Europe

MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/: Austria’s OMV oil and gas company has earmarked 44 mln euro to finance the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the first quarter of 2019, the company said.

BERLIN, May 2 (Xinhua): Patrick Herrmann has extended his expiring contract with Borussia Monchengladbach, the Bundesliga outfit confirmed in an official statement on Thursday.

The attacking midfielder has penned a three-year contract extension and will stay with the "Foals" until June 2022.

"I play for Borussia for so long and everyone knows who much my heart is attacked to this club. So I am all the happier that I am allowed to play here for at least three more years," Herrmann told the club's official homepage.

ROME, May 2 (Xinhua): Italy on Thursday marked the 500th anniversary of the death of Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, kicking off what authorities are calling "the year of Leonardo" that will end on April 15, the anniversary of the master's birth.

Born in 1452 near the Tuscan village of Vinci (hence his designation as "da Vinci", which means "from Vinci"), Leonardo went on to become a prolific painter, anatomist, architect, scientist, engineer, set designer, and inventor, embodying the quintessential Renaissance man with his interdisciplinary approach to art and science.

MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/: The deal of German company BASF and LetterOne owned by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman on the merger of their oil and gas assets, Wintershall and Dea, was closed on May 1, the companies said in a statement.

The merger was endorsed by all relevant authorities and shareholders, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer of the new company Mario Mehren said.

KIEV, May 2. /TASS/: Ukraine’s military has occupied 24 square kilometers of Donbass territory, including in three villages, Joint Forces Commander Sergey Nayev told a briefing on Thursday, stressing that there were no violations of the Minsk peace deal.

TBILISI, May 2. /TASS/: Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili’s official visit to the United States has not been canceled and efforts are underway for holding it, the Foreign Ministry told TASS on Thursday.

"The report that allegedly the Georgian side’s request on the Georgian president’s visit to the US has been rejected, does not correspond to reality. The work on the president’s visit via diplomatic channels is underway. It’s early to say about the date of the visit," the ministry said.

GENEVA, May 1 (Xinhua): Glaciers are set to disappear entirely from nearly half of World Heritage sites if current emissions continue, the first global study of glaciers at those locations said Wednesday.

Co-authored by scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Gland near Geneva, the study is published in full in the journal Earth's Future.

The authors predict glacier extinction by 2100 under a high emission scenario in 21 of the 46 natural World Heritage sites where glaciers are currently found.

2 May 2019; DW: After a week and a half of protests in London by climate change activists, the British Parliament has declared a symbolic "environment and climate change emergency." Lawmakers backed a call by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, for "rapid and dramatic action" to protect the environment.

2 May 2019; DW: Poland should stop treating the European Union as a source of financing and start making more of a financial contribution to the bloc, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said on Wednesday.

"The EU is not just a money machine, a cow that you can milk. We are expecting a more substantial contribution from Poland for the future of Europe," Katainen told journalists in Warsaw.

2 May 2019; DW: The Trump administration will allow US nationals to file lawsuits against foreign companies operating on properties that were seized from Americans during the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

The major policy shift, first announced in April but implemented on Thursday, sets the stage for fresh economic disputes between the US and Europe. It also marks a new escalation in Washington's policy to hammer Havana over its support for Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro.