European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said enlargement talks with Turkey should not be halted “on paper at least,” in an interview with the U.S. political magazine Politico. “Turkey is our neighbor, we can’t simply let it slip into oblivion. I am not in favor of ending the accession talks with Turkey, which is a demand from the European Parliament,” Juncker was quoted as saying. Source hurriyetdailynews
A Frenchman who had been on France’s terror watchlist after showing signs of having been radicalized to extremist Islam has been accepted into France’s police force. The man was placed on the terror watch list in 2012 as a known radical Islamist and France’s intelligence service DGSI kept him under surveillance for a number of years after being alerted to his behaviour. Source The Local
China is planning to bring back gold standards for international payment after several decades. Being the world’s largest importer of yellow metal, China is now preparing to launch an oil futures contract denominated in yuan and redeemable in gold. While the yuan is not yet a global trade settlement currency, China will make the plan possible by backing the yuan with gold for settling crude oil imports. China is also the largest importer of crude oil. Source Business Standard
Violent crime in America rose in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by a spike in killings in some major cities, but remained near historically low levels, according to FBI data released Monday. Source Bloomberg
