Europe

LONDON, March 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UK has promised to return to Nigeria £4.2m which was stolen by a former governor.

Former Delta State Governor James Ibori was convicted of money laundering in the UK in 2012.

Prosecutors say he stole an estimated £117m from the oil-rich state.

This is the first time that money recovered from criminals will be returned to Nigeria since an agreement was signed in 2016, the UK authorities say.

WARSAW, March 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Poland has denied claims it blocked French Minister for European Affairs, Clement Beaune, from the country’s regions that declared themselves as so-called LGBT-free zones, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said.

Beaune said on Monday that during a working visit, Polish officials deprived him entry to the eastern city of Krasnik, which last year declared itself as unwelcoming of LGBT ideology, citing COVID-19 restrictions.

ATHENS, March 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Greek police officer was seriously injured after clashes broke out during a demonstration in an Athens suburb against police violence, prompted by a video that appeared to show a man being beaten on Sunday by officers in the area.

More than 5,000 people marched through the densely populated residential area of Nea Smyrni. Some banners read “Cops out of our neighbourhoods”.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Armenian government said the dismissal of a top army general at the centre of a political crisis had come into force on Wednesday almost two weeks after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan fired him as he accused the military of a coup attempt.

The army’s general staff and senior military figures demanded Pashinyan leave power on Feb. 25 in the ex-Soviet republic of less than 3 million.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union responded on Wednesday to a summons from Britain in a dispute over accusations of vaccine nationalism, the latest in a series of skirmishes between the bloc and its former member since it left the EU.

The EU would send charge d’affaires Nicole Mannion, effectively the EU deputy ambassador to Britain, to a morning meeting with British foreign office permanent under-secretary Philip Barton, an EU official said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were steady on Wednesday, supported by an OECD forecast for the global economic recovery and by OPEC+ output curbs, but held in check by rising U.S. inventories.

Brent crude fell 2 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $67.50 a barrel by 0943 GMT.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 11 cents, or 0.2%, at $64.12 a barrel.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in retaliation for its alleged failure to remove banned content and threatened a total block if the U.S. platform did not comply with its deletion demands.

The move, which escalates a growing stand-off between Moscow and U.S. social media, comes weeks after Russian authorities accused Twitter and others of failing to delete posts it said illegally urged children to take part in anti-Kremlin protests.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

09 Mar 2021; MEMO: Turkey is an essential factor for stability in the Western Balkans, one of the presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina said yesterday.

"Turkey is an important country in the world and an important stability factor in the Western Balkans," said Sefik Dzaferovic, the Bosniak member of the country's three-man presidency. "It has good relations with all Western Balkan countries, and this is very important for Bosnia and Herzegovina."

10 Mar 2021; MEMO: France announced yesterday that researchers and historians will get easier access to classified government documents, especially those related to the controversial Algeria war, Anadolu news agency reported.

The French Presidency said in a statement that President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the French archives services to speed up access to documents that are more than 50 years old, "notable documents relating to the Algerian war".

BRUSSELS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- John Kerry, the United States' Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, on Tuesday underlined the cooperation between the U.S. and European Union (EU) on the fight against the climate crisis during his visit to Brussels.

Kerry stressed that the world is facing not only a climate crisis but also "a moment of the greatest opportunity that we've had since perhaps the industrial revolution to build better to renew ourselves and our economies."