Europe

22 January 2020; AFP: A trailblazing judge with particular expertise in environmental law and the constitution will become Greece's first female president on Wednesday.

The candidacy of Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou has already won cross-party support and been welcomed by some commentators as a consensus candidate during a difficult time for Greek foreign policy.

ROME (Reuters) - Luigi di Maio will step down as leader of Italy’s co-governing 5-Star movement on Wednesday, a senior 5-Star source said.

Di Maio, who is also foreign minister, is expected to meet other 5-Star ministers during the morning and is due to announce his resignation at a party meeting in the afternoon, several newspapers reported.

Di Maio and his spokesman declined to comment.

Italian government bond yields jumped 5-8 bps across the yield curve on the reports.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (NNN-XINHUA) – The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, opened here yesterday with a focus on renewing the concept of stakeholder capitalism, to overcome income inequality, societal division and the climate crisis.

Themed “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World,” the meeting convened around 3,000 participants from over 100 countries and regions.

MOSCOW, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed new cabinet members on Tuesday, according to the decrees Kremlin published on its website.

According to one of the decrees, the new government has reduced its former ten deputy prime ministers to nine. A former Kremlin aide Andrey Belousov became First Deputy Prime Minister.

Yury Borisov, Yury Trutnev and Tatyana Golikova remain the deputy prime ministers.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting opened here Tuesday with a focus on renewing the concept of stakeholder capitalism to overcome income inequality, societal division and the climate crisis.

Themed "Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World," the meeting convened around 3,000 participants from over 100 countries and regions.

Davos, Jan 21 (PTI) A record level of pessimism has creeped into the CEOs across the world regarding the worldwide economic growth, a much sought after survey showed here on the first evening of the WEF annual meeting.

For the first time, more than half of the CEOs surveyed by global consultancy PwC said they believe the rate of global GDP growth will decline.

MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/: Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will hold an Emergency Committee session on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China on Wednesday, the WHO said in a statement published on its official Twitter account.

"WHO Director-General [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] will convene an Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) under the International Health Regulations. The Committee will meet on Wednesday, 22 January 2020," the statement said.

MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/: Syrian servicemen with support of the National Defense Forces have repelled attacks staged by terrorists from the Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia) to the north-east of Palmyra (in 240 km from Damascus), Al Masdar news portal reported.

SARAJEVO, Jan 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – Peaceful protests were held by Sarajevo residents, over problem of air pollution in the capital, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

“We want to make citizens aware that there is more potential for certain activities to be undertaken, so that our children do not inhale poisoned air,” Sanjin Gijo, one of the protesters said.

VLADIVOSTOK, January 21. /TASS/: The Vsevolod Sibirtsev depot ship has picked up 47 people evacuated from the Enigma Astralis fishing vessel that had caught fire in the Sea of Okhotsk, the head of Dobroflot company, which owns the depot ship, Alexander Efremov told TASS.

The fire broke out onboard the trawler earlier on Tuesday. Rescuers have arrived at the scene some 130 kilometers from Magadan. According to preliminary data, no one has been injured and there is no environmental threat.