Europe

SUKHUM, September 9. /TASS/: Incumbent Abkhaz President Raul Khajimba has won the presidential runoff, according to preliminary data, garnering 47.38% of the vote, head of Abkhazia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Tamaz Gogia told TASS in the early hours of Monday.

"According to preliminary data, Raul Khajimba is deemed elected in accordance with Article 19 of Abkhazia’s constitutional law on electing the president of the Republic of Abkhazia. Alkhas Kvitsiniya has garnered 46.19% [of the vote], while Raul Khajimba has secured 47.38% in the presidential runoff," he said.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: Eleven criminal cases have been opened during the recent election campaign, Chairwoman of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova stated on Monday.

"Eleven criminal cases have been opened, two in 24 hours (September 8)," she said.

According to the chairwoman, 90 requests to start criminal proceedings have been rejected. In total, 3,654 reports of possible violations have been sent to the Interior Ministry, 1,915 of them are still under review. Pamfilova added that 237 reports on administrative offences had been issued.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has walked his part of the walk to have a swap of detainees between Russia and Ukraine, meeting them at the airport is not the leader’s prerogative, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, responding to a question why Putin did not arrive at the airport to personally welcome and greet the swap participants unlike Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: Russia’s top brass is ready for close cooperation with the French military, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told a meeting with his French counterpart Florence Parly on Monday.

"We held substantive talks with you on September 3 to discuss the bulk of issues related to our common interests and security interests in Europe. We exchanged views on key issues of our today’s meeting," Shoigu said.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: Self-nominated candidates received 26 out of 45 seats during Sunday’s elections to the Moscow City Duma (parliament), the head of the city election commission, Valentin Gorbunov, told reporters after 100% of ballots were counted.

London, Sept 9 (AFP) British Airways said Monday it has been forced to cancel almost all its UK flights on the first day of a two-day strike by pilots.

"After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this," BA said in a statement.

The airline said it remains willing to return to talks with the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA).

9 September 2019; AFP: Pro-Kremlin candidates suffered major losses in a Moscow city election, results showed Monday, following a police crackdown on a wave of anti-government protests over the summer.

But Kremlin-backed candidates dominated in other local and regional elections held outside of the capital at the weekend.

DUBLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday that he must make specific proposals on the future of Irish border if there is to be any hope of averting a no-deal Brexit, saying Dublin cannot not rely on simple promises.

The blunt remarks by Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar indicate the difficulty of Johnson’s gamble of using the threat of a no-deal exit to convince Germany and France that they must rewrite an exit agreement struck last November.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday welcomed the release of Hong Kong’s Joshua Wong from police custody and said he was prepared to meet the pro-democracy activist in Berlin.

Maas said he had heard that Wong was on the way to the German capital and added that he may have an opportunity to talk to him later on Monday.

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Monday his new coalition, which combines the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and pro-Europe Democratic Party (PD), would do more and bicker less.

In a speech to parliament before a vote of confidence in his administration, Conte called for less conflictual relations with the European Union, reiterated that he would work with Brussels to reform the bloc’s budget rules and its immigration laws.