Europe

2 December 2019; AFP: Three emergency workers were killed in a helicopter crash near Marseille while on a rescue mission in flood-hit southern France, the interior ministry said Monday.

Their EC145 helicopter lost radio and radar contact while on a rescue and reconnaissance flight in the Var region Sunday night. The three were found dead at 1:30 am near the town of Rove, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner and his secretary of state Laurent Nunez said in a statement.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The coalition deal forming the basis of Germany’s ruling alliance is not up for renegotiation and the new leaders of the Social Democrats (SDP) must decide whether or not they want to stay in government, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s protegee said on Monday.

The coalition’s future looks shaky after the election of new SDP leaders who are demanding a shift in policies that their conservative senior partners are resisting.

LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone manufacturing activity contracted for a 10th straight month in November although the bloc’s battered factories may have turned a corner as forward-looking indicators in Monday’s survey appear to have passed a nadir.

IHS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has been below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction since February, but at 46.9 it was above October’s 45.9 and higher than a preliminary estimate of 46.6.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey’s presidential administration has said that the purchase date for more S-400 missile systems from Russia is just a technicality and that it thinks a deal will happen before too long, the RIA news agency reported on Monday.

Moscow hopes to seal a deal to supply Turkey with more S-400 missile systems in the first half of next year, the head of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said last month.

LONDON (Reuters) - British manufacturers cut jobs last month at the fastest rate since 2012, a survey showed on Monday, as pressures from Brexit and a global trade slowdown caused the sector’s longest decline since the financial crisis.

The IHS Markit/CIPS manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) sank to 48.9 in November from 49.6 in October, a slightly smaller decline than an initial flash estimate of 48.3.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil jumped above $61 a barrel on Monday, supported by hints that OPEC and its allies may agree to deepen output cuts at a meeting this week and as rising manufacturing activity in China suggested stronger demand.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia are expected to extend output cuts this week and could increase the size of the curb by at least 400,000 barrels per day, two sources said.

THE HAGUE, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- No indications have yet been found that the suspect of the stabbing in The Hague on Friday had a terrorist motive, the police of The Hague said on Sunday.

The suspect, a 35-year-old man without a permanent residence, was arrested around 5:40 p.m. local time on Saturday at a homeless shelter in the center of The Hague. He was transferred to a police station where he is being interrogated.

VALLETTA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on Sunday his decision to resign from office after January 12, when a new leader is chosen for the Labour Party and could replace him as prime minister.

"This is what needs to be done," he said in a recorded televised address to the nation just minutes after the conclusion of yet another protest on the streets of Valletta demanding his resignation.

MADRID (AP) — The chair of a two-week climate summit attended by nearly 200 countries warned at its opening Monday that those refusing to adjust to the planet’s rising temperatures “will be on the wrong side of history.”

Chile’s environment minister, Carolina Schmidt, said that the Dec. 2-13 meeting in Madrid needs to lay the groundwork for moving toward carbon neutral economies while being sensitive to the poorest and those most vulnerable to rising temperatures — something that policymakers have termed “just transition.”

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping launch Monday a gas pipeline that is the first of three ambitious projects intended to cement Moscow’s role as top gas exporter.

Putin and Xi are to inaugurate by video link-up the “Power of Siberia” pipeline, sending Siberian gas to China in a move that will strengthen their ties amid Moscow’s confrontation with the West.

Russia is also planning to soon launch two more gas pipelines that will ramp up supplies to Europe while bypassing Ukraine.