EU

Israel wins UN committee chair

United Nations, United States—Israel on Monday was elected to chair a United Nations committee for the first time in the world body’s 71-year history, triggering strong protests from Arab countries and the Palestinians. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon won the chair of the legal affairs committee of the General Assembly by picking up 109 votes from the 193 member-states. Danon’s candidacy was put to a vote by secret ballot at the request of Arab countries. All […]

Residents in Paris suburb clean up after floods

Resident of flood-affected areas around Paris, like Longjumeau, a suburb about 24 kilometers (15 miles) to the south of the capital, started a major clean-up on Sunday (June 5) as the water levels subsided. Flooding in central France has killed four people, injured 24 others, and forced thousands to evacuate since the beginning of last week. The worst affected areas lay just to the south of the capital where firemen waded thigh-deep water to rescue […]

Swiss voters to decide on guaranteed monthly income plan

People in Switzerland were voting in a referendum on Sunday (June 5) on a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for everyone living in the country, a debate also gaining prominence elsewhere. Even though opinion polls showed the initiative by Basel cafe owner Daniel Haeni and allies has scant chances of victory, public interest in the matter is huge, far beyond Swiss borders. Supporters said introducing a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,563) […]

Greece wins cash in ‘breakthrough’ deal, but rocky road ahead on debt

  BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – by Alex PIGMAN Eurozone ministers reached Wednesday a vital deal to unlock urgent cash for Greece but analysts warned promises to tackle the country’s debt mountain are sketchy, spelling trouble further down the road. The agreement unlocks 10.3 billion euros ($12 billion) in bailout cash that Greece needs to repay big loans to the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July, having already fallen behind in paying for […]

Migrants claim bad conditions in new camps after relocation from Idomeni

Some migrants who left the squalid tent city near Greece’s border with Macedonia on Tuesday (May 24) during the first major evacuation of the makeshift camp refused to stay in the new camps they were taken to by authorities. At the Oreokastro camp near the city of Thessaloniki, migrants already living there shouted at new arrivals not to get off the buses because of conditions there, a Reuters witness said. One bus eventually left with […]

2000 migrants moved from Idomeni camp

Idomeni, Greece (AFP)—Greek police on Tuesday transferred some two thousand migrants out of the overcrowded camp of Idomeni, launching a major operation to clear up the squalid tent city where thousands fleeing war and poverty have lived for months. The operation began at dawn, and by evening officials said they had put 2,031 people on buses to newly opened camps near Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south. “The operation […]

Google invokes free speech in French fine appeal

PARIS, France (AFP) – Google said Thursday it feared for free speech if France succeeded in forcing it to apply the right to have information about a person removed from its search engines not just in France, but worldwide. Lodging an appeal against a 100,000-euro ($112,000) fine imposed by a French regulator, Google argued that French authorities should not have the right to decide beyond the country’s jurisdiction. France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) […]

ECB bond-buying scheme faces new lawsuit in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) – A group of German businessmen and academics are taking the European Central Bank to court over its controversial bond-buying programme, their lawyer said on Tuesday. A complaint against the ECB’s corporate sector purchase programme was filed at Germany’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, on May 12, a court spokesman told AFP. The business leaders argued that the central bank was “going beyond its mandate” in purchasing corporate bonds as part of its […]

Bomb sweeps, bag checks as terror threat looms over Cannes

CANNES, France (AFP) — Bomb experts will carry out daily sweeps at the Cannes film festival, opening this week under maximum security as France faces its highest ever terror threat, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday. The glitterati, set to descend on the resort town as the festival opens Wednesday, will also have to tip open expensive handbags for inspection after climbing the red carpet into the main venue, the Palais des Festivals, which is to be […]

EU won’t sacrifice food safety for US trade deal: German minister

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – The EU won’t sacrifice its high food safety standards for better US auto market access in a transatlantic trade deal being negotiated, a German minister said Friday. The comments by Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt were the latest criticism of the thorny negotiations toward sealing a wide-ranging pact that would create a free-trade zone covering 850 million people. Washington and Brussels want the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) completed this year […]

Spain reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – Spanish health authorities say they have detected the country’s first known case of the microcephaly birth defect in the foetus of a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus. “A pregnant woman was infected by Zika and dengue and the foetus has shown various defects,” the health authority of the Catalonia region said in a statement late Thursday. This was Spain’s first case of Zika-related microcephaly, a severe form of brain […]