Europe

19 August 2019; DW: Germany's federal criminal police agency wants to overhaul the structures it uses to fight far-right groups and hate crimes, media reports say. The organization sees a growing threat of militant extremism in the country.

Germany's Federal Criminal Police (BKA) wants to set up a new central unit to fight right-wing extremism and hate crimes, research conducted by German media outlets WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung showed.    

MADRID, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian oil tanker seized by Britain for weeks has left Gibraltar for international waters, Iran's Ambassador to Britain Hamid Baeidinejad confirmed Monday.

"At this point, we confirm that ... the Iranian oil tanker began to move towards international waters," Baeidinejad wrote on his personal Twitter account.

ROME (AP) — Several migrants jumped into the sea from a Spanish rescue boat Sunday in a thwarted bid to reach shore in Italy, where the government’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has refused to let the 107 passengers disembark.

“We have been warning for days, desperation has its limits,” said Open Arms founder Oscar Camps, who released a video showing four migrants wearing orange life vests swimming toward Lampedusa island. Crew members from the humanitarian group’s ship swam quickly toward them so they could be brought back aboard.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin are meeting in southern France to discuss the world’s major crises, including Ukraine, Iran and Syria, and try to improve Moscow’s relations with the European Union.

Macron has invited Putin on Monday afternoon to his summer residence, the Fort de Bregancon on the French Riviera, for a meeting followed by dinner, just a few days before opening a meeting of the Group of Seven nations in the French city of Biarritz with U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders.

MADRID (AP) — An Iranian supertanker with $130 million worth of light crude oil that the U.S. suspects is tied to a sanctioned organization has left Gibraltar and was heading Monday east into the Mediterranean Sea, with its next destination reported to be Greece.

The Iran-flagged Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, set course for Kalamata, Greece, with an estimated arrival on Aug. 25, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic. It wasn’t immediately clear why the tanker would be heading there or whether the destination could change.

19 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday arrived in Ukraine to mobilise votes of Russian-speaking immigrants who left the former Soviet Union and moved to Israel, Arab48 reported.

Netanyahu’s declared agenda included discussions about agriculture, tourism, education and stipends of retired immigrants.

ROME, Aug 19 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANSA) — Spain on Sunday offered a safe port to Spanish migrant rescue NGO ship Open Arms which has been stalled at sea with over 100 migrants aboard for over two weeks, but the NGO said even sailing to the nearest port of Minorca would be too far because of the “desperate” conditions of the migrants.

“These people must disembark immediately”, said the Open Arms, which is standing off the Italian island of Lampedusa but has been barred from landing by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

LONDON, Aug 19 (NNN-Xinhua) — A confidential government dossier warning of the impact of a no-deal Brexit was described Sunday as a worst-case scenario document.

Michael Gove, the cabinet minister tasked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson with preparing for a no-deal departure by Britain from the European Union, commented after details from the dossier were published in London by the Sunday Times.

Vilnius, Aug 19 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has said Lithuania could be an important technology partner for India, as he underlined the immense potential for growth in bilateral trade.

Addressing the Indian community at the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Sunday, Naidu also called upon the diaspora to serve as a bridge in strengthening economic and cultural relations between the two countries.

MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/: A state commission has given the green light to the start of flight trials of the Soyuz-MS spacecraft and the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket due to be launched on August 22, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said.

"At the Baikonur space center, a state commission gave the green light to the start of flight trials of the Soyuz-MS spacecraft and the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket and of taking the space rocket to the launch pad on August 19," Rogozin wrote on his Twitter page on Saturday.