Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares made another push for a record high on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington and Beijing were in the final throes of inking an initial trade deal.

Early European trading was subdued, with MSCI’s all-country world index now within 0.4%, or 2 points, of its record high from January 2018.

ZAGREB, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Southeast Europe is one of the priorities of Croatia's presidency of the Council of European Union (EU) in the first half of 2020, Croatian officials were quoted by national news agency Hina as saying on Tuesday in Osijek.

The foreign minister and defense minister noted that Croatia will help its neighboring countries on their path towards the EU because security and stability of the region are important not only to Croatia but also to the whole of Europe.

27 Nov 2019; MEMO: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday called on Syria’s Kurdish forces to abide by the Russia-Turkey agreement on its withdrawal from the safe zone.

“The leaders of the Syrian Kurds must follow the obligations related to the Russian-Turkish memorandum on north-eastern Syria,” Lavrov told reporters in the Russian capital of Moscow.

BUCHAREST, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The leadership of the Romanian Social Democratic Party, headed by Viorica Dancila, announced resignation early Wednesday morning, two days after the party failed in the presidential election.

Marcel Ciolacu, speaker for the Chamber of Deputies, was appointed interim president of the largest party in the parliament before the party's congress scheduled for February by the new leadership.

LONDON (AP) — Trade policy experts are warning U.K. politicians campaigning in next month’s election that they are promising unattainable trade benefits and setting “arbitrary deadlines’’ for sealing a deal with the European Union after Brexit.

A dozen signatories to a letter published in the Daily Telegraph Wednesday urged leaders to supplant rhetoric with fact-based discussions about Britain’s future outside the EU trading bloc - or risk deals the public won’t support.

GENEVA, Nov 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) evacuated dozens of their staff working on the Ebola epidemic from the town of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the worsening security situation.

Rebels believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed eight people in an overnight raid on Sunday.

TIRANA, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rescuers are searching the rubble of buildings in Albania, where a strong earthquake killed 20 people and injured 600 on Tuesday.

The 6.4 magnitude tremor struck 34km north-west of the capital, Tirana, as people slept in their beds during the early hours.

Most of the deaths occurred in the coastal city of Durres and the town of Thumane, close to the epicentre.

Tents have been set up for those left homeless by the disaster.

LONDON (AP) — Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn struggled Tuesday to defuse harsh criticism about anti-Semitism leveled at both himself and the party by Britain’s chief rabbi.

In what was arguably his most difficult day in the general election campaign so far, Corbyn faced a multitude of questions over Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ damaging remarks in The Times newspaper.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Russia has no data that Turkey is planning to violate the Sochi memorandum on joint steps for ironing out the crisis in northeastern Syria as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces coalition has claimed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Speaking on the implementation of the October 22 Russian-Turkish memorandum, we don’t have any information confirming that Turkey is going to violate it," Lavrov said.

SEVASTOPOL, November 26. /TASS/: The crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s Novorossiysk submarine trained to battle against the Kolpino submarine, which played the role of the ‘enemy’, the fleet’s press service said on Tuesday.

"The Novorossiysk submarine chased the hypothetical enemy’s submarine, the role of which was performed by the Kolpino submarine. During the training, the Novorossiysk crew had to detect and destroy the underwater target using the support of surface ships and marine aviation of the Black Sea Fleet," the press service reported.