Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Friday he is ending his hunger strike after getting medical attention and being warned by his doctors that continuing it would put his life at risk.

In a message posted to his Instagram account, Navalny said he will continue to demand a visit from his doctor to address numbness in his legs and arms -– his main demand. But he said he would halt the strike on its 24th day after having been examined by doctors who were not affiliated with the prison, something he called “a huge progress.”

RAMBOUILLET, France (AP) — French authorities opened a terrorism investigation and detained three people after a police official was stabbed to death inside a police station outside Paris. Officers shot and killed the attacker at the scene Friday, authorities said.

The attack stunned the quiet residential neighborhood near the famed historic chateau of Rambouillet, and prompted renewed French government promises to fight extremism and protect police.

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko did not discuss merging the two countries into a single state at their talks in Moscow on April 22, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"No, a merger of the states into a single one [was] not [discussed]," he affirmed when responding to a question on the issue. "As for integration issues, integration is a permanent process, it is a living mechanism. Integration issues are on the agenda all the time."

TALLINN, April 23. /TASS/: Estonia is expelling a Russian diplomat as a sign of solidarity with the Czech Republic, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"As a sign of solidary [with the Czech Republic], Estonia will expel a Russian diplomat whose activities do not correspond to diplomatic activities agreed on in the Vienna Convention," the ministry said.

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/: The Moscow City Court sentenced Alexei Vorobyov Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), to 20 years in prison over charges of treason, the court press service told TASS Friday.

BRUSSELS, April 23. /TASS/: The European Union is calling on Russia to reverse its decision to close a part of the Black Sea near Crimea and restrict the air space over the peninsula until October 31, Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU Peter Stano told TASS on Friday.

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss bilateral relations at a possible meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, the Crimea issue does not exist, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"The president himself said that it was possible to discuss bilateral relations, there is no such issue as Crimea," he said.

(Reuters) --- Britain’s parliament called on Wednesday for the government to take action to end what lawmakers described as genocide in China’s Xinjiang region, stepping up pressure on ministers to go further in their criticism of Beijing.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government again steered clear of declaring genocide over what it says are "industrial-scale" human rights abuses against the mainly Muslim Uighur community in Xinjiang. Ministers say any decision on declaring a genocide is up to the courts.

(Reuters) --- Coronavirus vaccines remain out of reach in the poorest countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Friday, marking the first anniversary of the COVAX dose-sharing facility.

"Nearly 900 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 81% have gone to high- or upper middle-income countries, while low-income countries have received just 0.3%," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator set up a year ago.

(Reuters) --- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will discuss on Friday Budapest's plans for spending its share of the EU's post-COVID-19 economic stimulus - for which Hungary has yet to give final consent.

Hungary is among 10 European Union countries that have not yet approved the plan for the EU executive to borrow an unprecedented 750 billion euros and then disburse money to the 27 member states to help them revive economic growth.