BEIRUT, Lebanon (AA) – The European Union has launched two new initiatives worth $27 million in order to support vulnerable people and fight food insecurity in cash-strapped Lebanon. “These initiatives are a response to the negative impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the European Union’s neighboring countries,” the EU Delega...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Belgian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it summoned the Iranian ambassador because of reports that Tehran had sentenced a Belgian aid worker to 40 years in prison for spying. “Iran has provided no official information regarding the charges against Olivier Vandecasteele or his trial,” the ministry said in a state...
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday that his country will vote against Kosovo’s membership to European bodies. Hungary’s position is that admitting Kosovo into certain European organizations would jeopardize the reaching of a compromise, he said. “The premature admission of Kosovo ...
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said Tuesday that Serbia should be pressured to accept a German-French proposal to normalize relations. The proposal is thought to be a way of speeding up Serbia’s EU membership process in exchange for its recognition of Kosovo. Kurti said Serbia is the one rejecting the p...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Azerbaijan has demanded an apology from France over “slander” during the 2020 Karabakh war with Armenia. “During the conflict, France openly accused us, slandered us. I demanded an apology from them. They slandered us without even any evidence,” the country’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Tu...
BERLIN (AA) – A German politician has caused outrage with a racist video he published on social media. Thomas Bäppler-Wolf, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from the state of Hesse who has been a councilor for the city of Frankfurt since July 2016, commented on riots that broke out on […]
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – Bosnian Serbs held celebrations Monday to mark the anniversary of the founding of the entity Republika Srpska (RS) in defiance of a ruling by Bosnia’s top court. The commemorations, which were supported by senior members of the Republika Srpska government and Serbia, kicked off with a parade in East Sarajevo. Amon...
ANKARA (AA) – Marginalizing Muslims as being somehow “not French” serves to stoke hatred and is “intolerable,” according to France’s justice minister. “Saying that Muslims are not as French as others is intolerable,” Eric Dupond-Moretti told the media, criticizing remarks by controversial French writer Michel Houellebec...
BERLIN (AA) – German police arrested an Iranian citizen on suspicion of planning a chemical terror attack, authorities said on Sunday. The 32-year-old man was arrested in the western city of Castrop-Rauxel after special police forces stormed his home. “The accused is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence,” Dusseldorf pro...
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – NATO peacekeepers, known as the Kosovo Force, or KFOR, have refused Serbia’s request to deploy its security forces to Kosovo, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday. Vucic in December requested that up to 1,000 police and military personnel return to Kosovo in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1244...