Europe

BUCHAREST, May 9 (Xinhua): European Council President Donald Tusk announced late Thursday that he would convene a meeting with the leaders of the European Union (EU) member states on May 28 to establish procedures for appointing new EU leadership.

10 May 2019; DW: Last November, Russia seized three Ukrainian navy ships and captured dozens of sailors, sparking outrage in Ukraine. The case is now being heard at a UN sea tribunal in Hamburg, but Russia has vowed not to show.

A naval standoff between Russia and the Ukraine will be heard before an international sea tribunal in Hamburg, Germany on Friday.

10 May 2019; DW: The planned merger between German steel giant Thyssenkrupp and its Indian competitor Tata will likely fall through because the European Commission is expected to block the deal.

German steel giant Thyssenkrupp on Friday announced that it was putting the brakes on a merger with Indian competitor Tata. 

Tokyo, May 10; AP/GANASHAKTI: The three new missiles North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has tested over the past week are eerily familiar to military experts: They look just like a controversial and widely copied missile the Russian military has deployed to Syria and has been actively trying to sell abroad for years.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking new church law Thursday requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities, in a new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/: Russia and the United States have agreed on two additional places on board of Soyuz carrier rockets for journeys of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Programs Sergei Krikalyov told TASS.

"The documents have been approved," Krikalyov said adding that it the procedure to sign the papers took place before a recently reported incident with Crew Dragon spacecraft.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. Rescuers have found the body of the fourth tourist out of seven people who had died in an avalanche in the Altai Mountains in West Siberia, the Investigative Committee’s local branch told TASS on Thursday.

"The body of the fourth dead tourist has been found. It has not yet been delivered to Gorno-Altaisk for identification," the investigators said.

The bodies of three tourists found earlier have been identified, the investigators said.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the 71st anniversary of proclaiming the Independence of the State of Israel, the Kremlin press office reported on Thursday.

"Symbolically, this year the national holiday of your country coincides with the Day of the Great Victory, which freed the world from the fascist plague and saved the Jewish people from extermination," the Russian leader stressed in a telegram sent to the Israeli leadership.

MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin Wall as part of the Victory Day celebrations devoted to the 74th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

The Russian leader walked to the Alexander Garden after the Victory Parade ended in Moscow’s Red Square and after he talked briefly actually with each of the war veterans.

BRUSSELS, May 9. /TASS/: The European troika of UN mediators (the UK, Germany and France) has rejected Iran’s ultimatum under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), according to a joint statement released on Thursday.

The Europeans also denounced new US sanctions against Iran. The UK, Germany and France pledged to continue work on creating the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) with Iran to bypass US trade sanctions.