Europe

DUBLIN, Feb 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – The 2020 general election in Ireland, kicked off at 7:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Saturday as scheduled, with the participation of a record number of female candidates.

Out of 515 candidates, who are either fielded by different political parties or running as independents, more than 160 are women, reported local media, adding that, this is the first general election in the country, in which there is a female candidate running in every constituency.

BERLIN (AP) — A German state governor installed with the help of a far-right party said Saturday he is resigning with immediate effect, three days after his election shook the country’s politics and stoked new tensions in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

Thomas Kemmerich’s announcement came as leaders of Merkel’s governing coalition, meeting in Berlin to discuss the fallout, demanded that he go and the legislature of the eastern state of Thuringia “promptly” choose a successor. They called for that to be followed quickly by a new regional election.

DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland’s three biggest political parties are likely to face a difficult process of forming a new government, with an exit poll suggesting they finished in a virtual dead heat in parliamentary elections Saturday.

The survey conducted for national broadcaster RTE, the Irish Times, TG4 television and University College Dublin by pollster Ipsos MRBI said the Fine Gael party of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein all got about 22% of first preference votes.

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (NNN-TASS) – Russian Foreign Ministry said, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is witnessing manipulation and contraventions that seek to make it a tool for carrying out Western plans.

In a statement commenting on the internal OPCW investigation, into the leaks related to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, the Ministry said, the press conference held by OPCW’s Director General, Fernando Arias, did not address whether the OPCW report was politicised or not.

MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/: The first two microsatellites with laser diodes, which will make it possible to write messages in the sky, will be launched into orbit in 2022, Director of the Project Implementation Department at Russia’s United Rocket and Space Corporation Andrei Divaev told TASS.

"We will transport two devices to the ISS aboard the Progress cargo spacecraft, where a container will be mounted in the transition compartment, which will launch them when the spaceship is undocked," he said.

SOCHI, February 7. /TASS/: Russia and Belarus negotiated gas supplies in this year to be implemented on last-year terms, deputy head of the Russian presidential administration Dmitry Kozak said on Friday after bilateral talks.

"We agreed to keep conditions of gas supplies on terms of the year of 2019," the official said.

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (NNN-SANA) – The Russian Defence Ministry, revealed that the Israeli enemy aircraft, during their attacks against some areas surrounding Damascus, used a civilian aircraft as a shield, against Syrian anti-aircraft systems, and endangered dozens of passengers.

8 February 2020; AFP: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday slammed US sanctions against Venezuela as "illegal" during an official visit to Caracas.

"These sanctions are illegal and are the main cause of the crisis in the Venezuelan economy," said Lavrov after meeting his Venezuelan counterpart Jorge Arreaza.

LONDON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The British government has started developing the country's new tariff regime for imports after the Brexit transition period, which ends in December this year.

It is the latest effort by the British government to shape its post-Brexit trade policy. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain will seek a Canada-style trade agreement with the European Union (EU) as part of its future trade relationship with the bloc, and diverge from EU rules.

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The impact of Brexit on Spain is still very uncertain, and very much depends on the trade deal to be negotiated during the transition period, an expert said on Friday.

Britain officially left the European Union (EU) on Jan. 31, 2020, putting an end to its 47-year-long membership of the world's largest trading bloc. The remaining 27 EU member states have agreed to negotiate a trade deal with the UK by the end of 2020.