Europe

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/: Tuesday’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proved to be important but it is too early to speak about positive changes in Russia-US relations, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Undoubtedly, it was important, the very fact that a Russian minister was received by the US president was important," he said, commenting on the meeting between Lavrov and Trump. "However, it is too early to speak about positive changes in bilateral relations," Peskov added.

11 December 2019; AFP: Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed Wednesday to "fight for every vote" after polls predicted a close finish to Britain's general election aimed at settling the Brexit crisis.

Britons head to the polls for the third time in four years on Thursday, against a backdrop of political deadlock since a 2016 referendum which saw a majority opt to leave the EU.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is ready to start negotiations on its future relationship with Britain as soon as Britain leaves the bloc, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of EU leaders on Brexit on Friday.

Britain will hold parliamentary elections on Thursday after years of negotiations on the terms of its withdrawal from the EU did not produce a result that would get sufficient support in the British parliament.

The British election results are likely to be known early on Friday.

MADRID (Reuters) - U.N. chief Antonio Guterres exhorted the world’s major economies on Wednesday to signal more ambitious commitments to cut greenhouse emissions as climate talks in Madrid hit an intense phase.

“We need to have the big emitters understanding that their role is essential, because if the big emitters fail, everything will fail,” Guterres told Reuters in an interview.

“If we just go on as we are, we are doomed.”

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday rejected accusations of genocide committed against her country’s Muslim Rohingya minority as “incomplete and misleading”, and said the case should not be heard by the U.N.’s highest court.

The Nobel Peace laureate, speaking during three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice, challenged allegations in a lawsuit brought by Gambia last month accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.

LONDON (Reuters) - The two main parties in Britain’s election on Thursday offer contrasting plans on spending, tax, the role of the state, trade unions and Brexit.

Below is a summary of the main economic policies of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.

SPENDING

Johnson is already loosening the purse strings after nearly 10 years of cuts for many public services. He approved the biggest rise in day-to-day spending in 15 years in September.

ATHENS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Greece supports Serbia's European perspective, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos told visiting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday.

"We Greeks, Greece, support your (EU) accession process and I stress that this is not only because of our friendship, but because you rise up to meet the requirements of the European structure. We are here ... to help ...so that your steps towards accession will become faster," Pavlopoulos said in a joint statement broadcast on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

GENEVA, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is facing its first "lockout" crisis in nearly 25 years.

PARIS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- French transport workers walked off the job, hitting train, metro and bus services on Tuesday for the sixth consecutive day, while civil servants, teachers and students joined the strike to bend the government over its plan to reform the country's pension system.

Demonstrations were called across France during the day, the second such action in less than a week, as unions are looking to fill the streets in a show of force to push their demand to drop a planned universal pension system.

MADRID (AP) — New York billionaire and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg led a high-powered charge against President Donald Trump’s climate policies Tuesday, assuring activists, scientists and politicians from around the world that Americans are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions “even with a climate change denier in the White House.”

Bloomberg, who launched his 2020 campaign less than three weeks ago, spoke during a trip to the U.N. global climate conference in Madrid, even as the official U.S. delegation at a booth nearby kept a low profile.