Europe

VALLETTA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- A group of 63 migrants rescued from their stalled boat which was taking in water in Malta's search and rescue zone, have arrived in Malta, local media Times of Malta reported on Friday.

The migrants were rescued earlier in the day following the alarm from NGO Alarm Phone which they contacted for help on Thursday as their boat was taking in water in rough seas. Alarm Phone offers a hotline service which people in distress at sea can resort to.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders were hunting for compromises Saturday as a summit to reach a deal on an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund entered its second day with tensions running high.

A full day and night of discussions by the 27 leaders on Friday only added to the irritations over how the huge sums should be spent and what strings should be attached.

NANTES, France (AP) — French officials launched an arson inquiry Saturday after a fire broke out in the Gothic cathedral of the western French city of Nantes, shattering stained glass windows and sending black smoke spewing from between its towers.

Residents and tourists watched aghast, and emergency workers cordoned off the area around the St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, in the historical center of this city on the Loire River.

MOSCOW (AP) — Tens of thousands of people in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk took to the streets on Saturday, protesting the arrest of the region’s governor on charges of involvement in multiple murders.

Brussels, Jul 18 (AP/PTI) The European Union is warning the Trump administration to hold off threatening trade sanctions against EU companies involved in the completion of new German-Russian and Turkish-Russian natural gas pipelines and instead discuss differences as allies.

This week, the Trump administration warned companies involved in the projects they will be subject to US penalties unless they halt their work.

17 July 2020; MEMO: Three French police officers have been charged with manslaughter of a delivery driver after a coroner ruled he died of asphyxia and a broken larynx.

Police stopped 42-year-old father of five, Cedric Chouviat, of Algerian origin, who was riding on his scooter near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in January.

Footage reviewed by investigators shows him shouting “I’m suffocating” seven times whilst officers held him down, still wearing his helmet.

MOSCOW, July 16./TASS/: The final, phase 3, trials of a Russian vaccine against coronavirus developed by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology may be completed quicker than in other countries, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, told the Vesti news program on Rossiya-1television on Thursday.

"This is the final phase that is necessary to put the vaccine into active use. And we believe that Russia will possibly go through this phase quicker than other countries," Dmitriev said.

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: The United States will have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to make its existing missile shield efficient against hypersonic missiles, chief of the Russian National Centre for Nuclear Risk Reduction Sergei Ryzhkov said in an interview published by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on Friday.

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: Moscow’s Basmanny Court arrested three more people involved in the case of trading in toddlers of surrogate mothers, while putting the fourth under house arrest, court spokeswoman Irina Morozova told TASS.

The newly arrested include a gynecologist, an interpreter and a surrogate motherhood center CEO.

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: About 150,000 troops, over 26,000 weapon systems, 414 aircraft and 106 warships are involved a snap combat readiness check that kicked off for Russia’s Southern and Western Military Districts, the Airborne Force and marine infantry of the Northern and Pacific Fleets, Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu announced on Friday.