Europe

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of greeting to US President Donald Trump and confirmed the invitation to the US leader to visit Moscow in May 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin’s press-service said.

30 Dec 2019; MEMO: German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called on Sunday for a permanent ceasefire in the Idlib Governorate, northwestern Syria.

LONDON (Reuters) - Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg said on Monday that talking to U.S. President Donald Trump at a United Nations summit on global warming would have been a waste of time since he would not have paid any attention.

In an interview with BBC radio’s Today program, for which she was the guest editor on Monday, Thunberg also said she regarded personal attacks on her as funny and that she hoped to go back to having a normal life.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s state attorney called on Monday for the release of Catalan separatist Oriol Junqueras from prison, in what was widely seen as a gesture of political goodwill as the Socialist Party seeks support to form a government.

The state attorney’s office asked the Spanish Supreme Court to let Junqueras go to Brussels to take his seat as a European MP. He was sentenced in October to 13 years in prison over his role in a failed 2017 bid for Catalan independence.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose to three-month highs on Monday, underpinned by optimism over an expected China-U.S. trade deal and upbeat industrial data, while traders kept a close watch on the Middle East following U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 0.9% at $68.75 a barrel, up 59 cents. The international benchmark has risen around 27% in 2019.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose 22 cents or 0.2% to $61.94 a barrel by 0940 GMT. The U.S. benchmark is up about 36% so far this year.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The court proceedings examining criminal responsibility in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which will start in March next year, will hopefully bring closure for the victim’s next-of-kin, families and relatives, says Ukrainian Ambassador to Malaysia Olexander Nechytaylo.

The envoy believes that the new development will help bring justice for all the 298 people on board, including 15 crew members, who perished.

ATHENS/ANKARA/TRIPOLI, Dec 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greece wants to be included in UN-sponsored talks in January on the Libya conflict, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, as tensions escalate with neighbours Turkey over the issue.

Libya has become another diplomatic front for Greece and Turkey as the traditional rivals jostle over Mediterranean maritime rights and the competing camps in the North African country’s conflict.

MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday discussed by telephone the exchange of prisoners in east Ukraine, Russian gas supplies to Europe and the situation in Libya.

The two leaders gave a positive assessment of the "all for all" prisoner swap that took place in the Donetsk region on Sunday, said a Kremlin press release.

Putin and Merkel also discussed issues of cooperation in the gas sector, confirming the readiness for further support of the Nord Stream 2 project.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the law setting the minimum rate of labor payment in Russia at 12,130 rubles ($195.5) starting January 1, 2020. The document was published on the official website of legal information on Saturday.

Currently the minimum wage amount is 11,280 rubles ($181.8).

KIEV, December 29. /TASS/: The Kiev Court of Appeal ruled to release on personal recognizance former officers of the Berkut riot police unit, charged with a violent crackdown on protestors on Kiev’s Maidan Square in early 2014.

"The court resolved to change the measure of pretrial restraint from arrest to [release on] personal recognizance," the judge announced.

Nationalists, who were present in the court hall, started chanting "Shame!" when the decision was announced.