Europe

ZAGREB, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Maric and Governor of the National Bank of Croatia Boris Vujcic received a permission to send a letter of intent to European Central Bank on entering Croatia into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism Two (ERM II) on Wednesday at the session of the National Council for the introduction of the euro.

The Croatian government will confirm on its Thursday session the decision of the National Council for the introduction of the euro, Minister Maric said after the session of the National Council.

ROME, July 4. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the percentage of votes received by him at the elections does not affect achieving the country's development goals. The main obstacles are unfavorable economic realities and external pressure, he said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on the eve of his official visit to Italy.

KRASNOYARSK, July 4. /TASS/: The area of the burning taiga in the Krasnoyarsk Region has reached 112,000 hectares on Thursday, the regional forest fire center reported.

"According to the information collected, at 12:00 (8:00 Moscow time) on July 4, 2019, 149 forest fires were active on the territory of the region on a total area of 112,459 hectares <...>. There is no threat to communities," the report says.

LUXEMBOURG, July 4. /TASS/: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday will open its 28th session, in which a delegation of Russian parliamentarians will also take part.

The session will be held in Luxembourg On July 4-8. Following the session, the Luxembourg Declaration is expected to be adopted, which will contain recommendations to all 57 OSCE member states on political, economic, security, counter-terrorism, environmental protection, technology development, human rights and humanitarian issues.

ROME, July 4. /TASS/: Accusations of Russia’s alleged interference in the US affairs were withdrawn, but the sanctions imposed for it are still in effect, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on the eve of his official visit to Italy.

LONDON (AP) — A figure of a roaring lion, about the size of a loaf of bread, is the latest step in the fight to preserve culture from conflict.

The sculpture is a replica of a colossal 3,000-year-old statue from the Temple of Ishtar in Nimrud, in what’s now Iraq. The stone statue was one of many artifacts from the Mosul Museum destroyed by the Islamic State group after it overran the city in 2014.

BREMERHAVEN, Germany (AP) — Cranes hoist cargo onto the deck, power tools scream out and workers bustle through the maze of passageways inside the German icebreaker RV Polarstern, preparations for a yearlong voyage that organizers say is unprecedented in scale and ambition.

3 July 2019; DW: The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said 14 people on board one of its deep-sea submarines were killed when a fire broke out.

"On July 1, a fire broke out during biometric measurements on a scientific research deep-sea submersible," the defense ministry said in comments carried by state media. "Work is underway to establish the cause of the incident."

3 July 2019; DW: Last month was the hottest June ever recorded, the European Union's satellite agency said Tuesday.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) program revealed the continent's average temperature for the month was 2 degrees Celsius hotter than normal.

"Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change," C3S head Jean-Noel Thepaut said.

3 July 2019; DW: Lawmakers in Austria's lower house of parliament voted to ban all uses of controversial herbicide glyphosate on Tuesday, as the substance faces a slew of lawsuits in the US for potentially causing cancer.

"The scientific evidence of the plant poison's carcinogenic effect is increasing," the assembly's top social democrat, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, said in a statement.

"It is our responsibility to ban this poison from our environment," she added.