Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - For years, Bank of England boss Mark Carney warned of the economic risks of Britain leaving the European Union. Now that it has happened, he says there could be a silver lining in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to boost growth.

Speaking to Reuters a month before he ends his nearly seven-year term as BoE governor, Carney said Britain was moving to address its main economic problem - weak productivity.

PARIS (Reuters) - Benjamin Griveaux, French President Emmanuel Macron’s preferred candidate for Mayor of Paris, said on Friday he had decided to withdraw his candidacy following what he said were “ignoble attacks” on his private life.

“I have decided to withdraw my candidacy from the municipal election,” Griveaux said in a televised address.

French media said Griveaux made the decision after the publication on the internet of sexual material concerning him.

MILAN (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the government could collapse after his small centrist party boycotted a cabinet meeting over a contested justice reform and the prime minister suggested he was ready to resign.

Italy’s cabinet on Thursday approved a reform of the statute of limitations, which wipes out trials if a verdict is not reached within a set limits.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced on Thursday that the United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence in Afghanistan.

"We've said all along the best, if not only, solution in Afghanistan is a political agreement," Esper told reporters following a two-day NATO defense ministerial meeting in Brussels.

Without giving any clear timetable, Esper only said "progress has been on this front, and we have more to report on that soon."

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Brexit drama shook the foundations of the European Union for years and laid bare the need for much-delayed political renovations at the 27-nation bloc. But now that Britain has finally left, where does the EU revamp even start and who is going to foot the bill?

Those questions loom large for EU officials and European leaders alike, because substantial structural changes require some common vision of what a future EU should look like.

13 Feb 2020; MEMO: NATO is considering an increase to its training mission in Iraq to relieve the burden on the US-led coalition against Daesh, senior officials and diplomats said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

NATO and the coalition have non-combat “train-and-advise” missions which aim to develop Iraqi security forces but both are suspended over fears for regional stability after a US drone strike killed a top Iranian commander in Baghdad on Jan. 3.

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/: A court in Rostov has sentenced Doctor of Technical Science Alexei Temirev, of Novocherkassk, to 7.5 years in a maximum security penitentiary for high treason. The court’s press-service told TASS Temirev’s trial was fast-tracked.

"The court found Temirev guilty under article 275 of the Criminal Code (High Treason) and sentenced him to seven years and six months in a maximum security penitentiary. Also, Temirev’s freedom will be restricted for one year after the prison term," the court’s spokeswoman said.

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has great respect for the Ukrainian people, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"President Putin has always had great respect for the Ukrainian nation," Peskov stressed, adding that Putin has stated the same on numerous occasions.

"Unfortunately, this has not been reciprocated by previous Ukrainian leaders," the spokesman stated.

GENEVA, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has extended its global emergency designation for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but said the sharp decline in cases was “extremely positive”.

“As long as there is a single case of Ebola in an area as insecure and unstable as eastern DRC, the potential remains for a much larger epidemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists.

THE HAGUE, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Netherlands has turned down an offer by Russia to prosecute three men suspected of involvement in the 2014 downing of a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine, the Dutch justice minister said.

Ferd Grapperhaus said Moscow sent a letter in October last year in which it asked whether the Dutch would consider transferring the criminal prosecution of three suspects to Russia.