Europe

LONDON, June 15. /TASS/: The Russian embassy in London said it was alarmed by media reports about the Defense Ministry’s plans to shift the focus of its special forces to " dangerous international behavior" by other states, including Russia.

14 June 2019; MEMO: A senior legal advisor to the European Union’s top court said yesterday that products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory should be clearly labelled as such, reported AFP.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is “considering a request from France’s top tribunal for clarification of rules on labelling goods” from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

14 June 2019; DW: The remains of the wolf were found on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in the Russian Arctic region of Yakutia last August.

Researchers at the Science Academy of Yakutia were given the head and worked with colleagues in Japan and Sweden to determine its age.

The academy's Valery Plotnikov said it was an ancient subspecies of wolf that lived alongside and became extinct at the same time as the mammoths. 

14 June 2019; DW: Just seven lawmakers are left in the British leadership race after the first round of voting in the Conservative Party on Thursday.

Ten candidates put their name in the hat, hoping to win the support of at least 17 fellow Conservatives and proceed to the next round of voting to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May, who quit as party leader last week.

There were a total of 313 votes cast, none of which were spoiled or rejected. 

Who's in?

LONDON, June 14. /TASS/: A five-day hearing of the US request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be held after February 24, 2020, TASS reports the judge said that during the procedural hearing at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, where the extradition request is being considered.

MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/: An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude has been registered off Chile's coast, US Geological Survey said on Friday.

The earthquake's epicenter lay in 79 km to the west of the city of Coquimbo with the population of around 160,000 people. The epicenter lay at the depth of 10 km.

No injuries or damages were reported, and no tsunami alert was issued.

14 June 2019; DW: The newly formed Identity and Democracy (ID) group has 73 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the 751-seat assembly ahead of its new session in July. 

Replacing the Europe of Nations and Freedom group, which had 36 seats in the previous parliament, the new ID group includes:

MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved the government's proposal to support Rosneft's shale gas projects in Venezuela (Patao and Mejillones) and ordered to sign a protocol on making amendments to the agreement with Venezuela on cooperation in the sphere of implementing joint strategic projects from 10 September 2009. The president's order was published on the official website of legal information.

PARIS, June 14. /TASS/: Russia has come close to resuming activities in all the bodies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2019, First Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Nikolai Fyodorov said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 20th meeting of the Association of European Senates in Paris.

14 June 2019; DW: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday Moscow was "very closely" tracking US planning outlined at the White House during a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday.

Trump told Duda he would send 1,000 US troops from Germany into Poland, whose leaders have long wanted an installation they have code-named "Fort Trump."

A joint US-Polish declaration said drones of a US Air Force squadron, MQ-9, would also be deployed to Poland.