Europe

KIEV, January 10. /TASS/: The version stating that a missile downed a Ukrainian Boeing in Iran has neither been ruled out nor corroborated yet, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Friday.

"The missile strike on the plane is not ruled out but it has not been confirmed as yet either," he said via his Telegram channel.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German exports to Iran roughly halved in the first 11 months of 2019 compared with the same period in the previous year due to U.S. sanctions, preliminary data from the Statistics Office showed on Friday.

Between January and November 2019 German shipments to Iran fell by 48.2% to around 1.3 billion euros ($1.44 billion), the data showed. Germany primarily delivers machines, chemical products, food and pharmaceutical products to Iran.

German imports from Iran dropped by 54.7% to around 191 million euros in the same period.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil slipped towards $65 a barrel on Friday as the threat of war in the Middle East receded and investors focused on rising U.S. inventories and other signs of ample supply.

Crude is now below where it was before a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3. Iran responded with a missile attack on Iraqi air bases hosting U.S. forces this week that left no casualties.

“Immediate escalation has been avoided,” said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. “There has been some de-escalation, but the return of risk is still there.”

GENEVA (Reuters) - Killings, rapes and other violence committed by an ethnic armed group in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo against a rival group may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly even genocide, the United Nations said on Friday.

The attacks in mineral-rich Ituri province have mostly targeted Hema herders, who have long been in conflict with Lendu farmers over grazing rights and political representation.

ZAGREB, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) needs to send a clear message to the Western Balkan countries and remain close to EU-aspiring countries, European Council President Charles Michel said here on Thursday.

Michel is in Croatia to mark the official beginning of the country's six-month rotating EU presidency. During a joint press conference with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Michel said that Western Balkan countries should have a European perspective, as this will also demonstrate the EU's external influence.

LONDON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Britain was on course Thursday to finally end its membership of the European Union (EU) in just three weeks time.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's fast-track race to "get Brexit done" cleared its final hurdle in the House of Commons when his European Union Withdrawal Bill cleared its final hurdle by a vote of 330 to 231.

The bill will now be debated in the House of Lords next week, but given its clear run in the Commons, it is not expected to face any tough opposition, and is almost certain to win Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth within days.

BERLIN (AP) — The landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons has been teetering on the edge of collapse since the United States pulled out unilaterally in 2018. The European Union says it will “spare no effort” to keep the deal alive, but with tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalating into open hostilities it seems increasingly unlikely that will be possible.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE NUCLEAR DEAL FAILS?

ASTRAKHAN, January 9. /TASS/: A short circuit ignited a fire on board an Iranian vessel, VAFA-2, in early December in the Astrakhan seaport, the press service of the emergencies department for the Astrakhan Region told TASS on Thursday.

The fire broke out on board the vessel in the Southern port of Astrakhan on December 2. The ship was loaded with timber, according to the emergencies department. No one was injured as a result of the fire, nor were any goods damaged.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: The St. Petersburg police have detained seven people suspected of trafficking drugs online, having seized 30 kg of amphetamines during the raid, Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk informed TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Speculations about external causes for Wednesday’s Ukraine International Airlines flight crash outside Tehran may ramp up pressure on Iran, Valdai International Discussion Club Program Director Oleg Barabanov told TASS on Thursday.