Europe

26 Apr 2019; DW: President Emmanuel Macron sought to put his 2017 election reform agenda back on track Thursday after months of sometimes violent "yellow vest" encounters with police — paralleled by town hall debates he personally attended — saying "essential" transformations should not be stopped.

"Did we take the wrong turn? I believe quite the opposite," said the 41-year-old former investment banker, whose popularity rating has fallen from above 60% when he was elected to around 30% now.

STOCKHOLM, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Pilots at the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in Sweden, Denmark and Norway went on strike Friday as talks on wages and other issues broke down, leading to many cancelled flights, SAS said.

The strike, called by the Scandinavian pilot unions, came after the pilot group and the airline failed to find common ground on a collective bargaining agreement on salary increases and other issues related to working hours and schedules.

MOSCOW, April 25 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia will cooperate on an array of major strategic projects and increase capabilities to jointly cope with security threats and challenges, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe said Thursday.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un on Thursday said that they had substantial discussions on bilateral ties and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue during their first-ever meeting.

The four-hour talks started with a one-on-one conversation between the two leaders and they were later joined by members of national delegations.

25 Apr 2019; DW: More than half of Germans view asylum-seekers in a negative light, a new study shows. Prejudice against the newcomers has grown even as fewer migrants come to Germany.

Right-wing populist attitudes have become "normal" in Germany's mainstream, said authors of a new study presented by the left-wing  Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Berlin on Thursday.

25 Apr 2019; DW: Children under 12 months old should not be exposed to electronic screens at all, according to the World Health Organization. Parents were urged to ensure kids get enough exercise to encourage good habits later in life.

Infants less than a year old should not be exposed to electronic screens, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Part of the funds US provides ostensibly for aid to Syria in reality is used to fund the armed opposition and stage more provocations, including some involving chemical weapons, the chief of Russia’s National Defense Command Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev told the 8th Moscow International Security Conference.

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Russia was producing 9.83 mln barrels of oil per day in March 2019 and lost 2.5% to Saudi Arabia, the state statistics service Rosstat reported on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia was producing 10.09 mln barrels of oil per day in February 2019. According to statistics, total daily production of OPEC nations was 30.55 mln barrels in February 2019, including 4.63 mln barrels per day produced in Iraq (ranked second by oil production among OPEC members).

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Residents of the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR) can apply for Russian citizenship in the Rostov Region. Their applications will be considered within three months, the Russian Interior Ministry’s website informed on Wednesday. The ministry’s press service informed TASS that there is no need to renounce the Ukrainian citizenship in order to obtain the Russian one.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The cooperation between Russia and China has become an important factor of stabilization amid West’s attempts to become the sole and uncontestable leader on the international arena, Russian President Vladimir Putin told China’s Renmin Ribao newspaper.