Europe

(Reuters) --- Slovenian President Borut Pahor called on Friday for the European Union to speed up the process of admitting the six countries of the Western Balkans to the bloc, calling it a crucial step for the preservation of stability in the region.

Europe and the United States say that the Western Balkans, comprising Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, will ultimately join the EU, after the ethnic wars of the 1990s.

(Reuters) --- The top prosecutor in Cyprus has asked police to investigate possible criminal offences in the running of a cash-for-passports scheme after an official probe suggested thousands of passports may have been wrongly issued to rich foreigners.

The east Mediterranean island awarded citizenship to 6,779 people between 2007 and 2020, the vast majority of them Russians, under the now discredited scheme.

(Reuters) --- The World Health Organization urged rich countries on Friday to reconsider plans to vaccinate children and instead donate COVID-19 shots to the COVAX scheme for poorer countries.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said the second year of the pandemic was set to be more deadly than the first, with India a huge concern.

13 May 2021; MEMO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov agreed Thursday that Israel needs to stop attacks on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reported.

In a phone call, the two top diplomats reiterated that Israel should stop the bloodshed, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 83 Palestinians and injured 487 others, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

(Reuters) --- President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would respond to what he called Ukraine's 'cleansing' of the political space, a day after a Ukrainian court placed a prominent pro-Russian politician under house arrest.

The Ukrainian court put Viktor Medvedchuk, who promotes closer ties with Moscow and says Putin is godfather to his daughter, under house arrest in connection to allegations of treason he faces.

ROME, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has fined Google about 102 million euros (123 million U.S. dollars) for abusing its dominant position in the Italian market, the authority said in a statement on Thursday.

The watchdog said Google violated the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, since the U.S. tech giant refused to allow an Italian company's app to interoperate with Google's Android Auto app which mirrors features of an Android device on a car's dashboard information and entertainment head unit.

LONDON (AP) — Ireland’s health service shut down its IT systems on Friday after being targeted in what it called a “significant ransomware attack.”

The Health Service Executive said the move was a precaution, and appointments for coronavirus vaccinations were not affected.

“We’ve taken a precautionary measure to shut down a lot of our major systems to protect them,” chief executive Paul Reid told broadcaster RTE.

“We are at the very early stages of fully understanding the threats, the impact and trying to contain it.”

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. official leading preparations for the COP26 climate conference reiterated Thursday the intention to hold the delayed summit in person despite the continuing problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Alok Sharma, the U.K.’s president-designate of COP26, said “every possible” measure was being explored, including around COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, to ensure the talks could be held safely.

In less than six months’ time delegates from across the world are due to arrive in Glasgow for the United Nations’ annual conference.

NAXOS, Greece (AP) — In her kitchen, Kyriaki Kapri has enough food to feed an army. Piles of squid for frying, lemons to be quartered, thumb-thick potato wedges to make oregano-sprinkled French fries, and seafood for the dishes famous on the Greek island of Naxos.

She’s done everything she can think of to prepare for tourists at her Naxos beachside restaurant Gorgona — Greek for Mermaid — but customers are still a rare sight.

Greece launched its tourism season Friday amid a competitive scramble across the Mediterranean to lure vacationers emerging from lockdowns.

LONDON (AP) — When London’s Science Museum reopens next week, it will have some new artifacts: empty vaccine vials, testing kits and other items collected during the pandemic, to be featured in a new COVID-19 exhibition.

Britain isn’t quite ready to consign the coronavirus to a museum — the outbreak is far from over here. But there is a definite feeling that the U.K. has turned a corner, and the mood in the country is jubilant. “The end is in sight,” one newspaper front page claimed recently. “Free at last!” read another.