Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed on Sunday in a first attempt to get parliament’s backing to form a government, leaving him two days to secure support to end an eight-month political gridlock.Sanchez has been acting prime minister since a first inconclusive election in April and November did not produce a conclusive result. He needed an absolute majority of at least 176 votes in his favor in the 350-seat house to be confirmed as prime minister but failed to get it.He obtained 166 votes in favor and 165 against, with 18 abstentions, while one lawmaker did not attend.On Tuesday, Sanchez will only need a simple majority – more “yes” than “no” votes. He is likely to get that after securing a commitment from the 13 lawmakers of Catalonia’s largest separatist party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), to abstain.Earlier this week, Socialist Party leader Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias, head of the far-left party Unidas Podemos, restated their intention to form the first coalition government in Spain’s recent history.The two parties together have 155 seats, short of a majority, so Sanchez is reliant on the votes of small regional parties.In a sign of how close the race could be on Tuesday, a member from the small regional party Coalicion Canaria, Ana Oramas, voted against Sanchez instead of abstaining as her party had agreed on Friday.During Sunday morning’s debate, Sanchez stressed that a Socialist-Podemos coalition would take a progressive approach.Sanchez and Iglesias have said they will push for tax hikes on high-income earners and companies and also intend to roll back a labor reform passed by a previous conservative government.The morning was marked by tension during the speech of Mertxe Aizpurua of pro-independence Basque party EH Bildu.Aizpurua called the conservative and right wing parties People’s Party, Vox and Ciudadanos “Francoists”, a reference to late dictator Francisco Franco, and criticized the Constitution and King Felipe.
She was met with boos and shouts of “murderers”. 
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Austria’s Foreign Ministry is facing a “serious cyberattack,” it said late Saturday, warning another country could be responsible. 
 
“Due to the gravity and nature of the attack, it cannot be excluded that it is a targeted attack by a state actor,” the ministry said in a statement shortly before 11 p.m. (2200 GMT), adding that the attack was ongoing. 
 
“In the past, other European countries have been the target of similar attacks,” the statement continued. 
 
Immediate measures had been taken and a “coordination committee” set up, it said without elaborating. 
 
The attack came as Austria’s Greens on Saturday gave the go-ahead to a coalition with the country’s conservatives at a party congress in Salzburg, removing the last obstacle to the unprecedented alliance. 
 
The German government’s IT network in 2018 was hit by a cyberattack. 
 
Last year, the EU adopted powers to punish those outside the bloc who launch cyberattacks that cripple hospitals and banks, sway elections, or steal company secrets or funds. 
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Bulgarian veterinary authorities say they will cull 24,000 additional pigs amid signs of an outbreak of African swine fever at a pig farm in the northeast part of the country. 
 
The report Friday represented a continuation of an outbreak that was first detected at six breeding farms in the summer and led to the culling of more than 130,000 pigs in August. 
 
The latest outbreak was detected at a farm in the village of Nikola Kozlevo in the region of Shumen, food safety officials said. 
 
Health officials said there were 42 registered outbreaks of African swine fever in the country in 2019. 
 
The disease does not affect humans but is highly contagious among pigs. 
 
In August, industry officials expressed concerns that the virus could hit the nation’s entire pig herd of 500,000 and cause more than $1.1 billion in damage. 
 
The European Commission has set aside about $10 million to help fight the disease. Bulgarian lawmakers have approved legislation for 2020 intended to regulate conditions for raising domestic pigs and enhance biosecurity measures. 
 
This article contains material from Reuters and The Sofia Globe. 
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Oil executives say they have reached agreement to restart Russian crude oil supplies to Belarus following a cutoff over transit fees that occurred Wednesday. 
 
Belarus agreed to abandon a supplier’s premium on the oil that it imports from its much larger neighbor, Belarus state energy firm Belneftekhim said in a statement Saturday. 
 
The deal should allow for continuous operation of Belarusian refineries in January, they said. 
 
“Documents are being drawn up today together with a Russian company to pump the first batch of oil, purchased at a price without premium,” Belneftekhim’s statement said. 
 
The halt in Russian oil supplies left oil bound for Europe unaffected but could have carried a wallop for Belarus, which depends on Russia for more than 80% of its energy. 
 
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Rumas reportedly spoke by telephone earlier Saturday to try to break the impasse. Key transit route
 
Belarus is heavily dependent on Russia for fuel and cash, and it’s a key transit route for Russian energy supplies to Europe. 
 
Russia and Belarus reached a two-month deal on natural gas prices hours before a December 31 deadline, avoiding a gas shutoff at the start of the year. 
 
Minsk has been locked in a disagreement with Moscow over oil transit prices for some time against a backdrop of increasing pressure by President Vladimir Putin on Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko to deepen integration between the two countries. 
 
Belarusians have protested in recent weeks against closer ties to Russia and perceived secrecy around talks following up on a 1999 agreement on a unified state. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has canceled a visit to Montenegro amid a dispute over a new Montenegrin religious-rights law. 
 
“I decided not to go, and that was agreed with [Serbian Patriarch] Irinej,” Vucic said Saturday at a news conference in Belgrade. “We respect their independence.” 
 
Vucic had been planning to visit Serbian churches in Montenegro on Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated January 7. Montenegrin officials had said the visit would add fuel to the existing tensions in the small Balkan state. 
 
Last month, Montenegro’s parliament passed a law under which religious communities must prove property ownership from before 1918, the year when predominantly Orthodox Christian Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. FILE – Police guard the parliament building in Podgorica, Montenegro, Dec. 26, 2019, during a protest against a then-proposed law regarding religious communities and property.Serbs say the new law will lead to the impounding of Serbian Orthodox Church property in Montenegro. Montenegrin officials have repeatedly denied the claim. 
 
In 2006, Montenegro split from much larger Serbia following a referendum. About one-third of the small Balkan country’s 620,000 citizens declared themselves Serbs and want close ties with Belgrade. 
 
On Saturday, Vucic also accused Montenegrin and unspecified Western officials of launching “a hysteric campaign of lies” when he announced the visit. 
 
He said he canceled it because of possible “clashes” that would “hurt the Serbian people in Montenegro.” Daily protests
 
Led by Orthodox priests and fueled by Serbian state media, daily protests have been staged in Montenegro by thousands of Serbs demanding that the law be annulled. 
 
Serbian ultranationalists have also held protests against Montenegro’s pro-Western government in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. 
 
Thousands of soccer hooligans tried to burn the Montenegrin flag, threw flares and chanted “Set it on fire” during a protest Thursday in front of the Montenegrin Embassy in Belgrade. FILE – The Montenegrin flag at the Montenegrin Embassy is targeted with fireworks by Serbian ultranationalists during a protest against a religious-rights law adopted by Montenegro’s parliament last month, in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 2, 2020.Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic called the embassy attack an “uncivilized” act and said it was “stunning” Serbian police did not protect the embassy during the incident, as well as at other recent protests. 
 
Vucic said the embassy was protected and accused Markovic of “telling notorious falsehoods,” though he did not appear to comment on the flag burning itself. 
 
U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro Judy Rising Reinke expressed shock over the attack. 
 
“Shocked at the image of the desecrated #Montenegro flag at the country’s Belgrade Embassy,” she said Friday on Twitter. “Attack on a diplomatic mission is absolutely unacceptable. Difference of opinions must be resolved through dialogue, not violence or acts of vandalism.” Vucic responds
 
In his comments to the press Saturday in Belgrade, Vucic took aim at the U.S. ambassador’s remarks. 
 
“U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro [Judy Rising Reinke] was vocal yesterday, saying she was horrified by the scenes she witnessed in. Right, but [Rising Reinke] is not horrified by what’s happening in Montenegro? She is not horrified when people are getting arrested just for carrying the Serbian flag?” Vucic said. “There are 30% of them there. She is not horrified that the Serbian language is not permitted there? She is not horrified that [the Montenegrin government] is stealing [the Serbian Orthodox] Church property? She is not horrified by any of that.” 
 
The embassy attack in Belgrade followed a basketball game between Serbia’s Red Star and Germany’s Bayern Munich. 
 
Many of those taking part were members of the Serbian soccer fan group known as “delije.” 
 
Members of delije, Serbian for “tough boys,” are known for their close ties with Serbia’s ruling nationalist party and the secret police. 
 
Members of delije were behind attacks against Western embassies in Belgrade in 2008, when the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade was set on fire as police stood close by. The group was protesting against Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia. 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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Mexico’s former top security official pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he accepted a fortune in drug-money bribes from kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s notorious Sinaloa cartel to let it operate with impunity.Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, was indicted in New York on three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge.During his brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom, Garcia Luna shook his head “no” as prosecutors outlined the charges against him.A judge ordered him detained after Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Reid argued that he would pose an “unacceptable risk of flight” if released. Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, said he would ask the court later for his client to be granted bail.Former drug war point manGarcia Luna was viewed as the point man in then-President Felipe Calderon’s 2006-2012 war on drugs. As public safety secretary, he was one of the most feared members of Calderon’s government, but for years was dogged by allegations about his ties to drug traffickers.Calderon’s government was criticized for not going after the Sinaloa cartel with the same energy as the cartel’s rivals. Calderon always rebuffed that criticism.Briefcases of cashU.S. prosecutors said in a court filing this month that Garcia Luna had accepted “tens of millions of dollars” in bribes — often briefcases full of cash — to protect the cartel.“Because of the defendant’s corrupt assistance, the Sinaloa Cartel conducted its criminal activity in Mexico without significant interference from Mexican law enforcement and imported multiton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States,” prosecutors wrote.They added that Garcia Luna “prioritized his personal greed over his sworn duties as a public servant and assured the continued success and safety of one of the world’s most notorious trafficking organizations.”De Castro declined to comment on the charges.During Guzman’s 2018 New York trial, jurors heard former cartel member Jesus Zambada testify that he personally made at least $6 million in hidden payments to Garcia Luna, on behalf of his older brother, cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.It’s alleged that during the time Garcia Luna protected the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes, the cartel, at the direction of Chapo Guzman, Mayo Zambada and other leaders, sent multiton drug loads to New York and other American cities, including the federal district covering Brooklyn and Queens, according to court documents.Garcia Luna lived in Miami, Florida, before his arrest last month in Texas. From 2001 to 2005, he led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency and from 2006 to 2012 served as Mexico’s secretary of public security before relocating to the U.S., authorities said.
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The United States and its allies have suspended training of Iraqi forces because of the increased threat they face after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad on Friday killed a top Iranian general, the German military said in a letter seen by Reuters. 
 
In the letter to German lawmakers, a senior German officer said U.S. Lieutenant General Pat White had decided to further increase the level of protection for the forces deployed in Iraq under Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), which he commands. 
 
“Thus, the training for the Iraqi security and armed forces throughout Iraq is temporarily suspended,” German Lieutenant General Erich Pfeffer wrote to members of the Bundestag defense and foreign relations committees in the letter, dated January 3. 
 
“The directive is binding for all partner nations involved in OIR at the training sites in Iraq,” he added. 
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Mexico’s former top security official pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he accepted a fortune in drug-money bribes from kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s notorious Sinaloa cartel to let it operate with impunity.Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, was indicted in New York on three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge.During his brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom, Garcia Luna shook his head “no” as prosecutors outlined the charges against him.A judge ordered him detained after Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Reid argued that he would pose an “unacceptable risk of flight” if released. Garcia Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, said he would ask the court later for his client to be granted bail.Former drug war point manGarcia Luna was viewed as the point man in then-President Felipe Calderon’s 2006-2012 war on drugs. As public safety secretary, he was one of the most feared members of Calderon’s government, but for years was dogged by allegations about his ties to drug traffickers.Calderon’s government was criticized for not going after the Sinaloa cartel with the same energy as the cartel’s rivals. Calderon always rebuffed that criticism.Briefcases of cashU.S. prosecutors said in a court filing this month that Garcia Luna had accepted “tens of millions of dollars” in bribes — often briefcases full of cash — to protect the cartel.“Because of the defendant’s corrupt assistance, the Sinaloa Cartel conducted its criminal activity in Mexico without significant interference from Mexican law enforcement and imported multiton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States,” prosecutors wrote.They added that Garcia Luna “prioritized his personal greed over his sworn duties as a public servant and assured the continued success and safety of one of the world’s most notorious trafficking organizations.”De Castro declined to comment on the charges.During Guzman’s 2018 New York trial, jurors heard former cartel member Jesus Zambada testify that he personally made at least $6 million in hidden payments to Garcia Luna, on behalf of his older brother, cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.It’s alleged that during the time Garcia Luna protected the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes, the cartel, at the direction of Chapo Guzman, Mayo Zambada and other leaders, sent multiton drug loads to New York and other American cities, including the federal district covering Brooklyn and Queens, according to court documents.Garcia Luna lived in Miami, Florida, before his arrest last month in Texas. From 2001 to 2005, he led Mexico’s Federal Investigation Agency and from 2006 to 2012 served as Mexico’s secretary of public security before relocating to the U.S., authorities said.
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Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday called for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to be released from prison in London, urging an end to what he described as his “torture” in detention.Assange, 48, is in a British jail for skipping bail when he sought asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he spent nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape that were dropped in November.Assange is also battling U.S. attempts to extradite him over Wikileaks’ publication of vast caches of leaked military documents and diplomatic cables. He faces a lengthy prison term if extradited to the United States.A U.N. human rights investigator last year said Assange has suffered psychological torture from a defamation campaign and should not be extradited to the United States where he would face a “politicized show trial.”Lopez Obrador, a leftist who has close ties with Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, expressed his solidarity with Assange and said he hoped the former hacker and activist is “forgiven and released” from prison.”I don’t know if he has recognized that he acted against rules and norms of a political system, but at the time these cables demonstrated how the world system functions in its authoritarian nature,” Lopez Obrador said in response to a question about Assange at a regular government news briefing.”Hopefully consideration will be given to this, and he’s released and won’t continue to be tortured.”Assange’s presence in London, holed up in Ecuador’s embassy and then in jail, has been a diplomatic irritation for Britain, affecting domestic politics and relations with several countries.Corbyn, who was a guest of honor at Lopez Obrador’s inauguration in December 2018, said Assange should not be extradited to the United States “for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose Conservative Party trounced Labour in last month’s elections, has vowed to strike new trade deals with countries outside Europe after Britain’s departure from the European Union.
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Sales of new electric cars in Norway hit a record high last year, sector experts said Friday, reaching 42.4 percent of all nearly-registered cars in 2019, mostly thanks to strong demand for Tesla’s Model 3.Norway, a major oil producer that has pioneered electric mobility, offers a very advantageous tax regime for clean vehicles, making them highly competitive in cost terms against petrol and diesel vehicles.New e-car models arriving on the market should help push their share higher still this year, said OFV, a body which monitors Norway’s car market.In 2019, 60,316 all-electric new cars were sold in Norway out of a total of 142,381, a rise of 30.8 percent from the previous year when the market share of e-cars was 31.2 percent.The Norwegian car importer association said it expects e-cars to take a market share for new cars of 55 to 60 percent in 2020.New models including the Volkswagen ID.3, the Ford Mustang Mach-e, the Polestar 2 and the Peugeot e-208 are expected to boost e-car sales.”Today, in 2020 and in the years to come, a much larger range of cars is coming, with increased autonomy, greater size and in affordable price segments,” said OFV boss Oyvind Solberg Thorsen.U.S. firm Tesla was the biggest single seller of e-cars in Norway last year, with its latest Model 3 alone selling 15,700 units.Bigger goalsNorway’s Electric Vehicle Association called the numbers “very positive” but told AFP it had hoped for e-cars to account for 50 percent of new car sales last year.The association’s secretary-general, Christina Bu, called on the government to maintain tax breaks for electric cars, which have become the topic of much debate in the Scandinavian country.Norway, where electricity is almost exclusively generated by hydropower, has a 2025 target for all new cars to be zero-emission models.Hybrid cars, which run on both thermal and electric energy, accounted for 25.9 percent of the new car market in Norway last year, while petrol and diesel cars accounted for around 16 percent each.
 
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Russia condemned U.S. airstrikes that killed a powerful Iranian commander in neighboring Iraq on Friday local time as a “reckless step” that risked “regional peace and stability” in the Middle East.  The United States killed General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, in a drone strike as he and an entourage left Baghdad’s main airport by car.   Pentagon officials said U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the strike to prevent imminent attacks against American forces in the region.  Yet with Iran’s leadership already vowing a military response, Russia openly questioned the White House’s understanding of the violent forces it had unleashed.”Such actions do not create … find solutions to complex problems in the Middle East. On the contrary, it will lead to a new round of escalation of tensions in the region,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry in a statement posted to its website.   In a separate statement, the ministry noted that Soleimani had “faithfully served and defended the national interests of Iran” and expressed condolences to the Iranian people over the commander’s death.The Kremlin’s press service later announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the attack with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron by phone, with both sides agreeing “this action might seriously escalate tensions in the region.” FILE – A handout picture obtained from the Syrian Kurdish North Press Agency on October 24, 2019 shows Russian military police troops standing next to their armored vehicles in the northeastern Syrian city of Kobane on Oct. 23, 2019.The reaction reflected Russia and Iran’s increasingly close relations — ties forged by a four-year military alliance in Syria, where both Moscow and Tehran have come to the aid of their mutual ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.  Several media reports say Soleimani — widely considered the military architect of Iran’s actions in the Middle East — met with President Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow in 2016 to personally discuss the Syrian offensive. Both the Iranian and Russian governments denied the meeting ever took place.      Soleimani is on a U.N. travel sanctions list and has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2005 as a supporter of terrorism.  Observers in Moscow saw little chance of Russia coming to Iran’s aide in the event of a wider military conflict.”There’s nothing Russia can do,” says Alexey Malashenko, a longtime Middle East watcher and head of the Institute of Dialogue and Civilization said in an interview with VOA in Moscow.   “It’s a situation involving Iran, the U.S., and Iraq.” FILE – President Trump holds a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement at the White House, May 8, 2018.Nuclear deals Yet the U.S. strike on Soleimani again puts Iran near the top of a long list of issues causing friction between Moscow and Washington.  The Kremlin already had clashed with the Trump administration over its decision to rip up the Iran nuclear deal —- a denuclearization swap for sanctions relief agreement brokered with Iran by the U.S. Obama administration along with Britain, Russia, Germany, France, and China back in 2015.Russia has found common ground with European powers in denouncing the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the agreement in favor of what the White House touts as a “maximum pressure” campaign that will yield a better deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.Indeed, Moscow had been working with France and Germany to find ways to maneuver around U.S. sanctions and thereby keep Iran in compliance  — an effort foreign policy experts now concede is all but doomed because of the U.S. attack.  “The last hopes for resolving the problem of the Iran nuclear program have been bombed to shreds,” wrote Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, in a post to Facebook.  “Iran can now push forward its nuclear program, even if it wasn’t planning to,” added Kosachev.  “In that way, this is bigger than just the murder of one important figure.”
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Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill that allows troop deployment in Libya to support the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.Turkish lawmakers passed the bill on Thursday with a 315-184 vote.Most opposition parties voted against the bill.The Libyan government, headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for support as it fends off an offensive by General Khalifa Haftar’s forces to the east of the country, which are backed by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. As VOA’S Zlatica Hoke reports.
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A motion sanctioning the deployment of armed forces to Libya easily passed the Turkish Parliament on Thursday, but the specter of Turkish forces entering the Libyan civil war is triggering alarm and condemnation.Passing with a 325-184 vote, the motion gives Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a one-year mandate to send armed forces in support of Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Accord.
 
The GNA is currently besieged by Libyan General Khalif Haftar’s military forces, who now control eastern Libya.  
 
Turkish forces becoming involved in the Libya civil war is causing international concern. Following Parliament’s vote, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Erdogan by telephone.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a symposium in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 2, 2020.”President Trump pointed out that foreign interference is complicating the situation in Libya,” said Hogan Gidley, principal White House deputy press secretary.”Egypt condemns in the strongest terms this step that violates United Nations resolutions,” said an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement. “The Arab Republic of Egypt also warns of repercussions of any Turkish military intervention in Libya and confirms that this intervention will negatively affect stability in the Mediterranean Sea region.”
 
Cairo is backing Haftar’s military forces, and previously warned it was ready to deploy its own forces if Ankara went ahead with sending soldiers.’Not intervening in Libya’Ankara dismissed concerns over any Libyan military deployment.”Turkey’s agreement with the Libyan government is the best guarantee for security and stability in the Mediterranean. We will, of course, protect our rights and interests in the Mediterranean,” tweeted Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s director of communications.”Some countries are trying to put their narrow interests above international peace and security in the Mediterranean. Any agreement struck with a group other than the legitimate government in Tripoli will drag the country further into chaos,” Altun added.During debate over the motion, the Turkish government tried to allay international and domestic concerns.
 
“We’re not intervening in Libya. We are just meeting a request for help from the internationally recognized government there,” Emrullah Isler, Erdogan’s envoy to the fractured nation, told parliamentary deputies ahead of Thursday’s vote.’Disastrous call’All of the parliamentary opposition parties opposed the motion.Unal Cevikoz, a lawmaker of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, speaks in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 2, 2020.”This motion does not speak of ‘national security,’ it speaks only of ‘national interest,’ ” Unal Cevikoz of the main opposition CHP Party said during the feisty debate. “It is a disastrous call by the presidential palace to send our citizens to the deserts of Libya.”Opposition deputies also raised concerns over the broad nature of the motion with little information on the type of Libyan military deployment.Ahead of the vote, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar suggested any military action would be confined to training and providing munitions and weapons. Last year, Ankara sent several armed drones in support of the GNA.   But while Haftar’s forces, backed by Russian mercenaries, are tightening their control around Tripoli, reports by local Turkish media suggest the GNA may be looking to Ankara to deploy a force of as many as 2,000 combat soldiers.Strategic interestsAccording to observers, Erdogan expedited passage of the motion because of the imminent threat faced by the GNA. Erdogan argues that the GNA’s survival is key to Turkey’s strategic interests.Last November, he signed two agreements with the Libyan government. One was a security agreement in which Ankara pledged military support. The second gave Turkey control of a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries.  
 
The region is the center of an increasingly bitter rivalry among regional countries for the search of hydrocarbons. Ankara is alarmed at growing cooperation involving rivals Greece, Israel, Egypt and the Greek Cypriots in the search for and exploitation of the region’s energy.”No plan in the region that excludes Turkey has any chance of success,” Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said Wednesday.  Gas pipeline
 
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement in Athens committing his country, Greece and the Greek Cypriot government to building a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline.  
 
The pipeline seeks to exclude Turkey from lucrative transit fees in distributing vast gas reserves discovered off the Israeli coast to Europe. But the route of the planned pipeline passes through the Mediterranean Sea under Turkish control in its agreement with the GNA.Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pose for a photo before signing a deal to build a gas pipeline, in Athens, Greece, Jan. 2, 2020.”These agreements with the GNA are of so much strategic importance for Turkey,” said energy expert and former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende. “The strategy of Turkey is to protect its legitimate rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The strategy is to have an equitable solution to the matter, because we have overlapping claims. Turkey made it clear after signing these agreements. Turkey is ready to speak with Greece and other authorities.”Turkey’s strategy of coercing its regional rivals to negotiate is widely seen as increasingly dependent on the survival of the GNA. However, Ankara may yet hold off deploying soldiers to Libya.”Passing the motion in Parliament has a strong political message,” Oktay said. “If they [Haftar’s forces] stop their attacks or withdraw, we may see this as appropriate. But if they keep continuing their attacks, the motion gives us a one-year mandate, so we may deploy our soldiers whenever necessary.”Given that Libya is nearly 2,000 kilometers from Turkey, analysts warn any major military deployment into a combat zone carries considerable risk.
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The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on Cuba’s defense minister, accusing him of human rights violations and supporting socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.Washington blacklisted Leopoldo Cintra Frias, minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR), and his children, Deborah Cintra Gonzalez and Leopoldo Cintra Gonzalez, in its latest action targeting Havana for its support of Maduro.Pompeo said MINFAR had been involved in the torture of Venezuelans and subjected them to “cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment for their anti-Maduro stances” alongside Maduro’s military and intelligence officers.The designation bars Cintra, a career military officer who joined Fidel Castro’s rebel army in 1957, and his children from entering the United States.The Cuban Embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment.”As Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Cintra Frias bears responsibility for Cuba’s actions to prop up the former Maduro regime in Venezuela,” Pompeo said.”Dismantling Venezuela’s democracy by terrifying Venezuelans into submission is the goal of MINFAR and the Cuban regime,” Pompeo added.The United States and more than 50 other countries have recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president. Guaido invoked the constitution to assume a rival presidency last year, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was a sham.But Maduro retains the support of the military, runs the government’s day-to-day operations and is backed by Russia, China and Cuba.
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The senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who plotted Brexit and steered his boss to last month’s election triumph, is on the lookout for “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” to help bring new ideas to Britain’s government.”We want to improve performance and make me much less important” and within a year largely redundant,” Dominic Cummings said in a post on his blog on Thursday.”We do not have the sort of expertise supporting the PM and ministers that is needed. This must change fast so we can properly serve the public.”Cummings, who has made no secret of his disdain for much of the way Britain’s civil service operates, said he had been lucky to have worked with some fantastic officials in recent months.”But there are also some profound problems at the core of how the British state makes decisions,” he said.Cummings was one of the senior campaigners behind the Vote Leave victory in the 2016 Brexit referendum and was described by former Prime Minister John Major as “political anarchist.”In his blog, Cummings said rapid progress could now be made on long-term problems thanks to the combination of policy upheaval after Brexit, an appetite for risk among some officials in the new government and Johnson’s big majority in parliament.The government was looking to hire data scientists and software developers, economists, policy experts, project managers, communication experts and junior researchers as well as “weirdos and misfits with odd skills,” he said.”We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole,” Cummings said.
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Shootings in the greater Rio de Janeiro metro area dropped nearly 24 percent in 2019, according to data published Thursday.There were 7,363 shootings in 2019, down from 9,642 in 2018, according to the Fogo Cruzado organization, which compiled and verified the data.The group reported 1,517 shooting deaths and 1,357 injuries from gunfire last year, slightly above 2018 levels. Fogo Cruzado doesn’t have access to official police registries, meaning total deaths are likely higher.Shootings declined steadily in Brazil’s top tourist destination in the second half of 2019. In December, Fogo Cruzado registered 362 shootings, nearly half the number recorded in the same month a year earlier.Gov. Wilson Witzel, who campaigned on a platform of zero tolerance for crime, boasted about the decline in shootings.”Throughout 2019, we acted rigorously in the crackdown on crime, in addition to valuing our police,” Witzel tweeted. He has referred to criminals as “narco-terrorists” and proposed using helicopters as platforms for snipers, who could target anyone carrying large firearms.Ignacio Cano, a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, says the trend began in 2018 in Rio and other states, before governors were sworn in on Jan. 1, 2019.Police figures compiled by website G1 show homicides fell 22% to 30,864 cases in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2018. That may be due to violence between rival drug trafficking gangs falling, Cano said.Role of militiasThe expansion of militias in Rio may also partly explain lower reports of shootouts in Rio. One estimate is that 2.2 million people in the metro area — out of more than 12 million residents — live under the thumb of militias, which were originally made up of former police officers, firefighters and military men who wanted to combat lawlessness in their neighborhoods.”When militias come in, they expel trafficking from the area,” said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public security analyst and professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Sao Paulo. “There is a visceral relationship between militias and police, and you end up seeing the state teaming up with militias to expel crime.”The paramilitary groups have become, for some experts, Rio’s biggest security threat, replacing one group of criminals with another, da Silveira warned. Their activities range from retailing smuggled cigarettes to providing cable TV, electricity or transport service, and are also known to extort businesses and carry out summary executions.Fogo Cruzado, or “Crossfire,” is a free app that was created by Amnesty International Brazil in 2016. It helps residents track shootings in real time by combining crowd-sourcing data and monitoring social media.
 
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The arrest warrant targeting Carles Puigdemont has been suspended by Belgian judicial authorities because of the Catalan separatist leader’s immunity as a European lawmaker, his lawyer said Thursday.Paul Bekaert told The Associated Press that the Belgian judge in charge of the case also suspended the warrant issued against former Catalan cabinet member Toni Comin.The two are wanted in Spain for their role in an illegal 2017 secession bid by the Catalan government and separatist lawmakers. They fled to Belgium after the attempt failed and were elected to the European Parliament in May as representatives of Catalan separatist parties from Spain.Last month the European Union’s top court, the European Court of Justice, overturned a decision preventing Puigdemont and Comin from taking their European Parliament seats. Spain’s state prosecutors’ office, however, asked a Spanish judge to maintain the international arrest warrants for the pair.It was still not clear whether Puigdemont and Comin, whose extradition hearing had already been postponed to Feb. 3, will be allowed to take their seats.”The investigative judge has decided to suspend the procedure of the European warrant following the decision of the European Court of Justice,” Bekaert said. “The European Court has ruled they have immunity.”Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office did not immediately answer a request for comment.”Belgian justice recognizes our immunity and decides to suspend the arrest and extradition warrant!” Puigdemont said in a message posted on Twitter. “But now we are still waiting for the release of (Oriol Junqueras), who has the same immunity as us. Spain must act in the same way as Belgium has done and respect the law.”The ECJ ruled Dec. 19 that Junqueras, a former Catalan regional vice president serving a prison sentence in Spain for his role in Catalonia’s banned independence referendum, had earned the right to immunity when he was elected as a European lawmaker alongside Puigdemont and Comin.Junqueras was sentenced in October to 13 years in prison for sedition. Eleven of his associates were found guilty and eight of them also received prison terms. 
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Austrian conservative leader Sebastian Kurz said Thursday his party’s coalition deal with the Greens, who are set to join the Alpine country’s government for the first time, offers “the best of both worlds” and will allow both partners to keep central election promises.Green leader Werner Kogler, who will become vice chancellor if a convention of his party approves the deal Saturday, said the alliance of once-unlikely political bedfellows could set an example for other European countries.Kurz, 33, is set to return to power after a seven-month hiatus and reclaim the title of the world’s youngest serving head of government from new Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who is 34.The agreement combines pledges of action against climate change and of improved government and administrative transparency — Green priorities — with moves to cut Austrians’ tax burden and with the tough line on migration that Kurz has made a hallmark of his People’s Party.”We didn’t try to negotiate each other down to minimal compromises,” he said. “We deliberately brought together the best of both worlds, and so it is possible both for the Greens to keep their central election promises and for us.”Kurz stressed that migrants rescued in the Mediterranean should be taken to “safe countries of origin, third countries or transit countries, if they are safe.” He insisted that efforts to distribute migrants within Europe have failed.At home, he said, there will be a ban on girls under 14 wearing headscarves in schools.Kurz said the new government will invest in climate protection while preparing an “ecological” tax reform and refraining from running up new debt. Kogler said the new government will put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, among other moves. He said he wants Austria to be carbon-neutral in 2040, 10 years before the European Union’s target.He noted the the prospect of the new coalition having a “role model effect” in Europe and standing for the “reconciliation of ecology and economy, embedding social security.”The new coalition results from a snap September election in which Kurz’s party emerged as by far the biggest in the national legislature and the Greens made strong gains to return to parliament after a two-year absence.The election was triggered by the collapse in May of Kurz’s previous coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party. Kurz pulled the plug following the release of a video showing then-Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache offering favors to a purported Russian investor.Parliament then ousted Kurz in a no-confidence vote. Austria has since been run by a non-partisan interim government under Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein.Beside Kurz and Kogler, the People’s Party will have 10 ministers in the new Cabinet and the Greens three. The Greens will run a ministry responsible for the environment, climate and transport; the justice ministry; and the health and social affairs ministry.Kurz said there will be more women than men in the new team. 
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday pledged to stick by his government’s decision to give asylum to several people in Mexico’s embassy in Bolivia, which has sparked a dispute with the interim administration in La Paz.”It’s a matter of principle,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference.To hand over the people would mean abandoning what Mexico regards as a “sacred” right to grant asylum, he added.Earlier this week, Bolivia expelled the Mexican ambassador to La Paz over the asylum spat, creating an awkward standoff for Lopez Obrador, who has sought to avoid foreign entanglements.Mexico has not ejected Bolivia’s ambassador in Mexico and Lopez Obrador said he would not react to provocations.Relations have been rocky between the leftist Lopez Obrador and the conservative government in La Paz headed by caretaker president Jeanine Anez since Mexico gave asylum to Bolivia’s former socialist leader Evo Morales in November.Mexico gave refuge to nine people in La Paz, some of whom the Anez government, which is gearing up for presidential elections, has described as criminals and wants to put on trial.The Mexican government has accused the Anez administration of harassing and intimidating its diplomatic staff in La Paz.
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Kristina Kvien, deputy chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Ukraine, has been appointed as the interim charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.In a video posted on Facebook on January 2, Kvien said that the U.S. “policy of strong support for Ukraine remains steady.””Our embassy team will continue to partner closely with the Ukrainian government and civil society and support Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and support reforms that will help Ukraine build its prosperous European future,” Kvien said.Тимчасова повірена у справах США Крістіна Квін?? Наша заступниця глави місії США в Україні, Крістіна Квін, тепер стала Тимчасовою повіреною у справах США. Ось, що вона думає про міцне #ПартнерсвоУкраїнаСША
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?? Kristina Kvien, our Deputy Chief of Mission, is now serving as the Charge d’Affaires, a.i. of U.S. Embassy Kyiv. Hear her thoughts on the strong #USUkrainePartnership!Posted by U.S. Embassy Kyiv Ukraine on Tuesday, December 31, 2019Kvien replaced William Taylor, who stepped aside earlier on January 2 after serving in the post since May 18, 2019.Taylor said good-bye to Ukrainians in a video statement on December 31, saying he was “very optimistic” about Ukraine’s future.Taylor was launched into the forefront of the impeachment hearings against U.S. President Donald Trump in November when he testified that one of his staffers overheard Trump ask U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about “investigations” against Joe Biden, one of the president’s main political rivals.During his testimony, Taylor also criticized Trump’s decision to delay military aid to Ukraine and a White House invitation to Zelenskiy, saying it ran counter to U.S. foreign policy goals in the region and damaged Washington’s relationship with Kyiv.Taylor’s appointment was set to expire in early January but the State Department did not extend his stay.
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Turkey’s parliament on Thursday authorized the deployment of troops to Libya to support the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli battle forces loyal to a rival government that is seeking to capture the capital.Turkish lawmakers voted 325-184 at an emergency session in favor of a one-year mandate allowing the government to dispatch troops amid concerns that Turkish forces could aggravate the conflict in Libya and destabilize the region.The Tripoli-based government of Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj has faced an offensive by the rival regime in the east and commander Gen. Khalifa Hifter. The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into violent chaos rivaling the 2011 conflict that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that Sarraj requested the Turkish deployment, after he and Sarraj signed a military deal that allows Ankara to dispatch military experts and personnel to Libya. That deal, along with a separate agreement on maritime boundaries between Turkey and Libya, has drawn ire across the region and beyond.Ankara says the deployment is vital for Turkey to safeguard its interests in Libya and in the eastern Mediterranean, where it finds itself increasingly isolated as Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel have established exclusive economic zones paving the way for oil and gas exploration.”A Libya whose legal government is under threat can spread instability to Turkey,” ruling party legislator Ismet Yilmaz argued in defense of the motion. “Those who shy away from taking steps on grounds that there is a risk will throw our children into a greater danger.”The government has not revealed details about the possible Turkish deployment. The motion allows the government to decide on the scope, amount and timing of any mission by Turkish troops.Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told state-run Anadolu Agency that Turkey would send “the necessary number (of troops) whenever there is a need.”But he also said Turkey would not dispatch its forces if Libya’s rival government halts its offensive.”If the other side adopts a different stance and says `OK, we are withdrawing, we are backing down,’ then why would we go?” Oktay said.Turkey’s main opposition party, CHP, had said its lawmakers would vote against the motion because the deployment would embroil Turkey in another conflict and make it a party to the further “shedding of Muslim blood.”Before the vote, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu called on the government Thursday to work for the establishment of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Libya.”Turkey must take the lead for efforts to establish stability in the region and concentrate all diplomatic efforts in that direction,” Kilicdaroglu tweeted.A center-right opposition party also said its legislators would not back the motion.”We cannot throw our soldiers in the line of fire of a civilian war that has nothing to do with our national security,” said Aytun Ciray, a member of the opposition Good Party, said during the parliamentary debate.However, Erdogan’s ruling party is in an alliance with a nationalist party, and the two held sufficient votes for the motion to pass.Fighting around Tripoli escalated in recent weeks after Hifter declared a “final” and decisive battle for the capital. He has the backing of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia, while the Tripoli-based government receives aid from Turkey, Qatar and Italy. 
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The United States consulate in Mexico’s border city of Nuevo Laredo issued a security alert Wednesday, warning of gun battles and urging government employees to take precautions.Gun battles have killed at least three people this week in the northern city bordering the Texas city of Laredo, media have said.Nuevo Laredo is one of the Mexican cities where the U.S. government has sent asylum-seekers to wait as their cases are decided. “The consulate has received reports of multiple gunfights throughout the city of Nuevo Laredo,” it said in a Twitter post. “U.S. government personnel are advised to shelter in place.”On Twitter, users purportedly from Laredo reported hearing gunfire ringing out from the neighboring Mexican city.In a Twitter post late Wednesday, Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, the governor of Tamaulipas, the state home to Nuevo Laredo, blamed the attacks on its Cartel of the Northeast.“After the cowardly attacks on the part of the Cartel of the Northeast in Nuevo Laredo, the (government of Tamaulipas) will not let down its guard and will continue acting with strength against criminals,” he wrote.Tension over the cartels intensified in November when suspected cartel members massacred three women and six children of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico.U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to designate the groups as terrorist organizations in response to a series of bloody security breaches triggered by cartel gunmen.
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For centuries, Mexico City residents brought warm tortillas home in reusable cloths or woven straw baskets, and toted others foods in conical rolls of paper, “ayate” mesh or net bags, or even string bundles.People in Mexico’s massive capital city may have to return to those old ways starting Wednesday, when a new law takes effect banning the plastic bags that became ubiquitous over the last 30 years. Some say they are ready and willing, and grocery stores are promising to promote reusable synthetic fiber bags, but others are struggling to get their minds around how the ban will work in practice.”We have a very rich history in ways to wrap things,” said Claudia Hernandez, the city’s director of environmental awareness. “We are finding that people are returning to baskets, to cucuruchos,” she said, referring to cone-shaped rolls of paper once used to wrap loose bulk goods like nuts, chips or seeds.Some Mexico City residents still use traditional ayate bags, or tortilla towels or baskets, and many — especially the elderly — pull two-wheeled, folding shopping baskets through grocery stores. Some merchants still use old sardine cans to measure out bulk goods.Under the new law, grocery stores will be fined if they give out plastic bags. Most will offer reusable shopping bags made of thick plastic fiber, usually selling them for around 75 cents.”They are not giving them away, they are selling them, and that is what I don’t agree with,” said city subway worker Ernesto Gallardo Chavez, who wonders what will happen if he goes grocery shopping after Jan. 1 and forgets to bring his reusable bags.A man carries loose items after leaving a grocery store in Mexico City, Jan. 1, 2020. Stores stopped providing disposable plastic bags to their customers in compliance with a city law that took effect with the new year.”Just imagine, I forget my bag and I buy a lot of stuff,” said Gallardo Chavez. “How do I carry it all, if they don’t give you bags anymore?”Like most city residents, Gallardo Chavez thinks protecting the environment is “very good.” But plastic bags in Mexico City are almost never really single-use: most city residents have bought garbage cans and waste paper baskets just the right size to be lined with supermarket bags. And the bags are commonly used to clean up after dogs on sidewalks.”We use the bags for garbage, to separate it into organic and inorganic, and then take it out to the garbage truck,” he notes.Hernandez, the environment official, said people should get out of the habit of putting their garbage in plastic bags. “They can take it out (to the garbage truck) directly in garbage cans.”But that is complicated given the city’s stubborn water shortages. It’s all very well to tell city residents not to line their trash cans with plastic bags, but washing out a kitchen receptacle every couple of days after use because it doesn’t have a plastic liner will takes its toll on water supplies.Not to mention the widespread habit of tossing used toilet paper into wastepaper baskets to spare the strain on many homes’ aged and insufficient plumbing. Used toilet paper is not the kind of thing you can turn over loose to the trash collector.Data analysis specialist Daniel Loredo says he is planning to hoard his last remaining plastic shopping bags precisely for that purpose.But he and his roommates have already taken steps to build up a supply of reusable bags and make sure whoever goes to the grocery store is carrying a few. But for poorer city residents, forgetting to do so even one day could carry a high price in a country where the 75-cent reusable bag costs the equivalent of an hour’s worth of the minimum wage.”I think this will be a challenge, because these bags represent an additional cost, and maybe not everyone can bear that cost quite as easily,” Loredo said.Aldimir Torres, the leader of the country’s Plastic Industry Chamber, called the new law “cheap populism,” noting that it was drawn up without having clear guidelines about what kind of “compostable” bags would still be allowed.The law leaves the door open to using plastic bags “for reasons of hygiene,” presumably for items like deli meats or cheese. It also allows for bags that biodegrade very quickly, but sets no specific standards for them.”This was a law that was copied and put together in a rush, without consulting people who really know about this issue,” Torres said.Hernandez acknowledged there was still a lot of work to be done on alternatives.For example, Mexico City’s ubiquitous street food stalls often use plastic bags to temporarily cover plastic plates, in areas where they have no taps or sinks to wash each plate after use. While that might seem to be covered under the “hygiene” clause of the new law, Hernandez said somewhat ingeniously that “this could be solved by some device to wash the plates.”The law, she claimed, had to be rushed into effect.”I don’t know why, but sometimes we need a little more pressure in order to take action,” Hernandez said, noting the bag ban “is an invitation, a provocation to rethink they way we consume.”Loredo thinks the law may be imperfect, but worth it.”I think that in some way this is a responsible strategy, to introduce us to some more appropriate method of consumption,” he said. “In the end, they (plastic bags) are something that pollute and hurt the environment.”By 2021, the same law will ban handing out plastic straws, spoons, coffee capsules and other single-use items.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will lead a group of U.S. officials who will attend the World Economic Forum later this month in Davos, Switzerland, the White House said Wednesday.Mnuchin will be joined by officials including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.Also attending will be Keith Krach, a State Department undersecretary for growth, energy and the environment, and Christopher Liddell, a White House deputy chief of staff.Reuters reported Dec. 17 that President Donald Trump planned to attend the annual Davos economic forum, citing a source familiar with the plan. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that Trump is still expected to attend at this time.In 2019, Trump had to cancel his plans to attend the annual gathering of global economic and world leaders because of a government shutdown. He attended the Davos forum in 2018.The World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort town is scheduled to run Jan. 21-24.Events in Congress could affect the Republican president’s attendance at the event.Trump, who on Dec. 18 became the third American president to be impeached, faces a trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress once House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, sends the charges, called articles of impeachment, to the Republican-controlled Senate.A dispute between Pelosi and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell over how the trial will be conducted arose after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump.
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