Europe

GENEVA (AP) — The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo does not yet warrant being declared a global emergency but is of “deep concern,” the World Health Organization said Friday.

Following a meeting of its expert committee, the U.N. health agency called for efforts to be redoubled to stop the deadly virus, noting that the recent spike in Ebola cases raises the risk of spread to other countries.

QUITO, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador on Thursday announced it revoked the citizenship status given to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in December 2017, citing "irregularities" in the naturalization process.

There are "innumerable irregularities in the concession of that nationality," Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Valencia said.

"For that reason, the ministry decided to formally nullify it," Valencia added.

ST. PETERSBURG, April 11. /TASS/. The world's first floating nuclear power station Akademik Lomonosov will begin supplying the first kilowatts to the power grid of Chukotka in 2019, CEO of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said in an interview with TASS at the International Arctic Forum.

MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. The non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) believes that the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sets a dangerous precedent for journalists, RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said on Twitter on Thursday.

"Targeting Assange because of Wikileaks’ provision of information to journalists that was in the public interest would be a punitive measure and would set a dangerous precedent for journalists or their sources that the US may wish to pursue in future," the tweet reads.

STOCKHOLM, April 11. /TASS/. There is a significant risk of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being extradited to the United States, Assange’s Swedish Defense Attorney Per Samuelsson told the SVT TV channel.

"Naturally, I believe this is totally inadmissible," he said. "We see clear signs indicating that the Americans want to convict him or have convicted him. Let’s see whether or not his concern was justified or exaggerated."

11 Apr 2019; AFP: International anti-mafia stings may have increased in recent months, but Italian organised crime groups constitute a social and economic "cancer" that the world seems to underestimate, experts say.

The most high-profile recent operation saw 90 mobsters from the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia arrested in December in six different countries, in raids involving hundreds of police officers.

11 Apr 2019; DW: The Wikileaks founder has been arrested in central London, the Metropolitan Police wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

He was apprehended outside the Embassy of Ecuador, where he had been evading an extradition request from Sweden since June 2012. Assange was wanted by Stockholm over claims he sexually assaulted two women in 2010. The Swedish case against him lapsed in 2017, but he is still wanted in the UK for skipping bail.

ZAGREB, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Wednesday that the two countries will enhance cultural and tourism cooperation.

Li and Plenkovic made the remarks when speaking at the opening ceremony of the Year of Tourism between China and Croatia.

Congratulating the two countries on jointly holding such an event for the first time, Li said both China and Croatia enjoy long history and rich and colorful culture, and picturesque natural scenery.

BRUSSELS (AP) — As if Brexit hadn’t spooked Britain and the European Union enough over the past three years, the two sides agreed early Thursday to extend the deadline to Halloween.

The new, Oct. 31 cutoff date averts a precipitous and potentially calamitous Brexit that had been scheduled for Friday.

“Please, do not waste this time,” European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded. He said the EU was giving Britain six more months “to find the best possible solution” to its Brexit impasse.

Moscow, April 10, IRNA - Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee said Russian parliamentary officials are seriously against blacklisting the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).