Europe

29 Sep 2019; MEMO: Luxembourg’s foreign minister called on the EU on Saturday to provide further financial assistance to Turkey to support projects for Syrian refugees in the country.

Jean Asselborn told German daily Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung that Turkey has been shouldering an enormous burden by hosting more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees since the eruption of civil war in Syria in 2011.

TIRANA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will provide assistance to Albanian people hit by an earthquake through its EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the Albanian Defense Minister Olta Xhacka said here on Saturday.

Xhacka made the declaration at a joint press conference with the EU Delegation Ambassador to Tirana Luigi Soreca and the head of the EU civil protection team Peter Glerum.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged calm as tempers flare in the debate over Britain’s departure from the European Union, even though tempers are flaring over what he said.

A defiant Johnson told the BBC on Sunday that the “best thing for the country and for people’s overall psychological health would be to get Brexit done.”

VIENNA (AP) — Austrians are electing a new Parliament, four months after a corruption scandal brought down ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party.

Some 6.4 million voters aged 16 and up are eligible to cast ballots for Sunday’s election.

The Alpine country of 8.8 million has been run by a non-partisan interim administration appointed in June, after the publication of a video showing Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor triggered the Kurz government’s collapse.

SOCHI, September 28. /TASS, Andrey Kartashov/. Former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who is currently in Sochi for the Russian Grand Prix, told TASS he is a big supporter of President Vladimir Putin and some countries in the West are simply ‘jealous’ of what the Russian leader has achieved.

Asked by a TASS correspondent why the West maintains its pressure on Russia and President Putin, Ecclestone said: "They are jealous of what he [President Putin] has achieved and what he has now."

KIEV, September 27. /TASS/: Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau is not probing into the activities of Burisma holding company linked with former US Vice-President Josef Biden’s son Hunter, the Bureau said on Friday.

"Changes on the Burisma Limited board, which are now in focus of attention of the international community, took place only in May 2014, so, they have never been and are not a subject of investigation of the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau," it stated on its Facebook account.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: The Russian Investigative Committee has charged in Moscow nine individuals arrested under the criminal case on financing the international terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia). Senior Aide to the Head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Directorate for Moscow Yulia Ivanova told TASS that a Russian who had joined the IS established a group that gathered money for the terrorist organization.

LONDON (Reuters) - Factories have been the first victims of the Trump-era global trade rows. Now the question is how much their troubles will spread to other parts of the world’s biggest economies: the so-called spillover effect.

This week’s read-out from German purchasing managers showed an unexpected worsening of the recession in the manufacturing sector of Europe’s largest economy. But just as alarming was news that growth in services - by far the largest contributor to German output - was also losing momentum.

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned on Friday that time was running out for Britain and the European Union to hammer out a divorce deal with the British Brexit minister also saying the moment of truth was approaching.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed Britain will leave the EU on Oct. 31 whether or not a deal has been agreed with the bloc, and while both sides say they are keen to reach an agreement, there is little sign of the deadlock being broken.

LONDON (AP) — Authorities in London have referred Prime Minister Boris Johnson to a police complaints body to see if he should face a criminal investigation over links to an American businesswoman who allegedly received favorable treatment because of her friendship with him during his time as mayor.

The Greater London Authority recorded what it called a “conduct matter” against Johnson. The Independent Office for Police Conduct will consider if there are grounds to investigate him for misconduct in public office.