Europe

DONETSK, November 18. /TASS/: The plan providing for the "deportation of the Donbass people" developed by the team of incumbent Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky widely publicized in Ukraine came as no surprise to the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), DPR Head Denis Pushilin said in a statement.

18 November 2019; AFP: French "yellow vest" demonstrators occupied a top Parisian department store on Sunday, a day after clashes in the capital on the first anniversary of the protest movement.

The glitzy Galeries Lafayette store in the Opera shopping district was evacuated after dozens of protesters chanting anti-capitalist and anti-government slogans took over the third floor.

LONDON (Reuters) - There is a threat to British business from both the left and the right of politics, the country’s biggest business lobby group the CBI warned on Monday, a month before voters head to the polls to elect a new government.

“I believe we are facing a danger that could get in the way of a bright future, and it takes the form of extreme ideology. And we see it on both sides of the political divide,” said CBI Director General Carolyn Fairbairn.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would take part in a four-way international summit in Paris on Dec. 9, an attempt to advance efforts for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The French presidency said on Friday that the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine would take part. But until Monday the Kremlin had failed to publicly confirm its attendance.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Monday began the process of handing over three captured naval ships to Ukraine in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency cited a security source as saying.

A Reuters reporter in Crimea, which Russian annexed from Ukraine in 2014, saw coastguard boats pulling the three vessels through the Kerch Strait towards the Black Sea on Sunday in preparation for the handover.

Ukraine has been pushing for their return as a good will gesture from Moscow ahead of a four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month in Paris.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell business leaders on Monday that his pledge to take Britain out of the EU swiftly will end uncertainty and boost the economy, seeking to win over industrialists who have mainly opposed Brexit.

Johnson called a Dec. 12 election in a bid to end three years of political crisis since the 2016 52%-48% vote to leave the EU that has shaken investors’ faith in the United Kingdom — once considered one of the pillars of Western stability.

LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed that every Conservative Party candidate standing in the country's general election on Dec. 12 has personally pledged to back his Brexit deal.

In his first major newspaper interview of the election campaign, Johnson told the Sunday Telegraph that he has asked all 635 of his candidates to sign up to a pledge to back his Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice was hit Sunday by a record third exceptional tide in the same week while other parts of Italy struggled with a series of weather woes, from rain-swollen rivers to high winds to an out-of-season avalanche.

Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark’s Square, but tourists donned high rubber boots or even hip waders to witness and photograph the spectacle.

PARIS, November 17. /TASS/: At least 28,000 people have taken part in the Yellow Vests protests in France on November 16, the BFM TV channel informed, citing the French Interior Ministry.

According to the ministry, 4,700 people attended the rallies in Paris. As of 20:00 local time (22:00 Moscow time), 147 people have been detained.

HELSINKI, November 17. /TASS/: Norwegian national Frude Berg, convicted of espionage in Russia and released as a result of a prisoner swap between Lithuania and Russia, has arrived in Norway on Saturday night, the Norwegian Telegraph Bureau informed, citing Berg’s lawyer Brynjulf Risnes.

"Berg was transported from Lithuania on a private plane, which landed on Saturday evening at Gardermoen Airport [in Oslo]," the attorney said.