FBI deschide anchetă penală pe numele lui Edward Snowden
Directorul FBI, Robert Mueller, a confirmat joi că a fost lansată o anchetă penală la adresa lui Edward Snowden, fostul angajat al agenţiei de spionaj american NSA, care se află la originea scurgerilor de... Attachment(image/jpeg)
Očuvane srednjovječne dame pozvane u zlatno selo Strigovu da se udaju
KOZARSKA DUBICA - U Strigovu, selo pored Kozarske Dubice koje od februara trese zlatna groznica nakon što je u istoimenoj rječici pronađeno kamenje prekriveno tankim slojem zlata, mnogi često svraćaju.
Klaus Iohannis, la al 13-lea an de mandat de primar: În Sibiu mă simt ca acasă. Mi-ar plăcea ca Sibiul să devină capitală regională
La 54 de ani, chiar de ziua lui, primarul municipiului Sibiu, prim-vicepreşedintele Partidului Naţional Liberal, Klaus Iohannis, se descrie ca un om simplu, apropiat de familie, care nu doreşte să lase Sibiul şi... Attachment(image/jpeg)
Constitutional Court to Decide Fate of Notorious Bulgarian MP
Bulgaria’s liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party will ask the Constitutional Court whether controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski may return as lawmaker once the Parliament retracts his appointment as head of the country’s State Agency for National Security (DANS).
The ruling coalition of DPS and the Bulgarian Socialist Party insists that Peevski has a right to be reinstated as MP, while some legal experts have stated the opposite.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party has also announced that it ask the Constitutional Court for a ruling on the matter.
The election of Peevski, a 32-year-old media mogul and MP from the predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS), stirred a wave of massive protests across the country, with tens of thousands of Bulgarians taking to the streets for five days now.
Peevski’s potential reinstatement as Member of Parliament is likely to add fuel to the protests against the Socialist-led government of PM Plamen Oresharski, which took oath of office just three weeks ago.
Controversial Bulgarian Mogul Granted Access to Top Secret Files
Controversial Bulgarian media mogul Delyan Peevski was granted access to the highest level of classified information in the country three days before he was even appointed as head of the State Agency for National Security, according to a local paper.
Boris Dimitrov, chair of the State Commission on Information Security, told the Sega daily that Peevski was granted access to top secret information on June 14.
The access was granted by DANS just three weeks after Peevski was sworn in as lawmaker, even though the normal procedure takes at least a month, Dimitrov noted. Dimitrov said it was unclear what prompted the move.
Local media have reported that there were two investigations launched by DANS against Peevski. The current status of the alleged investigations is unclear.
Peevski, who runs Bulgaria's biggest newspaper and television group, was investigated for alleged corruption while serving as a Deputy Minister in the Socialist-led three-way coalition government (2005-2009), but was reinstated after the charges were dropped.
Bulgaria’s Parliament is expected to retract on Wednesday the appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of DANS.
The election of Peevski, a 32-year-old media mogul and MP from the predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS), stirred a wave of massive protests across the country, with tens of thousands of Bulgarians taking to the streets for five days now.
Protesters have demanded the resignation of the Socialist-led government of PM Plamen Oresharski over the scandalous appointment.
New anti-government rallies are to be held on Wednesday.
On a continent led by Western capitals with diminishing sympathy for Israel’s problems, Jerusalem has come to rely on Eastern European allies in its drive to have Hezbollah placed on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations.
In February, Israel seemed to score a breakthrough on this front when the Bulgarian government implicated the Lebanese group in a deadly bus bombing last year that killed five Israelis and one Bulgarian national in Burgas, a resort city on the Black Sea some 240 miles east of the capital, Sofia.
With the expected support of close allies such as Poland and the Czech Republic — the only EU member state that voted against Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in 2011 — Israel allowed itself a dose of optimism that the Europeans were coming around.
“The way to success seemed to go through the east because Western Europe was much too hesitant,” a senior Israeli diplomat told JTA.
So the results of a June 4 meeting in Brussels of the EU’s CP931 working group on terrorist designations to consider branding Hezbollah a terrorist group came as something of a shock: Traditionally reticent powers such as Germany and France supported blacklisting Hezbollah, while Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic expressed reservations about the move.
“London, Berlin and Paris decided to nail Hezbollah for the Burgas attack because of Hezbollah’s role in the Syrian civil war,” a Western European diplomat told JTA.
But Bulgaria, which provided the strongest case for blacklisting Hezbollah, has gone wobbly. In February, its interior minister at the time, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said he had “well-grounded reasons to suggest” that two Hezbollah operatives were behind the attack. Since then, however, the country has appeared to backtrack.
A source following the EU discussions told JTA that Bulgarian representatives called the evidence against Hezbollah “weak” in the June 4 meeting. And the country’s top intelligence official in an interview four days later asked why Israel has not provided “conclusive evidence” about Hezbollah’s involvement if it exists — implying that Bulgaria’s evidence was not conclusive.
The softening appears to be mainly the result of political jousting in Bulgaria, where the government that accused Hezbollah in February has since fallen and the issue has become a hot-button issue among lawmakers.
The leader of the Socialist Party accused the government of putting Bulgarians at risk by naming Hezbollah. Rival parties have traded accusations of incompetence in handling the Burgas probe. A lawmaker and former prime minister, Ivan Kostov, has publicly expressed doubts about Hezbollah’s involvement altogether. And officials of the opposition GERB party have called the new government’s skeptical statements about the case “irresponsible.”
“The zigzag had nothing to do with Hezbollah,” said a Bulgarian diplomat in Brussels. “It’s internal score-settling.”
Still, Bulgaria’s shifting gave the Poles and the Czechs “cold feet” at the June 4 meeting, according to an analyst at an EU agency who has followed the discussions closely.
“Mind you, the Bulgarians never published the report,” the analyst said. “Now they are saying all kinds of things. Even if you’re more pro-Israel than Benjamin Netanyahu, you cannot base such a serious decision on rumors.”
The Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Malta, Bulgaria and the Netherlands all declined JTA’s requests for comment on the June 4 meeting, but the spokesperson for the European Union in Israel said discussions are “ongoing” and any decision would require a consensus by all 27 EU member states.
A follow-up meeting is scheduled for June 19 in Brussels, JTA has learned.
Though the minutes of the June 4 session are confidential, what is known is that Britain cited the Burgas attack in its request last month to convene the CP931 meeting. Britain blacklisted Hezbollah’s military wing back in 2008, becoming the only EU nation to do so except the Netherlands, which views Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist entity.
But ahead of the June 4 meeting, Germany for the first time came out in support of blacklisting Hezbollah’s military wing, a stance Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle connected to the Burgas bombing. France also supported the move for the first time last month, but its foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, pointed to Syria — not Bulgaria — as the reason.
It was a revealing detail, according to the Western European diplomat, who believes the Western nations are driven primarily by concern over Hezbollah’s role in Syria, where its forces are fighting alongside the troops of President Bashar Assad in a two-year civil war that has claimed more than 90,000 lives.
“France, Germany and Britain just used Burgas to punish Hezbollah,” the diplomat said. “An attack on EU soil is a winning argument, far stronger than a fight in Syria. But they didn’t think the Bulgarian government would collapse and backtrack.”
At the CP931 meeting on June 19, few expect delegates to agree to blacklist Hezbollah. Poland has said already that it may use the meeting to raise legal and political concerns about the move.
“These twists and turns are interesting from an academic point of view,” the Israeli diplomat said. “But practically it means the effort to blacklist Hezbollah is back to square one.”
Bulgarians Gear Up for 6th Day of Massive Anti-Govt Rallies
For a sixth day in a row, outraged Bulgarians will stage nationwide protest rallies against the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.
The massive demonstrations were sparked by the outrageous decision of the government to appoint shady media mogul and MP Delyan Peevski as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS).
Over 7 000 protesters took to the streets in Sofia Tuesday, according to police. The rally went peacefully, despite attempts made by marginal nationalist groups to provoke protesters. People have announced on Facebook that a protest is planned for Wednesday evening as well.
Parallel rallies are to be staged in other major Bulgarian cities.
Bulgaria’s Parliament is expected to retract the appointment of Peevski as head of DANS on Wednesday. The move is unlikely to appease protesters, who have called for the government’s resignation.
Bulgarian Parliament to Retract Shocking Appointment of National Security Head
Bulgaria’s Parliament is expected to retract on Wednesday the appointment of controversial businessman Delyan Peevski as head of the country’s State Agency for National Security (DANS).
The election of Peevski, a 32-year-old media mogul and MP from the predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS), stirred a wave of massive protests across the country, with tens of thousands of Bulgarians taking to the streets for five days now.
DPS and the Bulgarian Socialist Party are expected to reinstate Peevski as lawmaker on Wednesday, even though experts have raised the question whether they have the legal grounds to do so.
Peevski’s reinstatement as Member of Parliament is likely to trigger fresh protests against the Socialist-led government of PM Plamen Oresharski, which took oath of office just three weeks ago.
The opposition center-right GERB party of former PM Boyko Borisov is expected to boycott Wednesday’s Parliament sitting.
Nineteen advocacy groups and Congo experts are giving the thumps up to President Barack Obama’s appointment of former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold as the new U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Feingold is a former chairman of the Africa Subcommittee in the Senate and co-author of several legislations on the Lord’s Resistance Army ... Read more...
Greece set to seal natgas deal with Azerbaijani company
Greece is set to agree the sale of its natural gas grid operator DESFA to Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR, a senior official directly involved in the talks said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Reuters. SOCAR has improved its offer to buy a 66 percent stake in the company to 400 million euros ($536 million), a price that Greece's privatization agency HRADF finds satisfying, the ... Read more...
There is a good exchange of views between Germany and Azerbaijan
Between the government and the society of the Federal Republic of Germany and Azerbaijan, there is a good exchange of views, values, and interests in mutual cooperation. This was stated by Foreign Minister of Germany Guido Westerwelle on 18 June during an international media forum. He also noted that Germany's foreign policy takes into account the interests of both countries, including ... Read more...
Azerbaijani veteran judo fighters claim six European medals
Azerbaijani veteran judo fighters have claimed a clutch of six medals, including two golds in the European championship in Paris, France. Zaur Pashayev weighing in at 100kg and female fighter Zulfiya Huseynova at 78kg climbed on to the winner`s rostrum. Another Azerbaijani fighter Vugar Huseynov weighing in at 60kg won silver after losing to British Winfield Graham in the ... Read more...
Iceland P.M. cites EU fishing dispute as case for independence
Iceland's new prime minister this week cited the country's mackerel fishing dispute with the European Union as a prime example of the value of sovereignty. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, speaking to Reykjavik crowd Monday during the Iceland's National Day marking its birth as an independent nation in 1944, said the EU's demands that Iceland reduce its mackerel catch shows why ... Read more...
The European currencies and yen are consolidating
The appetite for risk is limited by the Fed meeting ending later on Wednesday. The equity markets have been in a seesaw recently while trying to gauge the Fed's pace of tempering its quantitative easing. The European currencies and yen are consolidating, and the commodity currencies are trading lower, essentially preserving Tuesday's pattern. The Asian stock markets are rising in line ... Read more...
Zaccheroni prepares to lead Japan against native Italy
Edward Snowden, the fugitive former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked secrets about America’s spying operations, often hung out online with foreigners in Japan who shared his interests in anime, video games, martial arts, the stock market and the expat lifestyle. Snowden, who ... Read more...
Barack Obama to invoke call of history in Berlin speech
Barack Obama will invoke the Cold War history of German-US solidarity in a speech he will give today on his first visit to Berlin as ... Read more...
Greece to Participate in European Solidarity Brigade with Cuba
Athens, Jun 18 (Prensa Latina) A group of Greek people will be part of the Jose Marti European Solidarity Brigade with Cuba, who will arrive in the island soon. promoters of the initiative in this capital told Prensa ... Read more...
Ecuador Hosts Journalism Summit
Quito, Jun 19 (Prensa Latina) Delegates from 10 countries will attend the First International Summit for Responsible Journalism (CUPRE), said the organizers. Near 10,000 delegates will arrive in Guayaquil city, from Brazil, Venezuela, United States, Spain, Mexico, Great Britain, Iceland, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Colombia. The Guayaquil Historical Park will be the venue of panels, forums, ... Read more...
Four Female Cuban Judokas to University Games in Russia
Havana, Jun 19 (Prensa Latina) Cuba will take four athletes to the female judo tournament of the 27th Summer University Games in Kazan, Russia, from July 6 to 17, said Cuban weekly Jit Tuesday. The Cuban female team, second place by teams in the Grand Prix in Miami, US last week, is headed by 78 kg Olympic Champion Idalis Ortiz. The other athletes are: Yanet Bermoy, Olympic runner-up in the 52 kg ... Read more...
Netflix to expand to Netherlands later this year
LOS GATOS, Calif. -- Netflix is going Dutch.The online video giant says it will expand into the Netherlands, its 41st country, later this year.Subscribers will be able to stream Hollywood fare, local TV series and Netflix originals like "House of Cards" and "Arrested Development" on TVs, game consoles, computers and mobile devices. Netflix Inc. didn't offer details on ... Read more...
Hectic week in Asian markets amid Europe’s worries and concerns
Asian markets witnessed a hectic week full of important data from the region’s economy, where Europe’s debt crisis continued to weigh on the outlook and the market, the week of heavy data was very critical, but the star remains China with the surprise rate ... Read more...
Eyes to focus on European economic data Eurogroup meeting and G8 summit
This week, the main focus will be on economic data as investors try to get clues regarding central bank stimulus which rattled markets over the previous few weeks. ‏Meanwhile, we are at an important phase as central banks will decide on their non-standard measures according to the improvement they see at their economies. ... Read more...
European stocks gain Fed policy outcome in spotlight
European stocks opened higher on Monday, rebounding from last weeks losses as investors were waiting for clues on whether the Federal Reserve might exit its quantitative easing program this ... Read more...
