WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Slovakia became the third European Union country to ban food imports from Ukraine, deepening the challenge for the bloc as it works to help Ukraine transport its grain to world markets. Slovakia followed Poland and Hungary, both of which announced bans Saturday on Ukrainian food imports through June 30. They did so in response to rising anger from farmers who say that a glut of grain in their countries is causing them economic hardship. EU countries that neighbor Ukraine have asked the EU to treat the matter of Ukrainian food with urgency, saying they can’t allow their own farmers to bear the cost of disruption that Ukrainian agriculture products are causing to their markets. Hungary’s agriculture minister, Istvan Nagy, said the surge in Ukrainian products on European markets had made it impossible for Hungarian farmers to remain competitive.

 

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SEOUL (AFP) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will push for a “higher stage” of relations with Pyongyang, North Korean state media said Tuesday. China is North Korea’s longtime treaty ally and main economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War when Mao Zedong sent in millions of “volunteers” to fight U.S.-led forces to a standstill. “The traditional China-DPRK friendship has weathered the trials of the changed international situation for a long time,” Xi said in a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, using the initials for the North’s official name. In the message carried by the Korean Central News Agency, Xi noted the current international and regional situations are “changing seriously and in a complicated way”, adding: “I will continuously push the friendship and cooperation between the two sides to a higher stage.”

 

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NEW YORK (Dispatches) – U.S. authorities arrested two men for allegedly setting up a Chinese “police station” in New York and charged dozens of Chinese security officials over a campaign to monitor and harass U.S.-based dissidents. The arrests of Harry Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, are the first anywhere over a suspected campaign by China to establish surreptitious police posts in countries around the world, said Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn. The two men set up the office in Manhattan’s Chinatown last year at the behest of the Fuzhou branch of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), China’s national police force, ostensibly to offer services like Chinese driver’s license renewal, according to Peace. But in fact their main job was to help track down and harass fugitive dissidents from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), U.S. officials said. China foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin disputed the U.S. claims, saying Beijing maintains a policy of non-interference in other countries and these alleged police stations do not exist.

 

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LONDON (AFP) -- UK unemployment edged higher in the three months to the end of February, official data showed Tuesday, as the economy continues to be impacted by high inflation. The rate increased to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent in the three months to the end of January, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. The ONS said the increase “was driven by people unemployed for up to six months”. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics, said the number of days lost to strikes picked up again in February. Public and private sector workers have been striking since last year to try and win increases to pay, whose value has been eroded by elevated inflation. “Pay continues to grow more slowly than prices, so earnings are still falling in real terms,” Morgan said. He added that while job vacancies have fallen, they “remain at very high levels”.

 

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STRASBOURG, France (AFP) -- The European Parliament decided to prohibit former members from lobbying legislators for six months after leaving office in response to a bribery scandal that has rocked the EU. The decision comes as the parliament grapples with the fallout from the scandal involving the alleged bribery of members said to have been paid to push the interests of Qatar and Morocco. Central to the sprawling criminal case is former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, who has admitted playing a key role in funneling cash to parliamentarians. The scandal, popularly known as “Qatargate”, erupted in December when Belgian police raided addresses in Brussels, detaining a lawmaker and uncovering over 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) in cash. 

 

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PATNA, India (AFP) -- Toxic hooch has killed at least 27 people in the eastern Indian state of Bihar where alcohol is banned, officials said Tuesday, with unconfirmed reports putting the death toll at 40. Selling and consuming liquor is prohibited in several parts of India, driving a thriving black market for potent and sometimes lethal backstreet moonshine that kills hundreds every year. Initial investigations into the latest tragedy showed that poisonous methyl alcohol was mixed with spirit that proved deadly.