Europe

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court on Wednesday ordered Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga be handed over to a United Nations tribunal for trial.

U.N. prosecutors accuse Kabuga of bankrolling and arming ethnic Hutu militias that killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994. He is indicted for genocide and incitement to commit genocide, among other charges.

Kabuga, whose arrest in Paris in May ended a manhunt that lasted more than two decades, has called the charges lies.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man for driving offices on Wednesday after a car collided with two people near Sloane Square in central London.

“Cordons were put in place and buildings in the surrounding area were evacuated as a precaution while officers searched the vehicle,” the Met police said in a statement. “A man was subsequently arrested for driving offences.”

The lawmaker for the area, Greg Hands, had previously tweeted that he was hearing a vehicle had mounted the pavement and struck pedestrians.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday he was not sure whether now was the right time to shake up the format of the Group of Seven after U.S. President Donald Trump said it was a “very outdated group of countries” in its current format.

“I have doubts about whether it makes sense to create another intermediate format,” Maas told reporters, adding that it remained to be seen whether it was the right time for such a move.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire criticized U.S. threats of trade sanctions over digital service taxes, which he said clashed with its calls for G7 unity on other issues.

Washington launched probes on Tuesday into digital services taxes being adopted or considered by Britain, Italy, Brazil and other countries, following an earlier investigation into France, in a move that could lead to new punitive tariffs.

LONDON, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Britain and the European Union started a fourth round of talks on a post-Brexit trade deal on Tuesday.

Negotiators from London and Brussels will engage in intensive talks over the coming week via video link.

Previous rounds of talks in Apr and May ended in a stalemate, with London and Brussels blaming each other for the lack of progress.

ROME/BRUSSLES, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Europe-based airlines are starting to resume services step by step, as countries try to revive tourism, as a way to bring their economies, battered hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, back to life.

Alitalia, Italy’s flagship airline, formally launched long-haul flight from Rome to New York on Tuesday (yesterday), a day before the country opens its borders to other Schengen countries. The eight-hour flight will run twice a week.

PARIS, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) – With 107 COVID-19 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, France’s total death toll from the coronavirus-caused disease rose to 28,940 on Tuesday, official figures showed.

Among the deaths, 18,590 were reported in hospitals, 84 more than the day before, 10,350 were reported at nursing homes and medico-social establishments, since Mar 1, said the Health Ministry in a statement.

MOSCOW, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Russia reserves the right to retaliate for nuclear attacks, according to a decree on the fundamentals of Russia's state policy of nuclear deterrence, which was signed by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"The Russian Federation reserves the right to launch a nuclear strike either in response to a similar attack or in the event of a threat to the existence of the state," the decree reads.

VALLETTA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Police were called in on Tuesday to help quell a protest at one of Malta's detention centers where hundreds of migrants were demanding "freedom."

The protest, which lasted from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., was kept under control. No major incidents were reported.

The migrants held at a detention center in the harbor village of Marsa waved towels, banged on windows and chanted "We want freedom."

02 June 2020; MEMO: The Turkish Ambassador to Greece, Burak Ozugergin said his country’s exploration activities in the Mediterranean Sea are within the framework of international law.

The official was summoned by the Greek Foreign Ministry yesterday after the Turkish government’s gazette published applications by Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) for an exploration permit in the Mediterranean Sea.