Europe

MUNICH (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday he would allow North Macedonia and Albania to begin talks on joining the European Union if the bloc’s executive gave them a positive review next month.

Macron’s comments at the Munich Security Conference look set to end his freeze on the two Balkan countries’ progress towards EU membership and reassure other European leaders that France still backs expanding the bloc to new members.

MUNICH (Reuters) - China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed U.S. criticism of his country as “lies” on Saturday, shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized its foreign policy and desire for “empire”.

“All these accusations against China are lies, not based on facts,” Wang told the Munich Security Conference. “But if we replace the subject of the lie from China to America, maybe those lies become facts.”

KIEV, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and discussed implementing agreements reached during a summit in Paris, the Ukrainian president's press service said Friday.

At the last meeting of the Normandy Four leaders in Paris earlier this month after a three-year interval, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a comprehensive implementation of a ceasefire in Donbass by the end of 2019.

ATHENS, Feb 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — The European Investment Bank (EIB) will channel billions of euros this year to Greece to assist the recovery of its economy, the lender’s president Werner Hoyer said.

Last year the EIB committed funds of 2 billion euros to credit lines for various projects in Greece, and the lender is about to sustain its contribution this year.

“We will not go below this level, as Greece has a high level of ambition,” Hoyer, who is on a two-day visit in Athens, at a press conference with Greece’s Minister of Rural Development and Food Makis Voridis.

KIEV, Feb 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and discussed implementing agreements reached during a summit in Paris, the Ukrainian president’s press service said.

At the last meeting of the Normandy Four leaders in Paris earlier this month after a three-year interval, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a comprehensive implementation of a ceasefire in Donbass by the end of 2019.

BERLIN, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German police detained 12 men, including one of its own officers, on Friday suspected of setting up a far-right organisation with the goal of carrying out attacks against politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (GBA) said.

The arrests followed raids, some by heavily-armed special units, which hit 13 locations in six German states.

GENEVA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday called for proper use of personal protection equipment (PPE) against COVID-19, as appropriate training and behavior in how to use PPE may play an even more important role.

"The PPE is just one element of protection; more importantly is how to use the PPE," said Sylvie Briand, director of the Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness at WHO, at a daily briefing on COVID-19.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday that China is willing to continuously strengthen dialogue and cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Wang made the remarks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference.

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say one person has been killed and three others injured following a shooting late Friday outside a Berlin music venue.

Police in the German capital said Saturday that unknown people opened fire outside the Tempodrom, located near Potsdamer Platz in the center of the city.

The suspects were able to flee.

It was unclear whether the shooting was linked to the event being staged inside the venue Friday night, a Turkish comedy night.

Berlin has one of the highest number of killings per person among European capitals.

MUNICH (AP) — The United States and the Taliban have agreed to a temporary truce that, if successful, would open the way for a deal that would bring American troops home from Afghanistan and end 18 years of war.

The peace deal would call for negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict to start next month, an eventual countrywide cease-fire and a commitment from the Taliban not to harbor terrorist groups like al Qaida, while setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.