Europe

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu have reaffirmed their commitment to aid Libyan conflict settlement during a phone call on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. The United States’ demands NATO countries should be spending more on defense in fact are aimed at making them purchase US military hardware to replace that of Russian manufacture still in service in the armies of many countries of the alliance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS in an interview.

MOSCOW, April 19. / TASS/. The unreliability of the American currency is evident in the conditions that have emerged on world markets as a result of US actions, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday at the meeting with members of the International Council on Cooperation and Investments.

KIEV, April 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian presidential candidate Vladimir Zelensky has told incumbent president Pyotr Poroshenko that Zelensky is not his opponent, but his sentence, during the debates at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.

"I am not your opponent, Pyotr Alexeyevich [Poroshenko], I am your sentence," he said. "You ask me about war. We are currently at war. And you, as commander-in-chief, must answer it: why is the war not over yet?"

BELGRADE, April 19. /TASS/. Despite foreign pressure, Serbia will never impose sanctions on Russia and will stay out of any military bloc, including NATO, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a pro-government rally in Belgrade on Friday evening.

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Russia is upgrading its Black Sea forces in the context of NATO’s approaching infrastructures and proportionately to its real defense requirements, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS in an interview on Friday.

"It goes without saying that we have been upgrading our forces in view of the fact that NATO’s infrastructures are approaching our shores. All of our efforts are absolutely adequate and proportionate to the real defense security requirements," he said.

20 Apr 2019; DW: Tens of thousands of people gathered in Belgrade on Friday to show support for President Aleksandar Vucic, countering five months of weekly anti-government protests.

Critics accuse Vucic of being an autocrat who has overseen a gradual erosion of democratic rights in the small Balkan country.

But supporters from across Serbia and neighboring countries shouted slogans such as "support to Vucic" and "Aco (Aleksandar abbreviated) the Serb" as they marched through the capital.

20 Apr 2019; DW: Pope Francis slammed the "hardened hearts" of anti-immigration politicians and highlighted the plight of abused children at the start of the Catholic Church's most holy weekend of Easter.  

The pope leads an Easter vigil service on Saturday night ahead of the traditional Easter Sunday message to the world. 

20 Apr 2019; DW: Angela Merkel will bid farewell to the chancellor's office in Berlin in 2021. The outgoing president of the European Commission thinks she is "a complete and endearing work of art" who would do well in Brussels.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Germany's Funke Media Group on Saturday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "highly qualified" for a top European Union job.

LONDON (AP) — Police in Northern Ireland searched for multiple suspects Friday after the fatal shooting of a journalist during rioting in Londonderry and sought help from the public to get “a killer off the streets” and into custody.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet, during overnight rioting in the city’s Creggan neighborhood. It said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible.