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Friday marks the United Nations’ World Tuberculosis Day, aimed at raising awareness of a disease that kills an estimated 1.8 million people every year. Six countries account for nearly two-thirds of the cases: India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.

The date commemorates the day in 1882 when German scientist Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the cause of the disease, the TB bacillus. It remains the most deadly infectious disease in the world.

“Every single day 5,000 people lose their lives because of tuberculosis. TB hits particularly those vulnerable populations that include migrants, refugees, prisoners, people who are marginalized in their societies,” said Mario Raviglione, the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Program Director.

On World Tuberculosis Day, Doctors Warn of New Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Drug-resistant strains

In recent years drug-resistant strains of TB have taken hold around the world, posing an increasingly urgent public health threat. These strains often go undetected and are spread across populations.

“In South Africa, for example, TB is the commonest cause of death and the disease is out of control in Africa,” said Dr. Keertan Dheda, head of the Division of Pulmonology at the University of Cape Town.

But there is new hope as a small number of new drugs have become available.

“For the first time after about four to five decades, we have two drugs. One is called bedaquiline,” Dheda said. “That has now been registered in South Africa and is available to treat many patients with drug-resistant TB. And there’s another new drug called delamanid, that’s not yet licensed in South Africa but is available in other countries.”

New drugs must be used carefully

In a report published in the Lancet medical journal, Dheda and his co-authors warn that the effectiveness of these new drugs could be rapidly lost if they aren’t used correctly.

“There are several case reports globally of patients that have already become resistant to both delamanid and bedaquiline. We need to change our strategy,” Dheda said. “We need to go out into the community and find these cases. We have to address the major drivers of TB, which are poverty and overcrowding, nutritional deprivation, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking and biomass fuel exposure,” Dheda added in a VOA interview Thursday.

The report warns the new drugs must be prescribed as individually targeted treatments with clear dosing guidelines, to prevent further resistant TB strains from emerging.
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A month before the first round of France’s presidential election, 43 percent of voters are hesitant about who to vote for, a poll said Friday, underlining the uncertainty surrounding the volatile election campaign.

Opinion polls show independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen likely to lead in the first round of the election April 23 and that these two candidates would go through to a May 7 run-off that Macron would win easily.

Unprecedented uncertainty

But an opinion poll by Odoxa for franceinfo radio found that 43 percent of voters were still hesitating between several candidates, which it said reflected an “uncertainty unprecedented in (French) electoral history.”

“The level of voter indecision about the candidates is completely exceptional,” Odoxa said.

Investors have been jittery about the possibility of Le Pen, leader of the anti-European Union, anti-immigration National Front, winning the election and taking France out of the euro.

On the right, more sure

The poll found that potential voters for right-wing candidates — Le Pen and conservative Francois Fillon — were more settled in their choices than potential voters for Macron and the leading left-wing candidates, Benoit Hamon of the ruling Socialist Party and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Sixty percent of Le Pen’s potential voters and 57 percent of Fillon’s had definitely decided on their candidate compared with 47 percent for Macron, 44 percent for Melenchon and 40 percent for Hamon, the poll found.

Fillon slipped in polls

Fillon, once the front runner, has slipped in the polls since media reports in late January that he had paid his wife, Penelope, and two children hundreds of thousands of euros of public funds for work they may not have carried out.

Fillon accused President Francois Hollande in a television interview on Thursday of being involved in what he alleges is a government plot to spread damaging media leaks about his affairs to destroy his chances of being elected. 
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Speaking in the House of Commons, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May solemnly listed the diverse nationalities of those injured in Wednesday’s lone wolf attack in London, underlining the global nature of the British capital and its diversity. She emphasized the attacker was British-born.

But some British nationalists and nativists have been quick to blame whole communities for the attack, accusing migrants and liberals for having created the conditions for Islamist terrorism.

Two narratives are being fought over in newspapers and social media following the attack that left four dead and 40 injured. One emphasizing the importance of unity and embracing plurality, the other tarring foreigners as the threat and blaming migrants and freedom of movement in the European Union for terrorism.

“In addition to 12 Britons admitted to hospital, we know the victims include three French children, two Romanians, four South Koreans, one German, one Pole, one Irish, one Chinese, one Italian, one American and two Greeks,” May told a subdued House of Commons.

“A terrorist came to the place where people of all nationalities and cultures gather to celebrate what it means to be free. And he took out his rage indiscriminately against innocent men, women and children,” said May.

WATCH: May addresses House of Commons

“We are united by our humanity,” responded Britain’s main opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

But shortly after the exchanges between lawmakers emphasizing the importance of diversity, Nigel Farage, one of Britain’s leading Brexiters, struck a different tone.

Despite May confirming police believe the assailant was British born, Farage used the London attack to blame politicians who embrace multiculturalism and lambasted immigration mainly from the Middle East for “inviting in terrorism.”

“We’ve made some terrible mistakes in this country, and it really started with the election of Tony Blair back in 1997, who said he wanted to build a multicultural Britain,” said Farage, the former leader of Britain’s UK Independence Party.

“The problem with multiculturalism is that it leads to divided communities … We have now a fifth column living inside these European countries. I do actually think that the moment has come for us to actually point the blame. What these politicians have done in the space of just 15 years may well affect the way we live in this country over the next 100 years,” he added.

Defend ‘our culture’

Katie Hopkins, a TV personality and newspaper columnist, was more scathing, arguing the English must defend “our culture.” “London is a city so desperate to be seen as tolerant … Liberals convince themselves multiculturalism works because we all die together, too,” she wrote in a column for the right-wing tabloid the Daily Mail just hours after the attack.

She added, “This place is just like Sweden. Terrified of admitting the truth about the threat we face, about the horrors committed by the migrants we failed to deter, because to admit that we are sinking, and fast, would be to admit that everything the liberals believe is wrong. That multiculturalism has not worked.”

In Birmingham, the Midlands city that saw law-enforcement raids late Wednesday on the homes of people suspected of being connected in some way to the London attacker, locals fear they will be tarred as terrorists and there will be a backlash.

Muslim anxiety

Britain’s top counterterror officer, Mark Rowley, has acknowledged that Muslim communities “will feel anxious at this time”, but has said police will work with community leaders to ensure protection. Birmingham is home to large South Asian and Muslim communities, and last year hosted Europe’s largest celebrations for the Eid festival, a major Muslim holiday.

Thursday, local police assisted Birmingham’s Central Mosque in distributing more than 50,000 copies of a booklet explaining the Muslim faith, entitled “Terrorism Is Not Islam,” to schools and shops.

Mosque chairman, Mohammed Afzal, said the attacker’s motives had nothing to do with true Islam. “Whoever the attacker is and whatever the cause may be, nothing justifies taking lives of innocent people, which is completely against the good of humanity,” he said. “We call upon those that may have even a shred of sympathy for the like-minded terrorists to shake their conscience and realize that such acts are the work of evil and not the work of God-fearing people.”

David Aaronovitch, an author and broadcaster, believes the attack should not be allowed to “trigger a wholesale tarring of Muslim communities in Britain with the terrorist brush.”

In his column in The Times he argued it is important “not to cede political space to the fanatics, the extreme nationalists, the fundamentalists. To always think, despite the temptations just to react.”

Others, though, are keen to react, determined that a nativist, anti-Islam narrative becomes dominant. Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist, rushed Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament as emergency crews were assisting the wounded and claimed Britain is at “war” with Muslims and labeled the attack the work of a foreigner. “This is the reality. The reality is these people are waging war on us,” he said.

Bystanders, and even some reporters, denounced him for what they saw as an opportunistic intervention at the site of an atrocity, one designed to inflame.
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In advance of World TB day (March 24), the World Health Organization is warning the battle to wipe out the global tuberculosis epidemic will not be won unless stigma, discrimination and marginalization of TB patients is brought to an end. VOA was in Geneva at the launch of new WHO ethics guidance for the treatment of people with tuberculosis.

Progress is being made toward achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of ending the global TB epidemic by 2030.  The World Health Organization reports 49 million lives have been saved since 2000.

But, much remains to be done. 

Data from 2015 show more than 10.4 million people fell ill and 1.8 million died of tuberculosis, with most cases and fatalities occurring in developing countries.

The World Health Organization says stigma and discrimination against TB patients hamper efforts to wipe out this deadly disease. 

WHO Global TB Program medical officer Ernesto Jaramillo says vulnerable people, such as migrants, prisoners, ethnic minorities, marginalized women and children are most likely to suffer abuse, neglect and rejection.

He says this prevents them from seeking treatment for tuberculosis.

“Having new tools for diagnosis, and treatment of TB is not sufficient if there are not clear standards to ensure that vulnerable people can have access in a matter of priority to these tools in a way that the end TB strategy can really serve the interest not only of individuals, but also the interests of public health in general ,” said Jaramillo.

WHO Global TB program director Mario Raviglione tells VOA no country, rich or poor, is immune from getting tuberculosis.  He warns marginalizing patients with TB is dangerous.

“You cannot eliminate a disease like TB thinking that you build walls or you isolate your country,” said Raviglione. “TB is an airborne disease.  It travels by air.  So, you have a Boeing 747 that leaves Malawi tonight and it comes to Switzerland tomorrow morning and there you go.  So, it has to be faced from a global perspective.”

New WHO ethical guidance includes actions to overcome barriers of stigma, discrimination and marginalization of people with tuberculosis.  The agency says protecting the human rights of all those affected will save many lives and will make it possible to end this global scourge. 
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Pope Francis is making five more child saints: two Portuguese shepherd children who said the Virgin Mary appeared to them in Fatima 100 years ago and three Mexican adolescents who were killed for their faith in the 16th century.

Francis signed the canonization decrees Thursday.

In the case of the Mexicans, Francis declared the three Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala worthy of sainthood without having a miracle attributed to their intercession, once again sidestepping the typical saint-making process. The boys, Cristobal, Antonio and Juan, were converted to Catholicism by missionaries in the early 1500s.

Francis followed the rules in approving a miracle for Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the Fatima siblings, just two months before he is to travel to the Fatima shrine to mark the centennial anniversary of their apparitions.

 
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Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch connected in press reports Wednesday to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, has a long history of connections with senior U.S. politicians, including Senator John McCain and former senator Bob Dole.

Deripaska was listed by Forbes magazine in 2008 as Russia’s richest oligarch, with a fortune the business magazine then assessed at $28 billion. He is suddenly back in the news, despite the fact that Forbes now estimates his wealth at a mere $5.1 billion.

The reason? The Associated Press reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked with Deripaska a decade ago to advance Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests and proposed a strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition in former Soviet states.

Manafort has confirmed the AP’s report that he represented Deripaska almost a decade ago “on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments,” but says his work for Deripaska “did not involve representing Russian political interests.”

Oleg Deripaska began building his business empire in the 1990s, a period that saw a wild scramble to grab the most valuable assets of the moribund Soviet economy – a contest that was often accompanied by violence.

Russia’s post-Soviet metals sector saw a particularly violent division of spoils, and the bloodshed which accompanied the fight to control the country’s aluminum smelters – involving ambitious young businessmen like Deripaska, organized crime hitmen and their numerous victims – became the stuff of legend.

Deripaska has admitted that, while navigating this Hobbesian world, he made protection payments to criminal gangs and local police, and set up a security force consisting of former KGB agents and soldiers.

 “The first time I was directly threatened … two weeks later my commercial director was shot two times in the head,” Deripaska told London’s Telegraph in 2012. “This was how, finally, I decided it was better to pay for the moment to stay alive and for my people to stay alive…  I hated having to pay but there was no other safe choice, for me or my staff.”

As a Russian metals analyst told Britain’s Spectator magazine in 2007: “Many people were killed during the aluminium wars. Deripaska survived, and won.”

In 2000, Deripaska and fellow Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who owns Britain’s Chelsea soccer team, created Russian Aluminum (RusAl), which is now the world’s sixth largest aluminum company. Deripaska owns a controlling share of RusAL and is its president. He also owns Basic Element, a Russian holding company with assets in the energy, manufacturing, financial services, agriculture, construction and aviation sectors.

Deripaska is married to Polina Yumashev, the daughter of Valentin Yumashev, former President Boris Yeltsin’s chief of staff. After her birth, Valentin Yumashev married Tatyana Dyachenko, the younger daughter of Yeltsin.

Some of Deripaska’s past has apparently come back to haunt him. He was reportedly barred for years from entering the United States because of alleged ties with organized crime, and while that ban was lifted in 2005, it was reimposed in 2006.

Deripaska enlisted help to try to overcome these hurdles. For example, he reportedly paid $560,000 in the early 2000s to Alston & Bird, the law firm of Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, which was able to get Deripaska’s U.S. visa reinstated, at least for a time.

In addition, the Washington Post reported in January 2008 that Rick Davis, who was then the manager of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, helped arrange a drinks-and-dinner meeting in January 2006 between Deripaska and a small group of U.S. senators, including McCain, near Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum was taking place.

According to the newspaper, seven months later, in August 2006, Davis, McCain and Deripaska attended a dinner in Montenegro, whose governing party had a contract with the lobbying firm that Davis ran together with Paul Manafort.

“Afterward, a group from the dinner took boats out to a nearby yacht moored in the Adriatic Sea, where champagne and pastries were served, partly in honor of McCain’s 70th birthday,” the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper quoted a spokesman for McCain as saying neither the senator nor Davis recalled Deripaska being on the yacht after dinner.

The spokesman, Mark Salter, told the Post that McCain’s meetings with Deripaska took place during official overseas trips by U.S. senators and that any contact with the Russian tycoon was “social and incidental” and did not constitute a “private meeting.”
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The British parliament building in London has been put on lockdown following reports of gunfire outside the building Wednesday.  London metro police have said they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack until they have further details.
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U.S. media reports say worries about an Islamic State bomb led U.S. authorities to ban passengers from carrying large electronic devices on inbound flights from some airports in the Middle East.

Citing unnamed sources, The New York Times reports that the ban was put in place to counter IS jihadists’ plans to develop a bomb small enough to fit inside a laptop battery.

ABC reports that intelligence obtained by U.S. officials earlier this year showed the IS group working on ways to smuggle explosives onto U.S.-bound planes. A government source told ABC the threat information is “substantiated” and “credible.”

The Transportation Safety Agency, however, denied any specific threat and said in a statement it instituted the ban due to “evaluated intelligence” that shows terrorist groups’ continued interest in targeting commercial flights.

The directive requires passengers flying directly to the United States from 10 Middle Eastern airports to store electronic devices larger than a cellphone in checked baggage. The TSA said it chose not to include cellphones due to logistical reasons.

The TSA said it chose the airports “based on the current threat picture” and after consultation with intelligence officials, though more airports could be added in the future.

“As threats change, so too will TSA’s security requirements,” the agency said.

The airports affected by the U.S. ban are: Queen Alia International Airport, Cairo International Airport, Ataturk International Airport, King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, King Khalid International Airport, Kuwait International Airport, Mohammed V Airport, Hamad International Airport, Dubai International Airport, and Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Britain institutes ban

Britain joined the United States in instituting a similar ban on large electronic devices Tuesday, though the British version is slightly less restrictive.

The British directive will block carry-on electronics larger than 16 centimeters in length, 9.3 centimeters in width and with a depth of over 1.5 centimeters on direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

“Direct flights to the U.K. from these destinations continue to operate to the U.K. subject to these new measures being in place,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters. “We think these steps are necessary and proportionate to allow passengers to travel safely.”

Terrorism analyst Greg Barton of Australia’s Deakin University said the action seems to be linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror group’s affiliate active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia that has targeted airlines in the past.

“They’re clearly concerned about airports that are regarded as not being up to scratch on security, and other airports that are, while very good, dealing with massive flows of passengers that are coming through,” Barton told VOA. “Presumably the intelligence that triggered all of this is linked to AQAP in Yemen, and it may have come out of that rather disastrous raid that killed a U.S. soldier but nevertheless was said to have yielded valuable intelligence.”

Terrorist efforts ‘intensifying’

Private security experts on both sides of the Atlantic are divided on the wisdom of having electronic gadgets consigned to the hold, with some pointing out that airlines have become increasingly worried about the risk of lithium battery-powered items catching fire in the hold. Others said a bomb could still be triggered via a cellphone signal.

But a British intelligence official told VOA, “Consigning gadgets to the hold presents some serious obstacles for the bomb-maker, forcing him to design an automatic trigger device or timer that can be designed small enough to fit into an e-reader or a thin laptop.”

The TSA statement said, “Our information indicates that terrorist groups’ efforts to execute an attack against the aviation sector are intensifying given that aviation attacks provide an opportunity to cause mass casualties and inflict significant economic damage, as well as generate overwhelming media coverage.”

Airlines were notified of the increased security measures Tuesday and have until Friday to comply. No end date was included in the order, meaning it will extend indefinitely.

Several British airlines will be impacted by the British ban — including British Airways and low-cost carrier Easyjet, as well as package-vacation carriers Thomas Cook and Thomson. The British ban affects in-bound flights from Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It is unclear why the U.S. and British bans do not exactly match when it comes to the airports and countries included.

Sophisticated technology

No U.S. airline is impacted by the U.S. electronics ban — none fly direct to any of the countries listed by the Department of Homeland Security, which warns militants are seeking “innovative methods” to bring down jets amid concerns that bombs will be hidden in laptops.

A U.S. intelligence official dismissed claims by some security experts that the ban is as much politics-led as security-informed. He told VOA: “The ban is reflective of how sophisticated al-Qaida is becoming in the next generation of devices their bomb-makers are trying to develop.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have long been focused on militants in the Middle East exploring a new generation of non-metallic explosives unlikely to be detected by current airport security equipment.

In 2014 U.S. intelligence officials were alarmed by what they said was a teaming up of veteran jihadists in Syria with bomb-makers and terror planners from AQAP.

The group was behind the attempted Christmas Day bombing in 2009 of Northwest Airlines flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who bungled the detonation of explosives sewn into his underwear. And it claimed responsibility for a 2010 cargo plane bomb plot foiled by British intelligence.

Al-Qaida isn’t the only group that’s prompting concern. Last year the Somali insurgent group al-Shabab smuggled an explosive-filled laptop on a flight out of Mogadishu, blowing a hole in the side of the plane. The aircraft was still low enough that the pilot was able to land the plane safely.

Meanwhile. Turkey said Tuesday it would ask the U.S. to reverse the ban, which affects travelers departing for the U.S. from Istanbul’s Ataturk airport.

VOA’s Jamie Dettmer and Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
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Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, Tuesday to protest a visit by a European Union envoy who is trying to break the political deadlock that has left the country without a government for three months.

Waving red-and-yellow national flags, the protesters chanted “Macedonia! Macedonia!” – as EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn held talks with political leaders.

Protest organizers said they were holding rallies at 42 sites around the country, and unfurled giant banners along the route taken by Hahn from the airport to the capital.

Macedonia’s two largest parties do not have enough lawmakers to form a government after a general election in December.

They would need to form a coalition with one party from the country’s ethnic Albanian minority, which is demanding that Albanian be made the country’s second official language.

The long-governing conservatives rejected the minority demand outright. Conservative President Gjorge Ivanov, however, has refused to hand the rival Social Democrats a mandate to form a government until they do the same.

Ivanov, who did not meet with Hahn, argues that the language demand is an attempt to destroy Macedonia’s character.

Supporting Ivanov’s tough line, demonstrators have gathered regularly for the past three weeks, and organizers said that a crowd of 50,000 rallied in Skopje Tuesday _ a number not immediately confirmed by authorities.

“We’ve had enough of commissioners,” Bogdan Ilievski, a protest organizer, said. “The language we all understand is Macedonian and the [minority demand] is only aimed at breaking up the country. That’s why we won’t allow it to become the policy of any government.”

Ethnic Albanians make up a quarter of Macedonia’s population. Albanian is currently recognized as an official language in minority-dominated areas but not in the country as a whole.

Macedonia has been locked in a major political crisis for the past two years, sparked by a wiretapping scandal and corruption allegations.
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Poland’s defense minister has accused European Council President Donald Tusk of working with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to harm Polish interests following the 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

The ministry notified the military department of the National Prosecutor’s Office on Monday that it suspected Tusk, who was Polish prime minister at the time, of an “abuse of trust in foreign relations.”

The move was the latest, and possibly most serious, in an internal political row between Poland’s ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and rival Tusk.

Poland was isolated and rebuffed at an European Union summit earlier this month when Tusk, a centrist, was reappointed as council president over Warsaw’s objections.

Tusk accused of treason

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Warsaw confirmed it had received the ministry’s notification, which effectively accuses Tusk of diplomatic treason. It now has 30 days to decide whether to investigate.

Tusk dismissed the accusations as “purely about emotions and obsessions.”

“This is not a matter of legal or political nature, it is purely about emotions and obsessions,” he said in emailed comments. “Therefore, it is not within my competence to comment on cases like this one.”

The PiS is led by Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, Poland’s most powerful politician and a longstanding opponent of Tusk.

Lech Kaczynski died when in a plane carrying a Polish delegation crashed approaching Smolensk Air Base in Russia. He was flying from Warsaw to commemorate the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

‘Illegal contract’ with Putin

Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz told the Gazeta Polska Codziennie daily on Tuesday: “Tusk made an illegal contract with Vladimir Putin to the detriment of Poland and should bear criminal responsibility for that.”

State news agency PAP quoted the notification as accusing Tusk of agreeing to terms that prevented Poland from playing a full part in investigating the causes of the crash.

Macierewicz alleged that Tusk failed to secure from the start an agreement with Moscow “to guarantee the participation of representatives of Poland in all investigative activities on the site,” and that this allowed Russia to limit the Polish role.

The notification also accused Tusk of failing to take steps that would enforce the return of the Tu-154 plane wreckage to Poland, the notification said.

Russia has repeatedly refused Poland’s demand to return the Tu-154 wreckage and its black box recorders, citing its own ongoing investigation.

Beyond negligence

The notification from the defense ministry covers the period from the plane crash on April 10, 2010 to 2014, when Tusk took up his current post as chairman of EU leaders’ summits. The alleged crime carries a sentence of one to 10 years in prison.

“It’s not about negligence, it is about a criminal offense,” Macierewicz said.

Polish prosecutors are already conducting several investigations into the Smolensk crash, including a case against a group of public officials also suspected of acting to Poland’s detriment in the year after the accident.

Tusk has frequently denied any responsibility for the crash, which an earlier official investigation concluded was an accident.

The accusation marks a sharp escalation of the conflict between PiS and Tusk, who led the rival Civic Platform party and was prime minister from 2007 to 2014. PiS has already accused him of neglecting the existence of a fraudulent investment  scheme when prime minister and selling off too many Polish businesses to foreigners.

Civic Platform party hopes Tusk may return to Poland after his EU stint and become its candidate for the next presidential election in 2020.
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An influential British think tank and Ukraine’s military are disputing a report that the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has used to buttress its claims of Russian hacking in the presidential election.

The CrowdStrike report, released in December, asserted that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, resulting in heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed separatists.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) told VOA that CrowdStrike erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion. IISS disavowed any connection to the CrowdStrike report. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense also has claimed combat losses and hacking never happened.

The challenges to CrowdStrike’s credibility are significant because the firm was the first to link last year’s hacks of Democratic Party computers to Russian actors, and because CrowdStrike co-founder Dimiti Alperovitch has trumpeted its Ukraine report as more evidence of Russian election tampering.

Alperovitch has said that variants of the same software were used in both hacks.

While questions about CrowdStrike’s findings don’t disprove allegations of Russian involvement, they do add to skepticism voiced by some cybersecurity experts and commentators about the quality of their technical evidence.

The Russian government has denied covert involvement in the election, but U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hacks were meant to discredit Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump’s campaign. An FBI and Homeland Security report also blamed Russian intelligence services.

On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing that his agency has an ongoing investigation into the hacks of Democratic campaign computers and into contacts between Russian operatives and Trump campaign associates. The White House says there was no collusion with Russia, and other U.S. officials have said they’ve found no proof.

Signature malware

VOA News first reported in December that sources close to the Ukraine military and the artillery app’s creator questioned CrowdStrike’s finding that a Russian-linked group it named “Fancy Bear” had hacked the app. CrowdStrike said it found a variant of the same “X-Agent” malware used to attack the Democrats.

CrowdStrike said the hack allowed Ukraine’s enemies to locate its artillery units. As proof of its effectiveness, the report referenced publicly reported data in which IISS had sharply reduced its estimates of Ukrainian artillery assets. IISS, based in London, publishes a highly regarded, annual reference called “The Military Balance” that estimates the strength of world armed forces.

“Between July and August 2014, Russian-backed forces launched some of the most-decisive attacks against Ukrainian forces, resulting in significant loss of life, weaponry and territory,” CrowdStrike wrote in its report, explaining that the hack compromised an app used to aim Soviet-era D-30 howitzers.

“Ukrainian artillery forces have lost over 50% of their weapons in the two years of conflict and over 80% of D-30 howitzers, the highest percentage of loss of any other artillery pieces in Ukraine’s arsenal,” the report said, crediting a Russian blogger who had cited figures from IISS.

The report prompted skepticism in Ukraine.

Yaroslav Sherstyuk, maker of the Ukrainian military app in question, called the company’s report “delusional” in a Facebook post. CrowdStrike never contacted him before or after its report was published, he told VOA.

Pavlo Narozhnyy, a technical adviser to Ukraine’s military, told VOA that while it was theoretically possible the howitzer app could have been compromised, any infection would have been spotted. “I personally know hundreds of gunmen in the war zone,” Narozhnyy told VOA in December. “None of them told me of D-30 losses caused by hacking or any other reason.”

VOA first contacted IISS in February to verify the alleged artillery losses. Officials there initially were unaware of the CrowdStrike assertions. After investigating, they determined that CrowdStrike misinterpreted their data and hadn’t reached out beforehand for comment or clarification.

In a statement to VOA, the institute flatly rejected the assertion of artillery combat losses.

“The CrowdStrike report uses our data, but the inferences and analysis drawn from that data belong solely to the report’s authors,” the IISS said. “The inference they make that reductions in Ukrainian D-30 artillery holdings between 2013 and 2016 were primarily the result of combat losses is not a conclusion that we have ever suggested ourselves, nor one we believe to be accurate.”

Erica Ma, operations administrator with IISS in the U.S., said that while the think tank had dramatically lowered its estimates of Ukrainian artillery assets and howitzers in 2013, it did so as part of a “reassessment” and reallocation of units to airborne forces.

“No, we have never attributed this reduction to combat losses,” Ma said, explaining that most of the reallocation occurred prior to the two-year period that CrowdStrike cites in its report.

“The vast majority of the reduction actually occurs … before Crimea/Donbass,” she added, referring to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

‘Evidence flimsy’

In early January, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying artillery losses from the ongoing fighting with separatists are “several times smaller than the number reported by [CrowdStrike] and are not associated with the specified cause” of Russian hacking.

But Ukraine’s denial did not get the same attention as CrowdStrike’s report. Its release was widely covered by news media reports as further evidence of Russian hacking in the U.S. election.

In interviews, Alperovitch helped foster that impression by connecting the Ukraine and Democratic campaign hacks, which CrowdStrike said involved the same Russian-linked hacking group—Fancy Bear—and versions of X-Agent malware the group was known to use.

“The fact that they would be tracking and helping the Russian military kill Ukrainian army personnel in eastern Ukraine and also intervening in the U.S. election is quite chilling,” Alperovitch said in a December 22 story by The Washington Post.

The same day, Alperovitch told the PBS NewsHour: “And when you think about, well, who would be interested in targeting Ukraine artillerymen in eastern Ukraine? Who has interest in hacking the Democratic Party? [The] Russia government comes to mind, but specifically, [it’s the] Russian military that would have operational [control] over forces in the Ukraine and would target these artillerymen.”

Alperovitch, a Russian expatriate and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council policy research center in Washington, co-founded CrowdStrike in 2011. The firm has employed two former FBI heavyweights: Shawn Henry, who oversaw global cyber investigations at the agency, and Steven Chabinsky, who was the agency’s top cyber lawyer and served on a White House cybersecurity commission. Chabinsky left CrowdStrike last year.

CrowdStrike declined to answer VOA’s written questions about the Ukraine report, and Alperovitch canceled a March 15 interview on the topic. In a December statement to VOA’s Ukrainian Service, spokeswoman Ilina Dimitrova defended the company’s conclusions.

“It is indisputable that the [Ukraine artillery] app has been hacked by Fancy Bear malware,” Dimitrova wrote. “We have published the indicators to it, and they have been confirmed by others in the cybersecurity community.”

In its report last June attributing the Democratic hacks, CrowdStrike said it was long familiar with the methods used by Fancy Bear and another group with ties to Russian intelligence nicknamed Cozy Bear. Soon after, U.S. cybersecurity firms Fidelis and Mandiant endorsed CrowdStrike’s conclusions. The FBI and Homeland Security report reached the same conclusion about the two groups.

Still, some cybersecurity experts are skeptical that the election and purported Ukraine hacks are connected. Among them is Jeffrey Carr, a cyberwarfare consultant who has lectured at the U.S. Army War College, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other government agencies.

In a January post on LinkedIn, Carr called CrowdStrike’s evidence in the Ukraine “flimsy.” He told VOA in an interview that CrowdStrike mistakenly assumed that the X-Agent malware employed in the hacks was a reliable fingerprint for Russian actors.

“We now know that’s false,” he said, “and that the source code has been obtained by others outside of Russia.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
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The biggest construction project in Europe is taking place beneath the British capital, London.

The largely subterranean Crossrail route linking Heathrow airport to the eastern financial district and beyond is designed to ease congestion as London’s population grows; but, it has also unearthed a trove of archaeological finds that provide a fascinating window on eight thousand years of the city’s history.

“The great thing about the Crossrail project is that it’s allowed us to basically sort of take a slice through London. We’ve been amazed at the quantity, tens of thousands of artifacts,” said Jackie Keily, curator of “The Archaeology of Crossrail” exhibition at the Museum of London – itself housed in a 200-year-old shipping warehouse in the old docks next to the River Thames.

Among the highlights is a bronze medallion dating from the year 245 AD, when southern Britain was ruled by the Romans.

“It would have been given by the emperor to a high-ranking official, probably in Rome. And it’s quite fascinating that it’s traveled right across the Empire to be here in London,” Keily said.

Nearby, a glass case contains a dozen carefully worked metal discs. These “hipposandals” were an early form of horse shoe designed to aid pack animals as they negotiated the rain-soaked streets of Roman London.

Many of the finds hint at macabre rituals. Hundreds of skulls were found beneath what is now the financial heart of London. Could the victims have been executed and put on display as a warning? Were they the losers of gladiatorial battles at the nearby Roman amphitheater?

One of the most striking exhibits is the decapitated skeleton of a Roman woman found buried beneath what is now Liverpool Street station. The skull is placed between the leg bones.

“To have placed the head between the legs one feels was almost certainly sending some sort of message, either about the person or was some kind of ritual associated with the burial,” Keily said.

The Crossrail route tunnels through several graveyards, many dating to major disease outbreaks such as the “Black Death” in the mid-1300s. That plague pandemic wiped out much of London’s population and killed an estimated 1.5 million people across Britain.

Despite the panic that swept across Europe at the time, archaeologists have noted that burials appear to have been conducted with as much dignity as possible. There are few mass graves and most burial sites were dug in an orderly fashion. Some held up to 20,000 bodies.

Lighter aspects of London life are also on display: a bowling ball found in the moat of a 16th century manor house, perhaps lost beneath the murky water during a high society summer party. Laws prevented lower class peasants from partaking in such revelry.

A collection of leather shoes has survived five centuries buried in the London mud. Some are plain with rounded toes, patched up and well worn. Others appear to have barely been used, their tapering ends suggestive of the modern stiletto heel.

“So very fashionable shoes that Londoners were wearing. It connects us in a way with people in the past,” Keily noted.

Despite the painstaking archaeological work each time something new is unearthed, construction of Crossrail remains on schedule. The first trains are due to take passengers through the tunnels in late 2018.
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The biggest construction project in Europe is taking place beneath the British capital London – and it has unearthed an array of archaeological finds that provide a fascinating window on eight thousand years of the city’s history. Henry Ridgwell reports from the Museum of London.
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Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic on Monday said U.S.-led NATO allies have been supportive of an investigation into what Montenegrin prosecutors are calling a pro-Russian plot to overthrow the country’s pro-Western government to prevent it from joining the European military alliance.

The “United States were among the most helpful in providing us with support and information,” Darmanovic told VOA’s Serbian Service. His comments came on the same day that U.S. legislators conducted a hearing on alleged Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election.

Some Western officials have also said they suspect Russian involvement in October’s attempted coup. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement in the alleged plot to oust the small Balkan nation’s pro-NATO leadership, but it has openly supported and financed Montenegro’s anti-NATO opposition.

Montenegro’s bid to join NATO is awaiting approval from the U.S. Senate.

Last week Senator Rand Paul blocked a floor vote, thwarting ratification of a treaty to advance the country’s NATO membership by unanimous consent without debate. More than 90 senators, according to advocates in the U.S. Senate, support Montenegro’s ratification.

Paul’s opposition to the vote provoked a furious response from Republican Senator John McCain, who accused Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin.”

Darmanovic, a former envoy to the United States, said in an interview that he does not expect any further issues to hamper American ratification of Montenegro’s NATO membership.

“We understand that the Senate has a very busy agenda and that not all the matters can be considered immediately,” he told VOA. “But we are convinced that, once majority leader [Senator Mitch McConnell] schedules the vote, the treaty will be ratified with an overwhelming majority.”

Montenegro’s bid requires ratification from all 28 NATO members. Darmanovic says that the U.S. administration is supporting its bid, and therefore expects Montenegro to participate as a full member at this May’s NATO summit in Brussels.

Produced in collaboration with VOA’s Serbian Service.
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President Donald Trump risks driving wedges between the United States and its closest allies, something America can ill-afford. So say lawmakers of both political parties as public disputes have arisen between the White House and Britain as well as Germany. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
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Tensions between Germany and Turkery are on the rise again, with the Turkish president accusing the German chancellor of using “Nazi” measures. The accusation follows a pro Kurdish rally in Germany Saturday that turned into a rally against the Turkish President.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, campaigning in a referendum to extend his presidential powers again, turned his fire on the German chancellor Angela Merkel. In a televised speech Sunday, Erdogan used Germany’s Nazi past against Merkel

“When we call them fascists, Nazis they in Europe get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel,” Erdogan said adding, “But you are right now employing Nazi measures,”

Erdogan was infuriated after two of his ministers earlier this month were prevented from addressing meetings in Germany for the Turkish diaspora, in support of a yes vote in April’s referendum. The meetings were cancelled by local authorities because of security concerns. But on Saturday tens of thousands of Kurds were allowed to attend a gathering in the German City of Frankfurt. The meeting ostensibly to mark Newroz, the Kurdish new year, turned into a rally against Erdogan and called for a “No” vote in the referendum.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusolgu in a statement accused Berlin of double standards, hypocrisy and supporting the” No” vote. Sunday, the German ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry to receive an official condemnation.

Adding to Ankara’s anger, many Kurds attending the Frankfurt rally carried pictures of the imprisoned leaderof the PKK Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK is fighting the Turkish State and is designated internationally as a terrorist organization..

Political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website says the Europe is becoming increasingly embroiled in Turkish politics.

“The vote in Europe is significant , there is nearly 5 million people across Europe who are Turkish. In Germany 1.4 million who are eligible to vote. So this a reflection of domestic politics overflowing into the foreign domain and creating a big mess,” said Idiz.

Observers say the importance of the diaspora vote which traditionally gives strong support to Erdogan is viewed as increasingly key given that opinion polls indicate the result is too close to call. Tensions with Berlin could ratcheted up further with an Erdogan spokesman saying Turkey is considering sending another minister to Germany to speak at a rally ahead of the April referendum.

 
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German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Germany owes NATO and the United States “vast sums” of money for defense.

“There is no debt account at NATO,” von der Leyen said in a statement, adding that it was wrong to link the alliance’s target for members to spend 2 percent of their economic output on defense by 2024 solely to NATO.

“Defense spending also goes into UN peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against IS terrorism,” von der Leyen said.

She said everyone wanted the burden to be shared fairly and for that to happen it was necessary to have a “modern security concept” that included a modern NATO but also a European defense union and investment in the United Nations.

Trump said on Twitter on Saturday — a day after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington — that Germany “owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

Trump has urged Germany and other NATO members to accelerate efforts to meet NATO’s defense spending target.

German defense spending is set to rise by 1.4 billion euros to 38.5 billion euros in 2018 – a figure that is projected to represent 1.26 percent of economic output, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said.

In 2016, Germany’s defense spending ratio stood at 1.18 percent.

During her trip to Washington, Merkel reiterated Germany’s commitment to the 2 percent military spending goal.

 
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A U.S. House Intelligence Committee Monday will further investigate the extent of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama had his phones tapped during the campaign.

During a public hearing, committee members will question FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, for the first time.

The Department of Justice delivered documents to the House and Senate intelligence committees Friday regarding their request for information that could shed light on Trump’s claim that Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower in New York.

Neither the Justice Department nor House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes elaborated on the information in the documents.

Pressure on Trump

Trump is facing increased pressure in Congress to back down from the wiretapping claims he made on Twitter March 4. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees said this week they have not seen anything to support his allegations.

“We don’t have any evidence that that took place,” Nunes, a Republican from California, told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.”

During a joint news conference with Nunes, Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California and ranking House Intelligence Committee member, agreed.

“There’s no daylight between us on the fact that neither one of us have seen any evidence to support what the president tweeted,” Schiff said Wednesday. “Thus far, we have seen no basis for that whatsoever.

“We will be asking the director if he has any evidence that substantiates the president’s claim,” Schiff said. “We think it’s in the public interest that this be openly addressed by the director.”

No clarity from Trump

The committee’s focus on the White House could intensify if sufficient evidence is not presented, experts said.

“It will be really incumbent upon the president to come forward, explain those statements,” Susan Hennessey, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution told VOA.

Trump did little to clarify his wiretapping claims during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House Friday.

He pushed back on reporters’ questions about why White House spokesman Sean Spicer had accused Britain’s intelligence agency of helping Obama conduct surveillance on Trump Tower.

Trump explained that his spokesman was simply repeating what he had heard a legal analyst say on Fox News.

“We said nothing,” Trump noted. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I did not make an opinion on it.”

Watch: Trump Wiretapping Claims to Dominate Intelligence Hearing

Trump hints he’ll have evidence

During an interview with Fox News days earlier, Trump hinted that his tweets refer to surveillance more broadly.

“A wiretap covers a lot of different things,” he said. Trump also hinted more evidence to back his allegation was forthcoming.

“You’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,” Trump said. The president said his administration “will be submitting things” to the panel and that he perhaps will be speaking about his claim next week.

On Thursday, both leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee publicly said they had not seen proof of Trump’s charge.

A statement by Republican Chairman Senator Richard Burr and Democratic Vice-Chairman Senator Mark Warner read: “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.”

Open hearing may yield little

While the open, public nature of the House committee’s hearing may prevent a thorough examination of sensitive issues, Nunes and Schiff said they were doing everything possible to keep the American public informed.

“This committee has a long track record of shining light on Russia and its activities,” Nunes said.

But Hennessey said it is unlikely the hearing will result in any explosive revelations.

“These hearings are not likely to resolve the issue,” she said, adding there are too many unanswered questions.

The House Intelligence Committee will hold a second open hearing March 28 to allow additional witnesses to testify, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
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A man was shot to death Saturday after trying to seize the weapon of a soldier guarding Paris’ Orly Airport, prompting an evacuation of the terminal, police said.

Authorities warned visitors to avoid the area while an ongoing police operation was underway. Emergency vehicles surrounded the airport as confused passengers gathered in parking lots, and the elite RAID special police force worked to secure the airport.

All flights are being redirected.

A national police official said it is unclear whether the attacker acted alone. No information about the slain man or any other injuries was available, she said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

The soldier who was attacked is part of the Sentinel special force installed around France to protect sensitive sites after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks. The force includes 7,500 soldiers, half deployed in the Paris region and half in the provinces.

Orly is Paris’ second-biggest airport behind Charles de Gaulle, serving domestic and international flights, notably to destinations in Europe and Africa.

The shooting came after a similar incident last month at the Louvre Museum in which an Egyptian man attacked soldiers guarding the site and was shot and wounded.

Saturday’s attack further rattled France, which remains under a state of emergency after attacks over the past two years that have killed 235 people.
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The Islamic State terror group released a video earlier this month threatening China with attacks on its soil. Analysts say that as China seeks to expand influence across central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, its nationals are being exposed to a greater terror threat and Beijing is having to adapt its response. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Performers dressed as colorful creatures from Irish myth and legend have danced down the chilly streets of Dublin as Ireland commemorates its national saint in a St. Patrick’s Day parade witnessed by hundreds of thousands.

Tourists and Dublin families, many of them donning leprechaun costumes, braved gusty winds to pack the route for Friday’s hour-long parade, the focal point for a four-day festival that marks the start of Ireland’s tourist season.

 Irish President Michael D. Higgins joined spectators for a parade that emphasized Ireland’s artistic flair and worldwide connections. It included bands from Germany, France, Switzerland, several U.S. states and even the Bahamas.

Higgins said Ireland’s centuries of emigration to every corner of the globe represent “a constant feature of the Irish experience, defining us as a people.”
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Turkey’s president continues to ratchet up tensions with the European Union, as he campaigns ahead of an April referendum to extend his presidential powers. The unprecedented rhetoric is raising concerns as to whether Turkish-EU relations can recover.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having already accused EU members Germany and the Netherlands of being fascists and Nazis, has extended his war of words to the entire bloc.

Erdogan accused EU countries of persecuting Muslims like Jews were during World War II, and said that the “spirit of fascism” was running wild on the streets of Europe. In the meantime,  his foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, warned that Europe will be the site of what he called “holy wars’ that will ultimately destroy it.

The comments follow a European Court of Human Rights ruling that businesses could ban their employees from wearing religious symbols including Islamic headscarves in certain circumstances. Political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners says the attacks on Europe are an attempt by Erdogan to consolidate nationalist and religious voters ahead of next month’s referendum.

Big test for EU-Turkey relations

Yesilada warns that with opinions polls indicating the referendum is too close to call, EU-Turkish relations are set to face their greatest test.

“It’s the most crucial vote in [Erdogan’s] political career; if the whole idea is to bolster the vote for the yes camp, they need to invent new tricks to keep this fight going with the EU until mid-April because otherwise it will fade off, these shocks fade off in a week at most. What they will invent to further annoy Europe [with] above and beyond outrageous insults, I really don’t know,” Yesilada said.

For now, Erdogan’s attacks on Europe have only been confined to rhetoric. Despite repeated threats of sanctions against Germany and the Netherlands for banning Turkish ministers from speaking at rallies of ethnic Turks, until now there have only been few diplomatic measures.

Refugee deal at risk

Erdogan warned Thursday, however, that a key refugee deal with Europe could be at risk. Last year’s deal, which is marking its first anniversary, helped stem the mass influx of migrants into Europe.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 15,000 refugees a month should be sent to Europe as a shock therapy. Analysts suggest Ankara would be reluctant to end the refugee deal, it being key to maintaining relations with the EU, as well as an important leverage. Political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website says the refugee deal will probably help prevent a severing of ties but warns relations may have been irreparably damaged.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard diplomacy to backtrack and to put things back on track; obviously for Europe, for its own interest, it will maintain things. But a wedge has been driven between the government in Turkey that represents Turkey at the moment and Europe, so it’s not going to be easy.”

With the outcome of the referendum in the balance – and with it, some claim, even the future of the president himself – observers say Erdogan and his government remain focused just on winning the vote, whatever the cost, which could mean more trouble for Europe-Turkey relations.
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A local police official says investigators were interviewing two friends of the 16-year-old student who shot at three students and the principal at a high school in the southern French town of Grasse.

One young man was arrested overnight and his twin brother was arrested Friday. Both were said to be close to the suspect, the official said.

The official spoke anonymously because he was not allowed to provide information on an ongoing investigation.

Grasse prosecutor Fabienne Atzori said Thursday the motivation of the suspect stemmed from bad relations with his peers and there was no reason to suspect the shootings were terrorism-related.

Students on Friday went back to school, where psychological support was being offered.
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The European Union’s enlargement commissioner urged Balkan leaders Thursday to stop stoking regional tensions and fully embrace their European future.

Johannes Hahn addressed the prime ministers of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia, who met in Sarajevo as part of preparations for a summit of some EU and western Balkan nations to be held in Trieste, Italy on July 12.

Hahn said the EU understood it was in its “hard-headed self-interest” to promote the troubled region’s future within the bloc when U.S policy for that part of the world is unclear and there are “unprecedented levels of involvement from further east” — an apparent reference to Russian meddling in the Balkans.

“We now have one of those windows of opportunity where either the region as a whole picks up momentum and we generate a genuinely positive narrative, or we end up in a really awkward spot, with a stream of bad news slamming the window firmly shut,” he said.

Many issues hamper EU membership

The Balkan countries are at different stages of being integrated into the bloc. Domestic politics and sluggish national economies have long hampered the EU integration of a region still recovering from the brutal wars of the 1990s.

Between an unresolved political crisis in Macedonia, a failed coup attempt in Montenegro, and growing discord between Bosnia’s ethnic leaders, the western Balkans now appear to be at their most tense in at least a decade.

Relations between Kosovo and Serbia have also grown increasingly hostile, while an opposition boycott of Parliament in Albania is hampering that country’s ability to integrate with the EU.

Future is in Europe

Hahn acknowledged that the Sarajevo meeting was taking place at a point when several countries are undergoing “severe domestic political crises, sometimes heading toward serious ethnic tensions.”

However, he said the EU has “unequivocally confirmed” that the western Balkan countries have a future in Europe.

“I don’t think you can afford to squander this positive climate through domestic confrontations and blaming neighbors,” Hahn said. “This is playing with fire.”
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Ten people were injured in an eruption on Mount Etna on Thursday when magma flowing into snow caused a violent explosion that sent stones and rocks flying into the air, emergency services said.

Among those hurt near the summit of Etna on the island of Sicily were members of a television crew filming for the BBC.

“Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam — not an experience I ever ever want to repeat,” the BBC’s science correspondent Rebecca Morelle wrote on Twitter.

“BBC team all okay — some cuts/ bruises and burns. Very shaken though – it was extremely scary,” she said.

Italian officials said six people had to be taken to hospital, but none were in a serious condition.

Etna is Europe’s most active volcano. After a quiet couple of years it burst into action in February with repeated explosive eruptions that sent orange plumes of lava into the air.

Thursday’s explosion was the result of a so-called phreatomagmatic eruption, caused by magma hitting water — in this case snow.
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Tucked away in Spain’s Pyrenees mountains, patients at psychiatric facility Benito Menni stretch out across floor mats and stroke greyhound puppies Atila and Argi.

Puppy love is part of the treatment for conditions such as schizophrenia.

The facility, based in a town near the border with France, uses the dogs to help patients with intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions develop social skills and a sense of autonomy.

Alongside misty views of green rolling mountains, petting sessions with the eight-month-old puppies have a calming effect serving as an emotional outlet for patients who struggle to connect with others.

Playing with those who are more active and sitting still with those who find moving a daily challenge, the dogs tailor their behavior according to the needs of their patient.

For a Reuters photo essay, click http://reut.rs/2ntcZeA

Unlike other centres, Atila and Argi live on the grounds and are cared for by patients. “They are in charge of the dogs 24 hours a day,” said head nurse of Benito Menni Uxua Lazkanotegi.

“The dogs are now part of the center.”

In an effort to promote good habits like self-control and personal hygiene, patients groom and feed their furry companions taking them for daily walks to the nearby village where the dogs are icebreakers facilitating conversation with the locals.

Center residents who struggle to express themselves because of a range of cognitive and behavioral disabilities referred to their feelings for the dogs using words like “calmness,” “companionship” and “affection.”

The dogs also work with those unable to feed or walk the animals, sitting with severe dementia patients in an effort to combat isolation and depression by stimulating their senses of touch.
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U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie made an impassioned plea Wednesday for internationalism in the face of wars driving people from their homes and a “rising tide of nationalism masquerading as patriotism.”

The Hollywood actress, speaking at the United Nations in Geneva, called for a renewed commitment to the “imperfect” world body and to diplomacy to settle conflicts.

“If governments and leaders are not keeping that flame of internationalism alive today, then we as citizens must,” Jolie said in the annual Sergio Vieira de Mello lecture honoring the veteran U.N. aid worker killed in a Baghdad bombing in 2003.

“We see a rising tide of nationalism, masquerading as patriotism, and the re-emergence of policies encouraging fear and hatred of others,” she warned.

Jolie did not refer directly to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration is reviewing its funding of the United Nations and its participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“A lot of the fear we observe today of refugees, of foreigners, is produced by ignorance, often fueling politicians as well,” she said in response to a question.

“We have to recognize the damage we do when we undermine the U.N. or use it selectively — or not at all — or when we rely on aid to do the job of diplomacy, or give the U.N. impossible tasks and then underfund it.”

Not a single humanitarian appeal to donor governments worldwide has received even half the amount needed, she said.

Operations in four countries where 20 million people are on the brink of death from starvation — Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria — are severely underfunded.

Jolie, who described herself as “a proud American” and “an internationalist,” has worked since 2001 for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visiting uprooted civilians from Iraq to Cambodia and Kenya.
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A campaign to inform would-be migrants in Africa about the dangers of heading to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea aims to reach people in 15 African countries through social media, radio and television advertisements, migration officials said Wednesday.

The “Aware Migrants” campaign, which was launched last year by the Italian government and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), features video testimonies of migrants who made it to Europe but were abused, beaten or raped along the way.

The voyage from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy — most cross the sea on flimsy boats run by smugglers — has become the main route to Europe for migrants from Africa after a European Union clampdown last year on sea crossings from Turkey.

Arrivals in Italy have risen

A record 181,000 migrants made the perilous journey last year, and arrivals in Italy this year so far have risen by two-thirds compared with the same period in 2016, IOM data show.

The campaign is now targeting potential migrants across West and Central Africa — which account for most arrivals in Italy — with posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, and advertisements with local media, said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo.

“The purpose of the campaign is not to tell migrants not to leave. That is a personal choice,” he said. “But we need to provide them with as much information as possible, and quickly.”

“Many migrants who arrive in Italy are not fully aware of the risks … their journeys were more dangerous and traumatic than they expected,” Di Giacomo told an online news  conference.

More than 4,500 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 2016, and nearly 500 people crossing from Libya to Italy have died at sea this year, almost a fivefold increase from this time last year, according to the IOM.

African migrants are also prey to abuse, beatings, imprisonment and rape while heading through the Sahara desert and lawless Libya.

Stories untold

Yet many migrants who make it to Italy do not tell their friends and families about the hardships they have endured. IOM officials hope their campaign will highlight the harsh reality.

In one video on the campaign’s website, Ismael, 23, talks about being imprisoned with his wife as migrants in Libya.

“They even forced my wife,” he said. “They slept with my wife. She was pregnant. They used wooden sticks to beat her. She is dead.”

In the latest of a slew of measures pushed by the European Union to stop migrants from reaching Europe, Italy launched a 200 million-euro ($216 million) fund last month to help African countries control their borders.
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