DUBLIN, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The number of overseas visits to Ireland between January and March this year increased by 16.6 percent to 1.8 million compared to the corresponding period last year, according to official data on Wednesday.
The data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that visits by residents of Britain increased by 17.3 percent while visits by residents of mainland Europe increased by 14.1 percent.
Visits by residents of North America increased by 24.5 percent while visits from the rest of the world increased by 8 percent, according to the CSO data.
"The information from the CSO confirms that 2016 has gotten off to a very good start and we are on track for another excellent year," said Paschal Donohoe, minister for transport, tourism and sport, while welcoming the continued strong growth in Ireland's overseas visit numbers.
"2015 was a record year for visitor numbers and the fifth consecutive year of growth. We are aiming to build on this strong performance," he said.
Ireland has seen five consecutive years of growth in overseas visitor numbers to the country, culminating in a record year in 2015, with more than 8.6 million visits recorded.
BERLIN Nike Air Vapormax Flyknit , June 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government has issued international arrest warrants for five former managers and technological developers of Germany's largest automotive manufacturer Volkswagen, German media reported.
The alleged offenses include fraud, conspiracy and violating the U.S. environmental regulations.
The lawyer of the former head of development Heinz-Jakob Neusser, who is among the managers under investigation Nike Air Vapormax , told the German press agency dpa on Friday that this step by the U.S. justice authorities did not come as a surprise.
She called the development an "expectable consequence" of the charges brought up in the U.S.
This warrant is a consequence of the processing of the emissions scandal that started in 2015, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to VW for the manipulation of diesel emissions.
Volkswagen, so far, has paid over 22 billion euros (24.64 billion U.S. dollars) compensation in settlements.
Interpol conducts the search and the five men accused by the U.S. courts cannot leave Germany for fear of arrest in another country Air Vapormax Flyknit Navy , according to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, reporting that the men cannot be arrested in Germany.
While the extradition agreement between Germany and the U.S. in general allows for the transfer of persons convicted of or charged with a crime, it is only applicable to non-German citizens.
Interpol and the U.S. authorities have not commented on the situation.
The emissions scandal is also still under investigation in Germany. The public prosecutor's office in Brunswick, close to the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg Air Vapormax Navy , leads investigations of almost 40 VW employees including the five managers, who now face the arrest warrant issued by the U.S. system of justice.
In the beginning of 2017, a former VW manager was arrested at the airport in Miami, Florida Air Vapormax Flyknit Gold , by the FBI. He assumed a leading position in the VW group until March 2015, responsible for environmental matters in the U.S.
The manager is not eligible to be released on bail, since the U.S. courts fear he would flee to Germany. His trial is expected to start in January 2018.
Volkswagen agreed to pay 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in criminal and civil penalties to settle its emissions cheating scandal involving about 590,000 diesel vehicles in the United States earlier this year.
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SKOPJE, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov signed an agreement on friendship, good neighborly relations, and cooperation here on Tuesday.
The agreement Air Vapormax Flyknit Triple White , which has been negotiated for several years, binds the two countries to cooperate in all fields based on mutual trust and respect. The agreement was immediately followed by memorandums for cooperation in the transport and energy sectors.
"We are taking an historic step forward and we are opening a road for stability and development for our countries. We are determined to lead a policy of solutions, not a policy of problems. And we have found Bulgaria to be our partner with the same goals," Zaev said upon signing the agreement.
The Bulgarian prime minister said this "important agreement" would bring Macedonia closer to NATO and EU.
However Air Vapormax Triple White , the agreement has caused fierce political and scientific debate in Macedonia. The opposition party VMRO-DPMNE already announced it would not support the document in Macedonian Parliament. According to the party, the agreement threatens the national interests of the country, especially the part envisaging that the two countries will celebrate events from their joint history.
VMRO-DPMNE stressed in a written statement issued prior to Borisov's arrival that Bulgaria's demands to put the two countries' joint history into the agreement was "an attempt to confirm the thesis that Macedonian history is actually Bulgarian history, which supports the argument that Macedonia is a fictive nation created in 1944."
The party added that by signing this "capitulation agreement" Macedonia would face serious problems in the near future.