Europe

GENEVA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Over the past 25 years, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has helped transform international economic relations, said Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the WTO, on Wednesday.

"Binding rules for global trade in goods and services have facilitated dramatic growth in cross-border business activity," said Azevedo in a written statement, marking the 25th founding anniversary of the WTO, which was established on Jan. 1, 1995.

ZAGREB, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Croatia began to preside over the Council of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday, the first time since its EU accession in July 2013.

In his New Year's message, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic mentioned Tuesday that the presidency will further enhance the political and economic affirmation of Croatia in 2020, and that the new year will be a year of further economic development and international positioning of Croatia.

VIENNA, Jan 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Austria’s conservatives and the Greens agreed to form a coalition government, ending almost three months of negotiations.

The agreement means Austria will have the left-wing Greens in government for the first time.

“We have reached an agreement,” Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s former chancellor and leader of conservative People’s Party, told reporters, in a joint press conference with Wener Kogler, his counterpart from the Greens.

LONDON, Jan 2 (NNN-TNA) – A “boycott Cyprus” movement has been launched in the UK, in support of a teenager, who has been convicted for lying, about being raped whilst on holiday in Cyprus.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019, according to a report by an aviation consulting firm.

The To70 consultancy said Wednesday that 257 people died in eight fatal accidents in 2019. That compares to 534 deaths in 13 fatal accidents in 2018.

The 2019 death toll rose in late December after a Bek Air Fokker 100 crashed Friday on takeoff in Kazakhstan, killing 12 people. The worst crash of 2019 involved an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX plane that crashed March 10, killing 157 people.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/: Amendments to the law ‘On currency regulation and currency control’ relates to the liberalization of restrictions for international trade settlements, entered into force on January 1, 2020. The government of the Russian Federation spearheaded those amendments to legislation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law in early August 2019.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: US President Donald Trump has marked "great and important coordination" between Russia and the United States, thanks to which Russian intelligence services managed to prevent terrorist attacks in Russia.

"President Putin of Russia called to thank me and the U.S. for informing them of a planned terrorist attack in the very beautiful city of Saint Petersburg, They were able to quickly apprehend the suspects with many lives being saved. Great and important coordination!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/: On January 1, Moscow is taking over the one-year chairmanship of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Russia plans to carry out about 150 activities at various levels during its chairmanship, which will culminate in July, when St. Petersburg will host the next BRICS summit. The five countries’ leaders will hold another meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/: Nearly 200,000 Donbass residents obtained fast-trace Russian citizenship in 2019, a Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson told TASS.

"More than 196,000 people have become Russian citizens," the spokesperson said, adding that 136,000 of them were residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), while others came from other areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

WARSAW, January 1: Polish regional authorities continue to fight for the preservation of about 30-35 monuments dedicated to the Red Army, Jerzy Tyts, head of the Kursk memorial organization told TASS.

The Kursk organization works to repair and restore monuments and resting places of Red Army soldiers in Poland.