Do migrants from Eastern European countries become happier once they have settled in Western Europe? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Tag Archives: Eastern European
Bomb experts seal off Wolverhampton mosque
A military bomb disposal team has been called to a mosque in Wolverhampton and the surrounding area evacuated after police received a warning of “possible device activation”.
West Midlands Police cleared Wolverhampton Central Mosque at around 8pm Thursday to ensure “the absolute safety and security” of the community.
The operation came after information was unearthed in the investigation into the recent attacks at nearby mosques in Walsall and Tipton.
Two men, both Eastern European, were on Thursday arrested under the Terrorism Act in connection with the explosions.
Searches and checks were set to continue overnight, police said.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Balkan Folk Remedy Beats Bedbugs
By Rob Quinn 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Science
North Korea Makes Diplomats Deal Drugs: Report
By Kevin Spak 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Spain police involved in 2 large cocaine raids
Spanish, Portuguese and British police boarded a ship loaded with nearly two tons of cocaine destined for sale in Europe and arrested nine people, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.
Specialist agents, including members of Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, conducted a dawn raid on March 15 while the ship was in the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 miles southwest of Portugal’s Cape Verde islands.
“It is the largest operation so far in 2013 in our fight against drug trafficking,” said Ignacio Cosido, Spain‘s director general of police.
Five crew aboard, four Brazilians and one Korean, were arrested and four alleged organizers — including the suspected Venezuelan mastermind — were rounded up the next day in the northern Portuguese city of Porto.
“He is a well-known person,” Cosido said of the main suspect. “He has a background in drug trafficking and is an important member of that world.”
Cocaine bales hidden in a bow locker and a backpack with a large amount in U.S. dollars were seized. The cocaine arrived at the naval dockyard of the Canary Island port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Saturday, Cosido said.
The gang included a large group of Venezuela-based cocaine suppliers, the ministry statement said.
Earlier Saturday Spanish authorities said they had also seized 590 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of cocaine discovered inside a sailboat moored at a private dock and arrested two Eastern European men aboard.
The suspects were identified only as a 60-year-old Bulgarian and a 30-year-old from Serbia, one of whom was armed with a loaded 9mm pistol.
The operation began when a suspicious vessel sailing in international waters was found heading toward Spain‘s Mediterranean coast.
Agents observed the yacht entering the Sotogrande marina in southwestern Spain without lights and tying up at a private jetty. Investigators acting under instruction from a court in San Roque also searched several houses in that city and in Marbella.
The judicial authority ordered the suspects’ imprisonment. The arrest took place last week but an exact date was not given.
TeamViewer-based cyberespionage operation targets activists, researchers say
Security researchers have uncovered yet another ongoing cyberespionage operation targeting political and human rights activists, government agencies, research organizations and industrial manufacturers primarily from Eastern European countries and former Soviet Union states. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
Hungary rejects criticism of constitution changes
Rejecting criticism from the EU, the United States and human rights groups, Hungary‘s prime minister insisted Thursday that recent constitutional changes are not threatening democracy and the rule of law in the Eastern European nation.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said those concerns were wrong and the amendments to Hungary‘s constitution were in line with European Union treaties.
“As far as I can see, we are talking about political opinions here,” he said through a translator. “They cannot replace facts.”
“Hungary‘s democratic institutions are strong enough to defend themselves,” he added, speaking ahead of a summit in Brussels of the EU‘s 27 national leaders.
Critics, however, fear that an amendment approved by Hungarian lawmakers on Monday weakens the country’s constitutional court and undermines its democratic checks and balances.
Orban’s conservative government holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, which it has used to push through a sweeping overhaul of the country’s institutions and its constitution.
“We got a two-thirds majority because people trusted us with the job,” Orban said.
Since 2010, Orban has battled often with the EU over attempts to increase his executive control, ranging from limiting the central bank’s independence to curbing media freedom. His government has altered some legislation to comply with EU demands, but critics claim the changes were only superficial.
“The changes have undermined media freedom, limited judicial independence, and weakened the power of the constitutional court, which has been a key check on the executive,” warned the rights group Human Rights Watch.
The European Commission, the EU‘s executive body, vowed this week to probe whether Hungary‘s new laws violate the EU‘s values.
Many leaders were also critical. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Hungary‘s constitutional changes are cause for “great concern,” especially for minorities.
“Europe is not only about the market and the currency but it is also a community of values that we share — human rights, democracy,” said Rutte.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also voiced concern, saying a government with such a strong majority bears a special responsibility to protect minorities.
Bulgarians commemorate rescue of its Jews
Bulgarians on Sunday commemorated public protests that led to the rescue of more than 48,000 Jewish countrymen from deportation to Nazi death camps.
Ceremonies across the country Sunday marked the 70th anniversary of protests by Bulgarian clergymen, intellectuals, politicians and others that ultimately stopped the Nazis from deporting any Jews from Bulgaria.
Though an ally of Germany during the war, Bulgaria was the only Eastern European country that saved its Jews from the Holocaust. This act of salvation is a unique chapter in the history of the Holocaust, but its full story remained largely unknown until the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989.
But Parliament admitted for the first time on Friday that Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps from areas under Bulgarian control during World War II.
“The objective evaluation of the historic events cannot ignore the fact that 11,343 Jews were deported from northern Greece and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, then under German jurisdiction,” legislators said in a declaration and expressed regrets that “the local Bulgarian administration had not been in a position to stop this act.”
The Shalom Organization of Jews in Bulgaria had repeatedly demanded the state to take responsibility for the deportations.
“The Bulgarian government must assume the moral responsibility for the Nazi death camp deportation of ethnic Jews from the regions of Thrace and Macedonia regardless of the fact that Bulgaria saved its almost 50,000 Jews,” the group’s chairman, Maxim Benvenisti, told The Associated Press before the declaration.
Later Sunday, Shalom will unveil a memorial sign near parliament for the deported Jews, after which a solemn ceremony will be held at the Sofia Synagogue.
Suspect arrested in New York City crash that killed expectant parents, baby
A man wanted for a hit-and-run crash in New York City that killed a pregnant woman and her husband was arrested Wednesday, authorities said.
New York City police said they arrested the suspected driver Julio Acevedo at a mini-mart in Bethlehem, Pa.
Acevedo allegedly was speeding down a Brooklyn street in a BMW at 60 mph early Sunday when he collided with a car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21. They died Sunday, and their premature son died Monday.
It was not immediatedly known if the 44-year-old Acevedo had a lawyer.
Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and that case is pending. He served about a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter.
No one answered the door at Acevedo’s last known address, in a public housing complex in Brooklyn. Neighbors said his mother lived in the same building, but she did not answer her door.
The Glauber’s close-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was in mourning, only worsened following the baby’s death. He weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered, neighbors and friends said. He died of extreme prematurity, according to the city medical examiner’s office.
The infant was buried Monday near the fresh graves of his parents, according to Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple’s funeral a day earlier.
“The mood in the neighborhood is very heavy,” said Oscar Sabel, a retired printer who lives near the scene of the accident. “We all hoped the baby would survive.”
Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The couple wed last year in a marriage arranged through a matchmaker and were living in the Williamsburg neighborhood.
They were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose men dress in dark coats and hats, wear long beards like their Eastern European ancestors and have limited dealings with the outside world. Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent rabbinical family. Her husband was studying at a rabbinical college; his family founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews.
Sabel, dressed in the traditional long black coat of the Satmar, said it was a terrible tragedy.
“But it’s what God wants,” he said. “Maybe the baby’s death, and his parents’, is not for nothing; God doesn’t have to give us answers.”
Shortly after midnight Sunday, Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, wasn’t feeling well, so the couple decided to go to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber‘s cousin. They called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab.
The livery cab had a stop sign, but it’s not clear if the driver stopped. Police said the crash with the BMW reduced the cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from the wreck. The engine ended up in the back seat, Abraham said.
Police said the driver of the BMW ran away.
“We in the community are demanding that the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Gunmen abduct Bulgarian mobster's 12-year-old daughter
Three masked gunmen on Tuesday kidnapped the 12-year-old daughter of a Bulgarian mobster, an abduction that could be linked to drug trafficking charges he now faces in Italy.
Evelin Banev‘s daughter Lara was getting into a car outside their home in a suburb of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, when the kidnappers pulled up in an SUV, police said. The abductors shot the driver twice and took the child. The driver is expected to survive.
“All roads into and out of Sofia have been blocked,” police said in a statement. “All operational and search measures are being taken to establish the location of the child.”
Banev was sentenced last month by a court in Sofia to seven-and-a-half years in prison on charges of heading an organized crime gang and money laundering. He is now being held by Italian authorities, who plan to try the 48-year-old on allegations he was involved in trafficking cocaine from Latin America to Europe between 2004 and 2007.
Kalin Mihov, a former head of the anti-drug police department, said it’s possible the 12-year-old was kidnapped to warn Banev to keep silent at the upcoming trial.
Such high-profile abductions are rare in Bulgaria, an Eastern European nation of 7.3 million. In 2009, police arrested 25 people said to be involved in kidnapping at least 16 wealthy Bulgarians for ransom. Four of the accused were sentenced last year to prison terms.
Suspect in hit-and-run crash that killed expectant couple has DWI, manslaughter past
Police say the suspect in a horrific hit-and-run crash that killed a young New York couple and their baby served time for manslaughter and was charged with DWI just last month.
Authorities are still searching for 44-year-old Julio Acevedo, who police say ran away from the crash that killed Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, and their son, who died at a hospital after being delivered by caesarean section.
Police say Acevedo was barreling down a residential street in a BMW at 60 mph, twice the speed limit, early Sunday when he collided with a car hired to take the couple to the hospital.
The death of the newborn on Monday piled tragedy upon tragedy and compounded the community’s grief. The baby was buried near the fresh graves of his parents, according to Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple’s funeral a day earlier.
“The mood in the neighborhood is very heavy,” said Oscar Sabel, a retired printer who lives near the scene of the accident. “We all hoped the baby would survive.”
Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and the case is pending. He served about a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter.
“We in the community are demanding that the prosecutor charge the driver of BMW that caused the death of this couple and infant be charged with triple homicide, this coward left the scene of the accident not even bothering to check on the people of the other car,” Abraham said according to MyFoxNY.com.
Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The couple wed last year in a marriage arranged through a matchmaker and were living in the Williamsburg neighborhood.
They were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose men dress in dark coats and hats, wear long beards like their Eastern European ancestors and have limited dealings with the outside world. Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent rabbinical family. Her husband was studying at a rabbinical college; his family founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews.
Sabel, dressed in the traditional long black coat of the Satmar, said it was a terrible tragedy.
“But it’s what God wants,” he said. “Maybe the baby’s death, and his parents’, is not for nothing; God doesn’t have to give us answers.”
Shortly after midnight Sunday, Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, wasn’t feeling well, so the couple decided to go to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber‘s cousin. They called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab.
The livery cab had a stop sign, but it’s not clear if the driver stopped. Police said the crash with the BMW reduced the cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from the wreck. The engine ended up in the back seat, Abraham said.
The baby weighed only about 4 pounds when he was …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Report: Fiat contemplating sub-brand to compete with Dacia, Datsun
You can add Fiat to the admittedly short list of automakers considering a low-cost brand to rival Dacia. The inexpensive Eastern European brand from Renault–Nissan has performed on the balance sheet like a premium model line, and the money the alliance is taking off the table is encouraging other players to deal themselves in. Pretty soon Nissan’s Datsun sub-brand will join the Dacia party, going on sale in Russia, Indonesia and India and will claim even more rubles, rupiahs and rupees for the parent company. Volkswagen recently said it will make a decision this year on a budget line for the Chinese market. With the euthanasia of Lancia and plans to move the Fiat brand upmarket, company CEO Sergio Marchionne wonders aloud to Automotive News Europe whether there could be room for a new budget brand underneath Fiat.
We’re told that the initiative has been in the idea box for five years and even moved to the stage of name considerations, like Innocenti, but worries about profit kept it from realization. If such a range were to be developed, Marchionne says it couldn’t be built in Italy and stay within budget, and the company is “analyzing its manufacturing capacity outside of Europe to see if a low-cost brand is viable.”
Fiat contemplating sub-brand to compete with Dacia, Datsun originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog