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Parliament’s Qatargate debate: build a wall or look inside

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

The European Parliament panel that is charged with responding to the Qatargate bribery scandal is divided over whether the real threat comes from without — or within.This split was laid bare Thursday as lawmakers, rushing to show they’re taking the scandal seriously ahead of next year’s European elections, held a debate on a report regarding the Parliament’s response to allegations of a cash-for-favors scheme involving current and former EU parliamentarians, on behalf of interests from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania.The scandal, which has come to be known as Qatargate, was just one clear example of the need to shore up the Parliament’s “security culture,” said Slovak MEP Vladimír Bilčík, one of the file’s principal authors and a member of the center-right European People’s Party. He and French MEP Nathalie Loiseau, of the centrist Renew group, drafted a measure that sought to protect the democratically elected institution from potentially nefarious non-EU influence, while o...

Suspect arrested in Serbia’s second mass shooting in 2 days

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police said they have arrested a suspect in a drive-by shooting attack that killed at least eight and wounded 14, the nation’s second such mass shooting in two days.In a statement, police said that the man, identified by initials U.B., was arrested early Friday near the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Belgrade.The arrest followed an all-night search by hundreds of police, who sealed off an area south of Belgrade where the shooting took place late Thursday.“I heard some tak-tak-tak sounds,” recalled Milan Prokic, a resident of Dubona, a village near the town of Mladenovac. Prokic said he first thought villagers were shooting to celebrate a childbirth, as is tradition in Serbia and the Balkans. “But it wasn’t that. Shame, great shame,” Prokic added. “They say the kid killed them for no reason. They say there was an argument here at the center of the village, he went home, took his arms and came ba...

Key dates in the career of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this year marked 20 years in power — first as prime minister and later as president — is seeking a third consecutive presidential term in elections on May 14.The 69-year-old started as a reformist who expanded rights and freedoms, allowing his majority-Muslim country to start European Union membership negotiations.He later reversed course, cracking down on dissent, stifling the media and passing measures that eroded democracy.The presidential and parliamentary elections could be Erdogan’s most challenging yet. They will be held amid economic turmoil and high inflation, just three months after a devastating earthquake.Here’s a look at some of the key dates in Erdogan’s rule:— March 27, 1994: Erdogan is elected mayor of Istanbul, running on the pro-Islamic Welfare Party ticket.— Dec. 12, 1997: Erdogan is convicted of “inciting hatred” for reading a poem that the courts say violated secular laws. He is sentenced ...

Turkey’s Erdogan faces tough election amid quake, inflation

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Early in his political career, a devastating earthquake and economic troubles helped propel Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in Turkey. Two decades later, similar circumstances are putting his leadership at risk.The highly divisive and populist Erdogan is seeking a third consecutive term as president on May 14, after three stints as prime minister, which would extend his rule into a third decade. He already is Turkey’s longest-serving leader.The presidential and parliamentary elections could be the most challenging yet for the 69-year-old Erdogan. Most opinion polls point to a slight lead by his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular, center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP. The outcome of the presidential race could well be determined in a runoff vote May 28. Erdogan is facing a tough test in this election because of public outrage over rising inflation and his handling of the Feb. 6 earthquake in southern Turkey that killed over 50,000 people,...

King’s coronation draws apathy, criticism in former colonies

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

LONDON (AP) — When King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, soldiers carrying flags from the Bahamas, South Africa, Tuvalu and beyond will march alongside British troops in a spectacular military procession in honor of the monarch. For some, the scene will affirm the ties that bind Britain and its former colonies. But for many others in the Commonwealth, a group of nations mostly made up of places once claimed by the British Empire, Charles’ coronation is seen with apathy at best.In those countries, the first crowning of a British monarch in 70 years is an occasion to reflect on oppression and colonialism’s bloody past. The displays of pageantry in London will jar especially with growing calls in the Caribbean to sever all ties with the monarchy.“Interest in British royalty has waned since more Jamaicans are waking to the reality that the survivors of colonialism and the holocaust of slavery are yet to receive reparatory justice,” the Rev. Sean Major-Campbell, an Anglican priest in ...

Sudan migrants in Israel worry over future, fighting at home

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Omer Easa is watching the violence roiling his native Sudan with deep trepidation. The further Sudan sinks into chaos and violence, he fears, the longer he is likely to remain an unrecognized asylum-seeker in Israel, where he has few protections. Backers of migrants like Easa say their rights will likely come under greater threat if Israel’s government, its most right-wing ever, moves ahead on a contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary. The plan, if it passes in its original form, could lead to legal measures that would embitter the everyday lives of the migrants and, critics say, make their stay in Israel intolerable.“My heart is there. My head is there. It is just that my body is here,” said Easa, 31, who said he fled the war-torn region of Darfur in 2012 over concerns for his life. “We live here often thanks to the graces of the Supreme Court.”Proponents of the legal overhaul say the migrants are a main reason the plan must move ahead.African migrants, m...

Australia PM to give allegiance to king but wants president

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he would declare his allegiance to King Charles III at the monarch’s coronation despite believing that Australia should have its own head of state.Albanese voted in a failed referendum in 1999 for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as the country’s head of state. He said he accepted that a majority of Australians chose for the country to remain a constitutional monarchy instead of becoming a republic and would reflect that sentiment when he attended the king’s coronation Saturday in London.“I haven’t changed my position on that and I’ve made that very clear. I want to see an Australian as Australia’s head of state,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.“That doesn’t mean that you cannot have respect for the institution, which is the system of government that we have,” he said. “And I believe, as the Australian prime minister, I have a particular responsibility to rep...

Closing arguments near in stepmom’s murder trial in Colorado

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Closing arguments are expected Friday in the trial of a woman accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson in Colorado, putting his body in a suitcase and then dumping it over a bridge in Florida. Authorities allege Letecia Stauch killed Gannon Stauch by stabbing and shooting him a few hours before reporting him missing on Jan. 27, 2020, while his father was on a National Guard deployment. Stauch was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence.Attorneys for Stauch, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, countered that by claiming she suffered a “major psychotic crack” as a result of childhood trauma when she killed Gannon. The state mental hospital concluded that Stauch was sane at the time Gannon was killed, The Gazette reported. Under Colorado law, that means understanding the difference between right and wrong and being able to form the intent to commit a crime.However, the defense’s main...

EU okays $1.61 billion for Dutch government to buy out farmers, reduce nitrogen

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

The European Commission on Tuesday (2 May) said it had approved two Dutch plans worth a combined €1.47 billion to buy out livestock farmers to reduce nitrogen pollution, saying they are permissible under state aid rules.The Dutch need to reduce excess nitrogen levels, caused in part by decades of intensive farming, a problem that has led to courts blocking important construction projects until the issue is resolved.Discontent over government plans to address the problem until now date led to a major defeat for Prime Minister Mark Rutte's governing coalition in regional elections in March.Farm buyouts are seen as an important step toward a comprehensive plan to address the issue.In the schemes approved by the European Union's executive body on Tuesday, the Netherlands reserved the money to compensate farmers who voluntarily close farms located near nature reserves.The plans will have "positive effects that outweigh any potential distortion of competition and trade in the EU," the Com...

Proposals for sanctions against corrupt oligarchs welcomed but EU institutions still excluded

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:51:07 GMT

On 3 May, the European Commission presented a series of proposals on tackling corruption in Europe. It is essential the EU takes the fight against corruption seriously, particularly, in the wake of the Qatargate scandal and the scale of Russian money in Europe exposed following the invasion of Ukraine. The Greens/EFA Group are calling for strengthened legal framework and investigative tools, greater cooperation between competent authorities and an increased role for the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO). Daniel Freund MEP, Greens/EFA member of the Civil Liberties Committee and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said: "The EU cannot continue to be the go to getaway spot for criminals, corrupt officials and their dodgy money. That's why it’s welcomed that the Commission is taking action to crack down on corrupt cash in Europe. “However, if the Commission is serious about the fight against corruption, they should also make far greater use of the rule of law mechanism and better...