Europe

MOSCOW, February 20. / TASS /: The founder of the online retailer Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk topped the list of Russia's richest women, Forbes magazine said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the publication, her fortune reached $1.4 bln. Bakalchuk pushed off the permanent leader of the list of past years, Elena Baturin, the head of Inteco Management and widow of Moscow's former mayor Yuri Luzhkov, with the fortune of $ 1.2 bln.

20 February 2020; AFP: Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the "poison" of racism Thursday after a shooter with suspected far-right beliefs killed nine people at a shisha bar and a cafe in the German city of Hanau.

The suspect, identified as 43-year-old German Tobias R., was found dead at his home following an hours-long manhunt.

The body of his 72-year-old mother was also found at the flat in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Thursday supported by China’s efforts to boost its economy, a drop in new coronavirus cases at the epicentre of the outbreak and supply concerns in Venezuela and Libya.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 37 cents at $59.49 a barrel by 1300 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 climbed 49 cents to $53.78 per barrel.

China’s move to cut its benchmark lending rate on Thursday also helped ease worries about slowing demand in the world’s second-biggest oil consumer and largest crude oil importer. [nAPN0BMKPH]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande sealed a breakthrough deal on the European Union’s last joint budget in 2013, negotiating in a backroom of a Paris stadium where Germany and France were facing off in a friendly soccer game.

“We did that in a room with concrete walls inside the Stade de France,” said a French diplomat who was present for the talks between the leaders of the two top EU powers. “We were negotiating there for an hour, and sometimes we could hear a huge roar coming from the 50,000 people in the stadium.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for cyber-attacks on Georgia, including a major assault that knocked out thousands of state, private and media websites last year.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of the GCHQ signals intelligence agency, has assessed with high probability that Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) carried out the October attack.

HANAU (Germany), Feb 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A gunman suspected of shooting nine people dead at two shisha bars in a southwestern German city has been found dead at his home, police said.

Another body was discovered at the home of the man in Hanau, a city east of the financial hub of Frankfurt where the shootings took place.

“There are no indications that other suspects were involved,” police said in a statement. “One of the two dead people found is highly likely the perpetrator.”

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sacked Vladislav Surkov, one of his chief advisers and the architect of Russia’s Ukraine policy who was viewed among the country’s most powerful men. 

The dismissal of the 55-year-old Surkin was announced on the Kremlin website but there was no indication of what his new job would be. 

BERLIN, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The German government passed a law on Wednesday to combat serious cases of right-wing extremism and hate crime on the internet.

Social networks in Germany now have to report certain postings to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), according to the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV).

Under the new law, social networks should report postings that disseminate propaganda material of unconstitutional organizations.

LONDON, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The future relationship between Britain and the European Union (EU) is a "different ball game" to the one the EU has with Canada due to Britain's proximity to the bloc, a key EU aide said here Wednesday.

Addressing a conference at the London School of Economics (LSE), Stefaan De Rynck, senior advisor of chief EU negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier, said Britain is too geographically close to the EU for a Canada-style trade deal without guarantees that Britain will not undercut European standards.

ROME (AP) — Authorities in northern Italy arrested the captain of a Lebanese-flagged cargo ship on suspicion of international arms trafficking Wednesday while they investigate if the vessel transported tanks, rockets and other weapons from Turkey to Libya.

The captain is under investigation for allegedly transferring military goods to Libya with as-yet unidentified Turkish military officials in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, Italian prosecutor Franceso Pinto told The Associated Press.