Europe

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/: The chair of the State Duma’s committee on culture, Yelena Yampolskaya, First Deputy Speaker Alexander Zhukov and Senator Alexey Pushkov have submitted to the State Duma (parliament's lower house) a bill banning any public move equating the purposes and actions of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II. The bill was uploaded to the State Duma’s electronic data base on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/: Presidents of Russia and Turkey Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan expect that the countries will be able to resume tourism thanks to measures against the spread of the coronavirus taken by Turkey.

"The mutual opinion is that the measures taken to counter the epidemic will make it possible to achieve cardinal improvement of the situation and resume bilateral ties in the tourism sphere," the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday following their phone call.

The Kremlin added that Erdogan thanked the Russian side for cooperation.

BERLIN, May 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The German government on Wednesday banned a Muslim organisation that it accused of supporting “terrorism globally with its donations”.

Police raided buildings associated with Ansaar International in 10 German states, the German Interior Ministry said in a statement. 

The ministry alleged the money the organisation collected ostensibly went into welfare projects as a ruse to help finance groups such as the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate known as the Nusra Front, the Palestinian group Hamas and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

05 May 2021; MEMO: Germany's Interior Minister has said that far-right crimes in the country have hit a record high.

Far-right offences accounted for more than half of all politically motivated crimes and are at their highest level in 20 years since police started collecting data in 2001.

05 May 2021; MEMO: Germany has expressed its rejection of a recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) describing Israeli practices toward Palestinians as amounting to "the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert that the international human rights watchdog's assumption that "Israel is committing the international law crime of apartheid is explicitly not endorsed by the federal government," Anadolu Agency reported.

(Reuters) --- Bulgaria will hold a snap parliamentary election on July 11, after a third and final attempt to form a government following April 4 polls that led to a fragmented parliament failed, President Rumen Radev said on Wednesday.

Long-serving Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's centre-right GERB again emerged as the largest party after last month's election but it lost seats amid widespread public anger over entrenched corruption in the political elite.

(Reuters) --- Russia is seeking an additional 24 million roubles ($321,586) in fines from U.S. tech giant Twitter (TWTR.N) for failing to remove content banned in Russia, the TASS news agency cited a court as saying on Wednesday.

State communications regulator Roskomnadzor said last week that Twitter was complying with a demand to remove banned content, but taking too long to do so. A punitive slowdown on the service has been extended until May 15. 

ROME, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Ministers of Tourism from the Group of 20, or the G20, on Tuesday pledged support for "safe international mobility initiatives" as a way to help relaunch the world's tourism sector.

The ministers agreed that a normalized global tourism industry was "crucial" to the world's economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Italian Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia told reporters after the day-long virtual meeting of ministers from the G20, which groups 19 countries and the European Union (EU).

ROME (AP) — A jury in Rome on Wednesday began deliberating the fates of two young American men who are charged with killing an Italian police officer near the hotel where they were staying while on summer vacation in 2019.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were indicted on charges of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause.

Judge Marina Finiti indicated the verdicts could come later Wednesday or on Thursday.

MADRID (AP) — Madrid’s conservative leader, a champion of relaxed measures against the coronavirus and a scourge of the left-wing central government’s handling of the pandemic, scored a solid win in a regional election Tuesday.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who had campaigned under the slogan of “Freedom,” was backed by 44% of voters, up from 22% in the last election two years ago, with 99% of the ballot counted. Three rival left-wing parties together had 41%.