to hit back with counter-measures.

European Union-member Croatia last month raised its fees for phytosanitary controls — agricultural checks for pests and viruses on fruits and vegetables — at its borders to 2,000 kuna ($317.52) from 90 kuna, citing compliance with EU standards and protection of its consumers.

EU candidates Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as fellow EU aspirant Bosnia, have called on Croatia to withdraw its decision, saying otherwise each of them would take counter-measures it considered adequate to protect its economic interests.

Serbia, which is the only country in the region that operates a trade surplus with its neighbor, has already stepped up phytosanitary controls on all organic produce from Croatia and said it would increase them further.

Croatia’s agriculture ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it cut the import fee for a shipment of one brand of fruits and vegetables to 90 kuna, and that the decision will become effective on Friday.

The ministry also agreed with neighboring countries that agricultural inspections on their borders will go back to normal routine as of Friday, while all other pending issues will be analyzed and discussed, it said in the statement.

Most countries in the region import more than they export to Croatia, except for Serbia. Serbia’s exports to Croatia in 2016 reached 116 million euros ($136.04 million) versus imports worth 79 million euros.

Neighboring countries welcomed Croatia’s move.

“Bringing the prices back at the previous level will contribute to the relaxation of relations among the countries of the region,” said Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

($1 = 0.8527 euros)

($1 = 6.2989 kuna)
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A former investigative reporter for Russia’s independent RBC media group was found guilty and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday on charges of organizing an extremist group and attempting to overthrow the government.

Authorities said Alexander Sokolov, 29, was the mastermind behind the group “For Responsible Government,” or FRG, a Moscow-based organization alleged to be a cover for banned extremist group “People’s Will Army,” which was created by Sokolov associate Yuri Mukhin.

Moscow judge Alexey Krivoruchko sentenced Mukhin, a newspaper editor, to a four-year suspended term, while two other activists – Valery Parfenov and Kirill Barabash – both received four-year sentences. All deny the charges.

Sokolov said his trial and sentencing are persecution for his investigative reporting. The human rights group Memorial called Sokolov “a political prisoner,” and media rights group Reporters Without Borders testified on his behalf.

During the proceedings, independent Russian channel TV Rain recorded video of Sokolov making brief remarks before the press was ordered to leave.

“The idea of a referendum in Russia has been equated with ‘extremism,’” said Sokolov on camera, wearing a white T-shirt with the same message printed on the front. “It is a crime, as you see, to want a referendum in Russia….” Sokolov’s speech was interrupted by a guard shouting, “Press, this is it, you’re leaving! Press, out!”

Sokolov was arrested July 29, 2015, weeks after RBC published a report he wrote on the alleged embezzlement of $1.55 billion from a project initiated by President Vladimir Putin – construction of a new space launch site in Russia’s Far East. Additionally, Mukhin, Parfenov and Barabash were taken into custody the same day. Prosecutors alleged that as members of FRG, the four were advocating for a referendum on government in Russia.

The article that Sokolov wrote was passed to the Auditing Chamber of the Russian Federation, which in December 2015 confirmed his findings and issued a statement about “financial irregularities” during the construction project.

Sokolov had been monitored by the Russian authorities since 2014, when police investigator Natalia Talaeva opened the criminal probe into Sokolov and his associates. Court records dealing with Sokolov’s arrest said Talaeva considered his work at the FRG, including publications calling for the referendum in Russia, to be incriminating evidence against him. Talaeva added that the real goal of Sokolov’s group was the “dismantlement of Russian statehood” and “an illegal transition of power” through a referendum.

The same year, Sokolov was finishing his thesis on government losses from corruption, looking at government companies Rosnano, Rostech, Olympstroi, and Rosatom. Police, suspecting him of extremist activity, searched his home at 5:00 one morning and confiscated all data storage devices, accusing him of plotting a regime change.

In an interview with Russia’s independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta after the search, Sokolov said, “I am not afraid because the truth is on my side. This will be more proof that the government is scared of responsibility before the people. I am not even considering moving away or leaving and hiding somewhere. I have absolutely nothing to hide. It’s they who are potentially going to compensate me for the damages…”

Sokolov and the other defendants have already spent two years in jail and plan to appeal their sentences.
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U.S. military experts are lining up on either side of a debate on whether to supply lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, a move that would mark a turning point in U.S. policy on Kyiv’s 3-year-old conflict with Russian-backed separatists.

Supporters of the move, which is under active consideration by President Donald Trump’s administration, argue that it is long overdue. The current policy of supplying only non-lethal military gear has neither deterred Russian aggression nor created an opening for cooperation with Moscow to resolve the conflict, they argue.

“I don’t think Russia has given us a window for more positive cooperation on Ukraine,” said Molly McKew, an independent analyst with consulting firm Fianna Strategies. “Maybe other places. But, I certainly don’t see it.So, I think it’s time to reconsider what our strategy has been and what that means.

“And … Ukraine is not asking for foreign troops to come and stand beside them,” she told VOA’s Ukranian Service. “They’re asking for the ability to fight the war in the way that they know they need to fight.”

Other advocates argue that sending a message of strength would be timely after Russia retaliated against U.S. sanctions by expelling U.S. Embassy staff from diplomatic property in Moscow and demanding their numbers be reduced by 755 people by September 1.

But opponents of the move worry that supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine could escalate the conflict and provoke retaliation from the Kremlin, which has already denounced the possibility.

“I think it would make much more sense to re-think some of the aid and capabilities that are being given … and not plan them for a short-term fight, since major battles in the fronts are now passed,” said Michael Kofman, a researcher at CNA Corporation, a private research organization.

He said the U.S. should “think much more about the medium and long term of the Ukrainian military and the kind of Ukrainian military we would like to help them build.”

Kurt Volker, the Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine, rejected the argument that lethal arms sales would provoke Russia during a July 25 interview with Current Time, a Russian-language network jointly operated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA.

“I hear these arguments that it’s somehow provocative to Russia or that it’s going to embolden Ukraine to attack,” he said. “These are just flat out wrong. First off, Russia is already in Ukraine, they are already heavily armed. There are more Russian tanks in there than in Western Europe combined. It is a large, large military presence. And, there’s an even larger military presence surrounding Ukraine from Russian territory.”

Analysts on both sides agree that Russia’s overwhelming military advantage over Ukraine means the supply of U.S. weapons would provide more of a political and morale boost for Kyiv than a defense one.

Nevertheless, Moscow is likely to raise the issue with Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, when it gets the chance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the special envoy is expected to visit Russia for talks on Ukraine in the near future, although U.S. officials have yet to confirm the trip.

“It will be interesting because Mr. Volker has been in a number of capitals already including Kyiv, Paris, Berlin, London,” Lavrov said. “We would be interested to see what impression the U.S. special envoy has on the current state of affairs.”

During a trip to Ukraine last month, Volker visited front-line areas in the east where Ukrainian troops have been in a stand-off against Russia-backed separatists for the past three years.

He blamed Russian aggression for the violence, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, when Russian forces seized Ukrainian military bases in Crimea, annexed the Black Sea peninsula, and began covert support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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The European Union recorded the largest increase in slavery of any world region in 2017, with the arrival of more than 100,000 migrants, many of them extremely vulnerable to exploitation, analysts said Thursday.

The risk of slave labor in farming, construction and other sectors rose across the region, with 20 of the EU’s 28 member states scoring worse than in 2016 in an annual global slavery index by British analytics company Verisk Maplecroft.

“The migrant crisis has increased the risk of slavery incidents appearing in company supply chains across Europe,” said Sam Haynes, senior human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

Globally there are 21 million people in forced labor, including children, in a business worth $150 billion a year, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The index, which assessed incidents of human trafficking or slavery, as well as laws and law enforcement in 198 countries, ranked Romania, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria as the countries with the most slave labor within the EU.

All are key entry points for migrants in the region, Verisk Maplecroft said.

Some 115,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea so far in 2017, with more than 80 percent arriving in Italy, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Many agree to pay large amounts of money for the journey and end up working virtually for free, trapped by debts owed to the agents who brought them across the border, said Alexandra Channer, principal human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

“Many illegal migrants entering the EU are so in debt to a trafficking gang or unscrupulous agents that they have no hope of paying that cost,” she told Reuters.

Local authorities are struggling to manage the slavery issue effectively due to the large numbers of arrivals, she added.

Globally, North Korea retained the top spot as having the worst record of slave labor, while, outside the EU, Turkey lost the most ground in the ranking, slipping into the “high risk” category.

India improved the most, jumping from 15 to 49, while Thailand also made significant gains in the fight against slavery, moving up 21 places to 48.

But both countries remained rated as at “extreme risk” with severe abuses reported in construction, brick kilns, garment production, manufacturing, farming, fishing and rubber production, according to the analysis.

Channer said the index aimed at helping businesses identify countries most at risk of slave labor.
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Bosnia’s religious leaders say politicians are standing in the way of peaceful coexistence between Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities trying to forgive and forget after the atrocities of a devastating 1990s war.

Hundreds of churches, mosques and synagogues bear witness to more than five centuries of Bosnia’s multi-faith past, and the capital Sarajevo is known locally as a “small Jerusalem” with its main ethnic groups – Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks – all worshiping within meters of each other.

But Mufti Husein Kavazovic, head of the Islamic community in Bosnia, says people of faith cannot achieve peace alone.

“It is up to political elites to do more. For a start, it would be good that they stop their ideological manipulation of religion for their own political goals. It is up to us, of course, not to allow them to do that,” he said.

Even though nationalists from all three ethnic groups still insist on exclusivity for their own groups, religious leaders are keen to heal rifts after the 1992-1995 war in which about 100,000 civilians were killed and millions displaced.

Friar Zeljko Brkic at Kraljeva Sutjeska – among the oldest Franciscan monasteries in Bosnia and dating from 1385 – said: “Bosnia can only survive as a multi-ethnic state, no matter how much politicians try to convince us that this is not possible.”

His Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim peers agree.

“It is very important that we have here different cultures and religions, and that based on that we can easily build and verify our own identities,” said Nektarije, a deacon at the Orthodox monastery Zitomislici in what is now the Catholic Croat-dominated southern part of the country.

Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia, gives Sarajevo as an example of close cooperation, citing Muslims there helping Jews to hide during War World II and Jews providing food for people of all faiths in the three-year siege by Bosnian Serb forces.

“Sarajevo is the best proof that living together is possible and that it represents the only way of life for us,” he said.

This week, about 120 leaders from 27 countries arrived in Sarajevo to take part in a meeting of the youth-led Muslim Jewish Conference, founded by Ilja Sichrovski in Vienna in 2010.

“We feel at home here,” Sichrovski said.
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A 10-year-old refugee, who has been nicknamed “the little Picasso” for his artistic talent, is holding his first exhibition — and donating all the money raised to a sick Serbian boy.

Farhad Nouri’s drawings and photographs were put on display Wednesday in Belgrade, where he has lived in a crowded migrant camp with his parents and two younger brothers for the past eight months.

The family was forced to flee conflict and poverty in their home country of Afghanistan two years ago, traveling through Greece and Turkey before arriving in Serbia.

The boy’s gift for art was spotted during language and painting workshops in Belgrade that were organized by local aid groups for refugees and migrants.

“We quickly realized how talented he was and sent him to a painting school as well as a three-month photography workshop, so this is a retrospective of what he learned there,” said Edin Sinanovic from the Refugees Foundation, a local NGO.

Among Nouri’s works exhibited in the garden of a Belgrade cafe were his drawings of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Harry Potter. His photographs mostly include scenes from around Belgrade.

In addition to holding his first exhibition, “Farhad wanted to help someone, so he chose to dedicate it to a six-year-old Serbian boy who needs funds for his therapy after brain cancer,” Sinanovic said.

Nouri, who is dreaming of one day moving to Switzerland to become a painter and a photographer, said he wanted to help someone else as well to show how important it is to be good to other people.

“We all need kindness,” he said.
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German prosecutors say they’ve arrested a 29-year-old Syrian man on allegations he committed war crimes as a member of the Islamic State group in his home country.

The federal prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that Fares A. B., whose last name wasn’t released in line with privacy laws, is also accused of membership in a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors allege that he joined the Nusra Front extremist organization in 2013, and then moved to IS in 2014.

There, he was detailed to a jail and allegedly abused three prisoners. He’s also accused of beating a pickup truck driver with his assault rifle at a traffic control point, and executing an IS prisoner in 2014.

He was arrested in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg July 31 and brought before a judge Tuesday.

 
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A car rammed into a group of French soldiers Wednesday in a suburb of Paris, injuring six of them in what authorities say was a deliberate attack.

The incident happened as the soldiers left their barracks in Levallois-Perret to go on patrol.  Mayor Patrick Balkany said “without a doubt” the attack was intentional.

“The vehicle did not stop,” Balkany said. “It hurtled at them … it accelerated rapidly.”

Authorities were searching for the driver of the car, while the Paris prosecutor’s office said it has opened a counterterrorism investigation.

The attack follows a series of other Islamic State-inspired strikes on soldiers and police, large numbers of whom have been deployed in France in response to IS calls for attacks against France and other countries that have bombed IS positions in Iraq and Syria.

All told, more than 230 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in attacks inspired by the militant group over the past two years, including two 2015 attacks in Paris and another in the coastal city of Nice in mid-2016.

 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia Tuesday to express his support for separatists there and in South Ossetia on the ninth anniversary of a deadly five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi.

The Georgian government protested against the Kremlin leader’s visit to Abkhazia’s Black Sea resort Pitsunda, and the foreign ministry in Tbilisi denounced Putin’s “cynical action.” NATO said Putin’s trip was “detrimental to international efforts to find a peaceful and negotiated settlement” of the war the two countries fought in 2008.

The foreign ministry said Putin’s trip to Abkhazia was a gesture meant only “for legitimization of forceful change of borders of the sovereign state (Georgia) through military aggression, ethnic cleansing and occupation.”

Georgia sees both Abkhazia and South Ossetia as its sovereign territory, and most of the world agrees. Russia is one of only four nations to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru are the only states to side with Russia on the issue.

Minister urges calm

Georgia maintains that Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been illegally integrated into Russia’s military, political, economic and social system.

Despite Putin’s appearance just 400 kilometers from Tbilisi Tuesday, some Georgian officials counseled calm. “We must not be provoked,” said Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the minister for reconciliation and civil equality. Writing in the journal Foreign Policy, she noted: “We should keep the peace, as it is vitally important for us.”

Georgia and Russia have never restored diplomatic relations since the brief but deadly war nine years ago. A fact-finding mission commissioned by the European found that more than 400 Georgians were killed during five days of clashes, and nearly 1,750 others were wounded; casualties among Russians and residents of Abkhazia were in the same range, and overall, 150,000 Georgians were displaced from their homes.

Just outside Tbilisi, Georgian leaders marked the anniversary Tuesday by laying wreaths at a military cemetery to honor soldiers who died in the conflict.

Addressing the gathering, President Giorgi Margvelashvili vowed that no Georgian would ever tolerate Russian occupation, and he emphasized his government’s commitment to peaceful negotiations with the aim of fully reintegrating the entire country.

Multiple protests, in Georgia and abroad

Less than 400 meters from Russian military garrisons in South Ossetia, several hundred Georgians linked arms to form human chain along a main road leading into the Russian-controlled territory, according to BBC.

At United Nations headquarters in New York, Georgian-American demonstrators called for a coordinated international response to growing Russian military aggression in Eastern Europe.

Based on the bitter memories of subsequent Russian expansionist moves, such as its invasion of Crimea in 2014, Daniel Kochis of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said the U.S. should have levied sanctions against Russia as far back as 2008, when it intervened in Georgia.

“I think the administration (of former President George W. Bush) was caught very flat-footed in Georgia,” Kochis said. “We didn’t learn a lesson from Russian actions; we didn’t impose any sort of sanctions and I don’t think we were strong enough discussing illegal actions by Russia. Again, we saw this sort of aggression a few years later in Crimea, and by then, of course, Russia had learned many lessons from the war with Georgia.”

Recent U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine suggest that Russia may now anticipate consequences for such actions.

US had few options in 2008

Jeffrey Mankoff of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies said the U.S. administration in 2008 had few military or diplomatic choices.

“The U.S. denounced Russian actions in Georgia in 2008, but did not move in a kinetic way,” Mankoff said. “But I also think the U.S. did not have a lot of options: Russia moved very quickly and the fighting was over in five days.”

The Bush and Obama administrations’ efforts to normalize ties with Russia despite its aggressive move into Georgia, Mankoff said, may have militarily emboldened Moscow.

“It is an issue for debate and I do not fault any of them for going down that path [of seeking normalized relations), but the Russians took a lesson (away from Georgia),” Mankoff added. “They determined they could get away with a similar scenario in Ukraine. In some ways, it has been a miscalculation, and it got Russia bogged-down in a conflict in Ukraine. But, ultimately, it has also changed the contours of (Western relations with Russia) in pretty fundamental ways, in a way that the invasion of Georgia did not.”

Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed. In 2008, Russia sent troops into Abkhazia and South Ossetia, claiming that Georgian authorities had abused local residents.

Russia’s forceful intervention gave both regions de-facto independence from Tbilisi, and Moscow has since tightened its control. Despite international condemnation, Russia keeps thousands of troops in the breakaway regions; Georgia considers them an occupation force. The standoff is not static: Georgian authorities have accused Moscow and the separatists of seizing additional territory in recent months.

Pence visit contrasted with Putin’s

On his visit Tuesday, the third since the 2008 war, Putin said he would ease border controls and customs procedures between Russia and Abkhazia, to encourage travel and facilitate trade.

The Kremlin leader’s visit contrasted with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s trip last week to Tbilisi, where he was warmly received. Pence strongly reaffirmed Washington’s support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and denounced Russia’s “aggression” and “occupation” of Georgian territory.

An independent fact-finding mission on the conflict by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights said the brief war killed 171 Georgian servicemen, 14 policemen, and 228 civilians, leaving 1,747 wounded.

“Sixty-seven Russian servicemen were killed, and 283 were wounded, and 365 South Ossetian servicemen and civilians (combined) were killed,” the report said. The conflict also left an estimated 150,000 people internally displaced.

This story originated in VOA’s Georgian Service.

Some information is from AP and Reuters.

 
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A German man believed to have provided logistical support to the Hamburg-based September 11, 2001, hijackers has died, according to a newly-released audio message from the leader of al-Qaida.

The announcement by Ayman al-Zawahri came in an August 2 audio message posted online in which he says a man he identifies as Zuhair al-Maghribi who worked for As-Sahab, the terror network’s media arm, is a “martyr.”

He says al-Maghribi is one of several who “sacrificed their lives” but doesn’t provide details on when or how they died.

Al-Maghribi is a known alias of Said Bahaji, who authorities have said worked for As-Sahab. He’s been wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Germany shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Germany-born Bahaji, who is of Moroccan descent, is believed to have helped suicide hijackers Mohamad Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah when they were in Hamburg, and to have fled shortly before the September 11 attacks.

In an operation in 2009, the Pakistani military battled their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border and found Bahaji’s German passport, among others. It included a tourist visa for Pakistan and a stamp indicating he had arrived in the southern city of Karachi on September 4, 2001.

The authenticity of the al-Zawahri recording could not be independently confirmed but it resembled previous messages released by the al-Qaida leader.

SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. organization that monitors militant messaging, reported on the recording, noting that in it, al-Zawahri also “revealed that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad,” a top al-Qaida leader in U.S. custody, founded As-Sahab.

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, would not comment on Tuesday on the recording, citing organizational policy.

Bahaji was long suspected of having died, but al-Qaida never publicly acknowledged his death until al-Zawahri’s audio recording a week ago.

In a list published by the United Nations Security Council of people and entities against whom there are sanctions, Bahaji is said to be “reportedly deceased in September 2013 in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area.”
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Spanish police said Tuesday they have arrested a Turkish-Swedish reporter and writer in Barcelona on an international arrest order from Turkey for alleged terrorism.

Barcelona National Police spokesman Jose Antonio Nin said Hamza Yalcin was detained at Barcelona airport Aug. 3 and is now being held pending an extradition hearing. He said Yalcin has been handed over to National Court authorities.

Jonathan Lundqvist, head of the Swedish branch of Reporters Without Borders, said the arrest was an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to show “he can reach critical voices even if they are not in the country.”

Lundqvist said Yalcin has written in the magazine Odak Dergisi – which is critical of the Turkish regime – since he fled to Sweden in 1984. He said Spain has now to decide whether to hand him to Turkey where “over 100 other journalists have been charged by the Erdogan regime for similar crimes.”

“This is worrying that exiled journalists can be arrested,” he told The Associated Press.

Elisabeth Asbrink, chairwoman of the Swedish branch of writers’ association PEN International, called for the release of Yalcin as well of another Swedish citizen, IT consultant Ali Gharavi, who was arrested July 5 while attending a seminar about freedom of the internet in Turkey.

“It is obvious that Turkey and President Erdogan show a lack of respect for EU citizens. Sweden must of course do everything to ensure the release of these two and it is urgent,” said Asbrink.
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A Turkish media report says Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country’s frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border.

The private Dogan news agency said the governor of Agri province, Suleyman Elban, inspected the construction of the security wall on Tuesday. The Turkish authorities are constructing the 2-meter wide, 3-meter high barrier with portable blocks, the report said.

Turkey is building the wall along parts of the Iranian border to boost its security by halting the infiltrations of Kurdish militants and illegal smugglers.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in January plans to build a wall along its borders with Iraq and Iran, similar to the one currently being erected along the 911-kilometer (566-mile) frontier with Syria.
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The Balkans have become embroiled in a trade war over agricultural health checks after Croatia raised import fees on some farm products by around 220 percent, triggering countermeasures by Serbia and threats from others.

Last month European Union-member Croatia raised its fees for phytosanitary controls — agricultural checks for pests and viruses — on fruits and vegetables at its borders to 2,000 kuna ($319) from 90 kuna.

It cited compliance with EU standards and protection of its consumers.

But ministers from EU candidates Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as from fellow EU aspirant Bosnia, said the move violated their respective pre-accession agreements with the bloc under which they were guaranteed equal access to markets.

“These measures are absolutely protectionist in an economic sense. They are populist in political sense and cannot be justified, They are [not] in the spirit of good neighborly relations,” Serbian Economy Minister Rasim Ljajic told reporters after meeting his Balkan counterparts in Sarajevo.

The ministers from the four countries called on Croatia to withdraw its decision and invited the European Commission to get involved to solve an issue they said violated the free trade principles.

They also asked for an urgent meeting with the Croatian agriculture minister. However, until the issue has been resolved, each country will take counter-measures it considered adequate to protect its own economic interests, they said.

Economic War in Sight?

Ljajic said that Serbia has already stepped up phytosanitary controls on all organic produce from Croatia and will increase them further. This means that goods, including meat and dairy products, could be held up at borders from 15-30 days.

“Our goal is not to wage any kind of economic war but to protect our economic interests and the free flow of goods,” he said.

Macedonia and Montenegro said they would file complaints to the World Trade Organization, of which they are members, and seek mechanisms through the body for compensation from Croatia, which raised import fees at a peak of the high season for export of fruits and vegetables from their countries.

Besides discriminating against importers on its own market, Croatia is also making exports to the EU more difficult and expensive because it is vital entry point for imports to the EU from the Balkans, the ministers said.

Commenting on the explanation from Croatia that their move was not aimed against the neighbors but against all non-EU members, Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said: “Croatia does not import raspberries from Trinidad and Tobago but from Serbia and Bosnia.” He said that Bosnia was considering an “adequate response” but declined to elaborate.

Most countries in the region import more than they export to Croatia. Only Serbia operates a trade surplus with its neighbor, with exports in  2016 reaching 116 million euros ($137 million) versus imports worth 79 million euros.

Relations remain strained between the two former Yugoslav countries and bitter foes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, despite improvements in investments, the flow of people and capital.

($1 = 6.2688 kuna)
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Two members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were briefly detained Monday after rallying for the release of a Ukrainian filmmaker outside his Siberian prison.

During Sunday’s protest in Yakutsk where Oleg Sentsov is serving his sentence, the band members unfurled a banner on a nearby bridge that read “Free Sentsov!”

Longtime Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina tweeted that she and Olga Borisova were taken to a police station following their detention earlier in the day and faced a court hearing over charges of holding an unauthorized rally.

Borisova later said on Facebook that she and Alyokhina were released after a judge found flaws in the case. It was unclear if the police would refile charges.

A Russian military court convicted Sentsov, who comes from the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, of conspiracy to commit terror attacks and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Sentsov, who made two short movies and the 2012 feature film “Gamer,” denied the charges, which he and his supporters denounced as political punishment for his opposition to Crimea’s annexation.

The U.S. and the EU have criticized his conviction and called for his release, and numerous cultural figures in Russia and abroad have urged the Russian government to free him.

Pussy Riot is a loose collective and most of its members perform anonymously. The balaclava-clad women rose to prominence with their daring outdoor performances critical of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling elite.

An impromptu “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior that derided the ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin got them into trouble in 2012.

Three band members were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for the stunt. Alyokhina and another member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, spent nearly two years in prison.
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Turkey is building up military forces on the Syrian border, while Turkish President Recep Erdogan steps up his rhetoric suggesting an imminent military operation into Syria. Ankara is reportedly courting Moscow for its support for a possible operation into Syria’s Afrin enclave, which is now under the control of the Kurdish YPG militia.

Ankara accuses the YPG, which controls large swathes of Syrian territory along its border, of being an offshoot of the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state.

“We will take important steps to implement the new campaigns in the near future,” Erdogan declared Saturday to cheering supporters in the Turkish city of Malatya. “We would rather pay the price for foiling plans targeting our future and liberty in Syria and Iraq, than on our own soil.”

The prospect of a military operation has been praised across Turkey’s pro-government media. “Our greatest advantage is the leadership of a president who sees this threat exactly … and responds to it courageously, both by discourse and by action,” wrote Mehmet Acer in the staunchly pro-Erdogan Yeni Safak. He welcomed “this new attack-based security approach, which we define as the ‘Erdogan doctrine’.”

Erdogan is courting nationalist voters, with one eye on looming presidential and parliamentary elections which could be held as early as next year.

The rising political rhetoric has been matched by a reported surge in attacks against the YPG in Afrin by elements of the Turkish backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Turkish forces, as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, entered Syria backing elements of the FSA against both Islamic State and the YPG. The FSA is on the border with the Afrin enclave but so far further gains have been stalled.  

“Turkey’s Operation Euphrates shield was stopped by moves by both United States and Russia,” said retired senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an regional analyst. Both Russia and the U.S. deployed military forces as a buffer against further gains by Turkish-backed forces in Syria.

“The problem facing Turkey is Russia and the U.S. are stopping Turkey from intervening,” said Semih Idiz,  political columnist for the Al Monitor website. “They are agreed on an overriding agenda [of] defeating ISIS (Islamic State). Now Turkey has this Kurdish agenda and it does not have support of either Russia or the Untied States … That is the dilemma facing Turkey.”

Moscow has deployed military forces in the YPG-controlled Afrin region, some of them reportedly close to the Turkish border. But, “Turkey sees a window of opportunity,” said analyst Selcen. “Now there is a change on ground between Russia and U.S.”

Selcen said Moscow is infuriated by the growing military cooperation between the YPG and the U.S. to drive the Islamic State from its self-declared capital of Raqqa. The YPG makes up a large proportion of the Syrian Democratic Forces seeking to capture Raqqa,  an operation that excludes the Syrian regime.

Russian frustrations were heightened in June when a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian government fighter-bomber reportedly targeting SDF forces.

Ankara has stepped up its diplomatic courting of Moscow, having announced plans last month to purchase an advanced Russia air defense system. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusolgu, spoke on Sunday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila.

Turkish, Russian and Iranian officials are scheduled to hold a two day meeting on Syria beginning Tuesday in Tehran.
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A midday nap is very much part of the Spanish traditional life style. However, having a public place in which to do so is new. Siesta & Go is the first nap bar in Madrid according to reporter Faiza Elmasry. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates.
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In a vast network of tunnels carved into the rocks under the Maltese capital Valletta, faded maps of the Mediterranean hint at the place’s role in directing key battles in World War II.

Malta is now restoring the 28,000 square meters (300,000 square feet) of tunnels, planning to open a huge section to the public.

The compound, hidden under the picturesque port city perched on cliffs above the sea, was built by the British and served as the staging ground for major naval operations. The British military withdrew in 1979 and the compound was abandoned for almost 40 years.

German and Italian forces bombarded Malta intensively between 1940 and 1942 to try gain control of the Mediterranean, but did not manage to force the British out. During the Cold War, the tunnels were used to track Soviet submarines.

Over the years, water and humidity have let rust and mold spread. Some rooms have been vandalized, but traces of the military apparatus that once occupied the complex still remain.

Military cot beds, tangled cables and dust-covered rotary phones litter the rooms.

The Malta Heritage Trust, a non-governmental preservation group, began the multi-million-dollar restoration of the site in 2009.
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