European News
LUXEMBOURG - EU Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday the bloc does not want to "build a wall" with Britain due to Brexit, but offered only a limited fair trade deal after the UK leaves the EU.
Tusk unveiled tough draft EU negotiating guidelines for Brexit trade talks that rebuffed British Prime Minister Theresa May calls last week for the deepest possible trading arrangement.
The guidelines also made no mention of a special deal for Britain's financial services sector, prompting British Finance Minister Philip Hammond to retort that an agreement which excluded the City would not be "fair".
The former Polish premier, who met May in London last week, insisted that London could not "pick and mix" the benefits of EU membership if it was going to leave the bloc's single market and customs union as May has promised.
"Because of Brexit, we will be drifting apart. In fact, this will be the first FTA in history that loosens economic ties," Tusk added.
UK rolls out red carpet for Saudi crown prince: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday at the start of a controversial state visit, where he will face questions over his country's involvement in the Yemen war.
May defended the invitation and Saudi's involvement in Yemen when she was grilled in parliament over why Prince Mohammed was being afforded the red carpet treatment during his three-day visit.
"The link with Saudi Arabia we have is historic, it is an important one and it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people in this country" due to anti-terrorism co-operation, she told MPs.
"Their involvement in Yemen came at the request of the legitimate government of the Yemen, it is backed by the UN Security Council and as such we support it."
The three-year conflict, which began with the Saudi-led intervention to fight Iran-backed Huthi rebels, has left 22.2 million people dependent on food aid, according to UN figures.
The Save the Children charity protested the visit by installing a statue of a child near parliament "to draw attention to the violence that is being fuelled, in part, by British-made bombs". (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
REYKJAVIK - Around 600 computers used to mine bitcoin were stolen in Iceland in a series of large-scale heists in December and January, police said on Wednesday.
The servers were taken from data centres in Reykjanesbaer, near the Keflavik international airport in southwestern Iceland, and Borgarnes on the west coast.
Around 10 people were brought in for questioning, and two Icelanders in their 20s and 30s are currently in detention suspected of involvement in the crime, a police spokesman for southwestern Iceland told AFP.
He suggested the thefts could be linked to organised crime.
The thieves may have wanted to use the stolen equipment to "mine", or create, bitcoin - a lucrative affair but one which requires advanced and expensive equipment.
Investigators are still trying to locate the missing equipment, which is valued at around EUR1.6 million. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
DRESDEN - Eight members of a German far-right group were jailed on Wednesday on terrorism and attempted murder charges for a series of explosives attacks targeting refugees and anti-fascist activists.
Based in Germany's ex-communist east, the so-called "Freital group" had sought to create "a climate of fear" at the height of Germany's refugee and migrant influx in 2015, the court was told.
Its leaders Timo Schulz, a 29-year-old bus driver, and Patrick Festing, 26, a pizza delivery and warehouse worker, were sentenced to 10 and nine-and-a-half years in prison, respectively.
The other five men, aged 20 to 40, and a 29-year-old woman received custodial terms of between four and eight years in the trial held under high security in the city of Dresden.
The eight right-wing extremists had modified pyrotechnics bought in the neighbouring Czech Republic for five explosives attacks between July and November 2015.
They twice struck Freital refugee homes, leaving a Syrian man with "multiple cuts" to the face, and also attacked an office and a car of far-left Die Linke politicians and a Dresden left-wing residential complex. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
BUDAPEST - Hungary hit back on Wednesday at a top UN rights official for calling Prime Minister Viktor Orban a racist over recent anti-immigration remarks.
"The UN High Commission for Human Rights has started a fight with (Orban) and Hungarian migration policy," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters in Budapest, branding the UNHCR an "extremist pro-immigration" body.
"We are taking off our gloves, we will step into battle and will not let a single illegal immigrant into Hungary," he said.
Last month, Zeid called Orban a xenophobe and racist after the Hungarian leader said in a speech that "(Hungary does) not want our colour to be mixed in with the others".
That led Szijjarto to call for High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein's resignation, but Zeid hit back in a statement on Tuesday, saying "it is time to stand up to the bullies of Orban's ilk".
"I stand by every single word... hatred is a combustible force; and it will not win -- not in Europe; and not today," he said.
Orban's ruling right-wing Fidesz party has placed immigration at the centre of its general election campaign ahead of an April8 vote, claiming that an influx of Muslims and Africans poses an existential threat to European culture. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
LONDON - The Russian former double-agent who collapsed in a British town alongside his daughter was the victim of attempted murder with a nerve agent, police said on Wednesday.
"This is being treated as a major incident involving attempted murder by administration of a nerve agent", Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters.
Sergei Skripal, 66, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, is in a critical condition in hospital along with his daughter Yulia after they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday.
"Sadly, in addition, a police officer, who was one of the first to attend the scene is now also in a serious condition in hospital," said Rowley.
Hundreds of counter-terrorism detectives deployed to the investigation are working "around the clock" to create a timeline of the victims' movements, with "many hours" of CCTV under review, police said.
Moscow accused politicians and journalists of whipping up anti-Russian sentiment. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
BRUSSELS - European power operators called on Wednesday for an end to a row between Serbia and Kosovo that has sapped the continent's electricity grid and caused electronic clocks to run several minutes late.
The Brussels-based power operators association ENTSO-E said "political disagreements" between the Balkan neighbours have caused a decrease in the electric frequency in the continental network since mid-January.
"The decrease in frequency average is affecting also those electric clocks that are steered by the frequency of the power system and not by a quartz crystal," it said in a statement.
Clocks for radio alarms, ovens and heating system currently, it said, "show a delay of close to six minutes" in European countries, including Belgium.
"ENTSO-E is urging European and national governments and policy makers to take swift action," it said.
Kosovo energy expert Agron Dida told AFP that Serbia has prevented Kosovo from importing the cheaper energy it needs from neighbouring Albania.
"Serbia blackmails the optimisation of the regional energy system," Dida said.
Serbia's electrical power grid company EMS AD blamed the missing power on Kosovo "uninterruptedly withdrawing, in an unauthorised manner, uncontracted electric energy" from the synchronised European grid.
EMS AD, which is tasked with balancing the Kosovo grid, said it "has committed all its resources to resolving the issue."
The statement added that Kosovo operator KOSTT had "ceased, as of March 3, its unauthorised power withdrawal." (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
BRUSSELS - The EU said on Wednesday it would hit flagship US products including peanut butter, orange juice and bourbon whiskey with counter measures if US President Donald Trump goes ahead with threatened steel and aluminium tariffs.
The blow by Brussels came hours after Trump's trade offensive brought the resignation of his top economic advisor Gary Cohn, an influential ex-Goldman Sachs banker who fiercely opposed the measures.
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said a full-on transatlantic trade war was "not in anybody's interests" - a stark contrast from Trump, who last week declared trade wars were "good and easy to win".
EC chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday threatened to hit big-name US brands such as Harley Davidson motorbikes and Levi's jeans with import duties, prompting Trump to fire back a threat to tax cars from the EU. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
MADRID - Thousands of farmers from Spain's parched southeast, marched in Madrid on Wednesday to ask the government for help as their crops are threatened by a "surreal" drought that is also putting jobs at risk.
The region that goes from the cities of Alicante to Almeria, part of Spain's so-called Levante coastline known as Europe's vegetable garden, has been hit hard by the worst drought in decades.
According to the latest official data published on Tuesday, the Jucar and Segura rivers that flow into the east and southeast are at 27.7% and 17.6% of capacity, respectively.
"They've cut 80% of our water supply," said Jose Antonio Diaz Navarro, 38, manager of a company that grows lettuce and watermelons in Almeria province and neighbouring Murcia, as authorities ration water.
He said that as a result, they have so far only been able to grow 15-20% of what they would normally, calling it a "surreal" situation.
Hundreds of trains cancelled in Spain: More than 300 trains have been cancelled on Thursday throughout Spain as workers go on strike to defend women's rights on International Women's Day, the country's transport ministry announced.
Some 200 intercity trains out of 568 won't be operating, while 105 long-distance trains are cancelled, it said on Wednesday.
The underground in Madrid will also be affected.
The 24-hour strike has been called by 10 unions. Feminist groups have also asked women not to spend money and to ditch their domestic chores for the day.
Meanwhile, Spain's two main unions - the CCOO and UGT - have called their members to stop work for two hours on Thursday.
Spanish star Penelope Cruz, said, she has cancelled events she had planned and will also go on "domestic" strike, leaving her partner Javier Bardem to care for their two children. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman on Wednesday condemned a visit by politicians of the AfD party to the "inhumane" Syrian regime.
"People who court this regime disqualify themselves," said Steffen Seibert on the Damascus trip by six members of the Alternative for Germany party.
"The Syrian regime demonstrates on a daily basis how inhumane its actions are," he said, noting that the suffering of civilians in Idlib, Aleppo and East Ghouta is "suffering that President (Bashar al) Assad ordered or condones".
The German foreign ministry was not informed about the AfD lawmakers' trip ahead of time, a spokeswoman said.
The group of six, comprised of four members from Germany's national parliament and two state lawmakers, arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with pro-regime officials and a tour they said aimed at getting a real idea of the situation on the ground.
They said they were "surprised" at scenes of normal life in Damascus as they push their bid for Berlin to start sending refugees back to the war-torn country.
The group is being led by Christian Blex, a member of North Rhine-Westphalia's regional parliament, who posted pictures on Facebook of his Monday meeting with Syria's pro-regime Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun.
Hassoun often appears alongside Assad for religious occasions and has in the past warned against Western interference in his country, threatening terror attacks in Europe. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
ROME - The Catholic Church is "an empire of misogyny", Ireland's former president said on Wednesday ahead of a conference calling for women to be included in Church decision-making.
"The Catholic Church is one of the last great bastions of misogyny. It's an empire of misogyny," said Mary McAleese, who was president of Ireland between 1997 and 2011.
"There are so few leadership roles currently available to women. Women do not have strong role models in the Church they can look up to," McAleese told reporters in Rome.
McAleese will be speaking at the annual "Voices of Faith" conference on Catholic women's rights in Rome on Thursday for International Women's Day.
Chantal Goetz from Germany, one of the organisers, said: "It's urgent to include women in the Church. We feel we have reached a crisis point. Young people leave the Church in alarming numbers. We watch the exodus of talented, educated young women." (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
HAMMURIYEH - Syria's government has recaptured half of Eastern Ghouta, battering the shrinking rebel enclave on Wednesday with air strikes that killed dozens and defying UN calls for a halt to violence.
The blistering onslaught has prompted international outrage, including accusations by the UN that the government was orchestrating an "apocalypse".
The Russia-backed Syrian Army and allied militia began a fierce bombing campaign on February 18 on Eastern Ghouta - the last opposition bastion near Damascus - then launched a ground offensive a week later.
The campaign has so far left at least 867 civilians dead, including dozens of children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Towns and villages have fallen in quick succession in recent days.
On Wednesday, government forces captured Beit Sawa, Al-Ashaari, and nearby farmland, the Britain-based Observatory said, putting them in control of more than half the territory once held by rebels.
Heavy air strikes, mostly by Russian warplanes, left at least 62 civilians dead including four children across the enclave, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
ADDIS ABABA - Washington's top diplomat began his first Africa tour on Thursday by meeting with the African Union (AU) chief, who said the continent had moved on from a reported insult by President Donald Trump.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed security and counter-terrorism, trade and development, corruption and conflict in an hour-long meeting at the continental body's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
However, looming over the meeting was Trump's alleged description of Africa as a "shithole" in January, which forced the president to pen a letter reaffirming his commitment to the continent and dispatch his top diplomat to try to heal rifts.
Faki, however, insisted the slur was now in the past.
Tillerson's five-nation Africa tour - to include Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria - has been described by analysts as a "listening tour", with no deals or initiatives due to be announced.
He and Faki discussed continued US support to African counter-terrorism forces in Somalia and the Sahel but no new concrete commitments were given. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns on Friday from the US to face what may be the most crucial stretch of his long political career, with corruption probes encircling him and talk of elections building.
He sat alongside US President Donald Trump and spoke of the "historic" White House decision to designate the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a major diplomatic coup for Netanyahu that enraged the Palestinians.
A day later, receiving a warm welcome from some 18,000 people at a conference for pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, Netanyahu spoke of what he described as his achievements at home and abroad while pledging to "stop" Israel's greatest enemy, Iran.
But even as he prepared to meet Trump, a former aide who had been among his close allies was signing a state witness agreement with the police to testify against him. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
Min Max Condition
Berlin 1C 9C Rain
Copenhagen 0C 2C Snow
London 1C 9C Cloudy
Madrid 9C 14C Partly Cloudy
Oslo -6C 0C Snow
Paris 4C 9C Cloudy
Rome 8C 16C Partly Cloudy
Stockholm -2C 1C Snow
A KVH SatNews service.
LONDON - (Wednesday's closing data) FTSE 100: Up 0.2% at 7,157.84 points; Frankfurt's DAX 30: Up 1.1% at 12,245.36 points; CAC 40 of Paris: Up 0.3% at 5,187.83 points.
A KVH SatNews service.
1 EUR = 1.2417 USD
1 EUR = 0.8951 GBP
1 EUR = 1.1673 CHF
1 EUR = 131.4100 JPY
Source: European Central Bank
A KVH SatNews service.
LONDON - Juventus staged a stunning fightback against Tottenham to reach the Champions League quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate after Paulo Dybala sealed a dramatic 2-1 win in the last 16, second leg on Wednesday.
Tottenham were in control early on and Harry Kane tricked two Juventus defenders with a muscular turn before feeding Son Heung-Min, whose low strike was repelled by Gianluigi Buffon.
Despite a torrid opening, Juventus felt they should have had a penalty when Douglas Costa surged away from Jan Vertonghen.
But when Vertonghen's challenge sent the Juventus winger crashing to the turf, referee Szymon Marciniak controversially waved play on.
Still seething over that decision, Juventus were ragged at the back when Son forced Buffon to palm out his header from Kieran Trippier's cross.
Son was fuming after being stamped on by Andrea Barzagli and, determined to exact retribution, he embarked on a powerful run that ended with a shot that flashed narrowly wide.
He didn't have to wait long for the ultimate revenge as Son put Tottenham ahead in the 39th minute.
The South Korea forward has a knack of scoring at Wembley, but few will have been more fortuitous than his 14th goal at Tottenham's temporary home.
When Trippier whipped a low cross towards the far post, Son got his feet in a tangle and miscued his shot onto his standing left leg, with the deflection somehow lifting the ball over Buffon and into the net.
Having got their reward for bossing the game, Tottenham were nearly punished when Miralem Pjanic smashed just wide before half-time.
That escape foreshadowed the anguish to come for Tottenham.
Juventus nearly equalised when Argentine forward Dybala fired over after sloppy Tottenham defending gifted him a sight of goal.
It was a warning Tottenham failed to heed and the visitors drew level in the 64th minute with their first effort on target.
Stephan Lichtsteiner crossed to Sami Khedira and when he flicked towards Higuain, the Argentine striker perfectly timed his run past the statuesque Spurs defence and headed home with ease.
For the first time all night, Tottenham were anxious and Juventus went for the kill three minutes later.
Higuain's pass dissected Tottenham's poorly-executed offside trap and Dybala ran through to drill a cool finish past Hugh Lloris.
Tottenham laid siege to the Juventus goal in the final stages, but the visitors defended heroically and rode their luck when Kane's header hit a post before being scooped off the line by Barzagli. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
MANCHESTER - With its first home loss in 15 months, Manchester City ended up stumbling into the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Not that Pep Guardiola was particularly bothered about a surprise 2-1 home loss to Basel.
"This kind of position is not going to happen in the quarter-finals, where you have a 4-0 (lead) from the first leg," the City coach said.
Indeed, it was difficult to draw too many conclusions from what was only City's fourth loss of the season in all competitions.
A 4-0 win in Switzerland in the first leg three weeks ago made qualification almost a formality for a team that is 16 points clear in the Premier League and one of the favourites to win the Champions League.
Guardiola fielded a virtual reserve side at Etihad Stadium for the return match, and making six changes from its previous game disrupted the fluency of the team's passing and pressing game.
City took the lead in the eighth minute through Gabriel Jesus in his first start in 2018, but Mohamed Elyounoussi equalised in the 17th and Basel regularly broke through the home side's midfield in the final hour of the game.
Wing back Michael Lang earned Basel its latest victory over a Premier League giant by smashing a rising shot inside the near post through goalkeeper Claudio Bravo's attempted save in the 71st.
City advanced 5-2 on aggregate and became the second English team through to the quarter-finals, after Liverpool from Tuesday. (AP)
A KVH SatNews service.
SAINT-ETIENNE - Wout Poels made a statement of intent by winning Wednesday's individual time-trial at the Paris-Nice stage race as Luis Leon Sanchez retained the overall lead.
Poels, who was second overall at last month's Ruta del Sol, is gearing up for a potentially pivotal role with Team Sky this year.
The Dutchman could find himself leading the team at May's Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France in July if reigning champion Chris Froome is banned over an abnormal doping test result he gave at last year's Vuelta a Espana.
Poels finished the hilly 18.4km fourth stage from La Fouillouse to Saint-Etienne in 25min 33sec to beat Spaniard Marc Soler by 11sec with France's Julian Alaphilippe a further five seconds back.
"It's my first win in the World Tour in a TT so I'm really happy with that," Poels said.
Poels is now second overall at 15sec behind Sanchez, who was part of Tuesday's successful breakaway. Alaphilippe is third at 26sec.
Sky have won Paris-Nice in five of the last six years and reigning champion Sergio Henao was ninth on the day, 33sec behind Poels and now sits ninth overall at 48sec. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
MONTMELO - Daniel Ricciardo broke the unofficial track record at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona in Formula One preseason testing on Wednesday, while McLaren again struggled with reliability issues.
Ricciardo was fastest with a time of 1 minute, 18.047 seconds on new hypersoft tires on his Red Bull, setting the best ever lap in Barcelona since the new track layout was introduced in 2007.
The time was more than a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton's pole position with Mercedes in last year's Spanish Grand Prix.
Felipe Massa had the previous record of 1:18.339 in a Ferrari in 2008 testing. Times set in testing are not officially recognised as track records.
Hamilton, the defending F1 champion, ended more than three tenths of a second behind Ricciardo with the slightly slower ultrasoft tires on his Mercedes. Hamilton's teammate, Valtteri Bottas, finished with the third-fastest time.
Sebastian Vettel, who replaced Kimi Raikkonen in the morning session because the Finnish driver was "unwell," was fourth fastest. Raikkonen was able to return to the track in the afternoon but did only 49 laps.
McLaren's problems continued, with Fernando Alonso being stranded on the track because of an oil leak a day after teammate Stoffel Vandoorne twice had his runs interrupted by car failures. (AP)
A KVH SatNews service.
GURGAON - Spain's Pablo Larrazabal took a "wild" ride to get to the start of the Indian Open when his alarm failed, but the near-disaster inspired him to a five-under 67 in Thursday's opening round.
A timely wake-up call from a European Tour official and a mad car dash got Larrazabal to the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon just before his 7:00am start time.
Larrazabal told AFP his new phone went back on to Spanish time "and I woke up at the hotel 38 minutes before my tee-time".
Larrazabal is not new to golf course adventures. He was attacked by hornets who stung him 20 times during the the 2014 Malaysian Open had to jump in a lake to escape. (AFP)
A KVH SatNews service.
Man City 1-2 Basel
Man City into quarters, agg 5-2
Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Juventus
Juventus into quarters, agg 4-3BASKETBALL
CB Murcia 66-71 Iberostar
Ewe Baskets 63-88 NR Ludwigsburg
Aek Athens 88-98 CEZ Nymburk
Neptunas 73-68 Strasbourg IGFIBA EUROPE CUP
Air Avellino 70-70 BC Minsk-2006
Oostende 84-71 Mornar Basket
Dinamo Sassari 72-55 Le Portel
Umana Reyer 83-51 Kormend
Juventus 87-74 Alba Fehervar
A KVH SatNews service.
ALL NEWS