Europe

BERLIN (AP) — A man intentionally drove a car into a crowd at a Carnival parade in a small town in central Germany, injuring around 30 people including children, officials said Monday.

The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen near Kassel, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, prosecutors said. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide.

MOSCOW, February 24. / TASS /: The cost of futures for Brent crude oil for delivery in April 2020 on the ICE exchange in London fell by 2.9% to $ 56.87 per barrel, according to trading data at 02:17 Moscow time.

The last time the oil price was below $ 57 per barrel on February 14, 2020. The cost of WTI crude oil fell by 2.4% to $ 52.12 per barrel.

MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/: Russian inspectors will perform an observation flight over Turkey in the framework of the Open Skies Treaty, Head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center Sergey Ryzhkov said.

"The observation flight over the territory of Turkey will be performed on February 25-28, 2020 from the Open Skies airfield of Eskisehir. The maximum flight range will be 1,900 km," Ryzhkov said.

The flight will be carried out by the Russian surveillance plane Tu-154M-LK-1.

MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/: A new batch of British OneWeb communication satellites has been sent from a Florida plant to the Baikonur spaceport, the press service of the company’s branch in Russia said on Monday.

"The plane with 34 satellites took off at 01.55 Moscow Time from the United States," a spokesperson said.

The delivery to Baikonur is expected on February 25.

Earlier, OneWeb’s press service told TASS that the second launch of British satellites from the Baikonur spaceport was scheduled for the second half of March.

MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/: No negative predictions should be made about the development of Russian-Turkish relations amid a recent escalation in the Syrian region of Idlib, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a televised interview with Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin program on Rossiya’1 channel on Sunday.

MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/: Chinese authorities are confident that the novel coronavirus outbreak will be defeated soon and a normal life will resume in most regions across the country by the end of February.

A supposedly effective vaccine has been developed that helps mount an immune response against the infection, and it needs to be fine-tuned and tested, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told reporters on Monday.

24 February 2020; AFP: Two US students go on trial in Italy on Wednesday over the fatal stabbing last year of a policeman in Rome during a botched drug bust.

Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, teenagers at the time of the attack last July, have been charged with killing newlywed Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, who was stabbed 11 times. They face a life sentence if convicted.

24 February 2020; AFP: Britain on Monday began hearing Washington's extradition request for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in a test case of media freedoms in the digital age and the limits of US justice.

A ruling against the 48-year-old Australian could see him jailed for 175 years if convicted on all 17 US Espionage Act charges and one count of computer hacking he faces.

ROME, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Italy scrambled to check the spread of Europe’s first major outbreak of the new viral disease amid rapidly rising numbers of infections and a third death, calling off the popular Venice Carnival, scrapping major league soccer matches in the stricken area and shuttering theaters, including Milan’s legendary La Scala.

LONDON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Britain is expected to re-introduce its blue passports from next month after almost three decades to mark its departure from the European Union (EU), the British government has announced.

Championed by Brexiteers, the distinctive blue cover documents will replace the standard-issue burgundy passports that were rolled out across EU countries from 1988.

The first new blue passports will be issued and delivered early next month. By mid-2020, all new passports will be blue, said the government.