Europe

Moscow, April 10, IRNA – The trilateral meeting of the heads of international and foreign policy commissions of Iran, Russia and Turkey parliaments started work in here in Russian State Duma on Wednesday.

9 Apr 2019; DW: Pharmaceutical and agriculture giant Bayer confirmed on Tuesday that they would be slashing about 4,500 jobs in Germany, affecting 1 in 7 members of its workforce in the country.

The company had already announced in December that it would cut 12,000 jobs internationally. The number revealed on Tuesday indicated that its German workers, who had already protested the cuts last year, will bear the biggest brunt of the losses proportionally.

10 Apr 2019; DW: Police in Potsdam said on Wednesday that the raids started early in the morning and were continuing, centered on the area around Cottbus. The operation was expected to continue into the afternoon.

According to local media reports, 20 individuals suspected of being right-wing hooligans were being targeted. They are accused of forming a criminal union around Cottbus, Brandenburg's second-largest city. It is near the Polish border, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Berlin.

10 Apr 2019; DW: Police carried out raids across Germany on Wednesday targeting charities suspected of providing "financial and propaganda" support to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the interior ministry said.

Around 90 properties in ten states were searched, with the focus of the raids targeting the charities WWR Help and Ansaar International in North Rhine-Westphalia.

9 Apr 2019; DW: One man was shot dead and four others were arrested in Albania on Tuesday, following a high-stakes robbery at the Teresa Rinasi International Airport, just north of the capital Tirana.

Armed robbers wearing masks stormed the airport runway in the afternoon and stole millions of euros from an Austria Airlines flight. The robbers managed to gain access through a gate reserved for firefighters.

LONDON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May returned to London on Tuesday night at the end of a day of whistle-stop diplomacy in her race to win a delay to the country's departure from the European Union (EU).

As May was holding talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, a team of her top ministers were negotiating in London with Labour's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and leading shadow ministers from the main opposition party.

ZAGREB, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Croatia on Tuesday for an official visit to the country and the eighth leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in the Croatian seaside city Dubrovnik.

Upon Li's arrival, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his wife Ana Plenkovic led a warm welcome ceremony at the Zagreb Airport. Children dressed in national costumes presented flowers to Premier Li and his wife Cheng Hong.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Tough-guy France softened its stance Tuesday and showed willingness to accept yet another delay in the long-awaited Brexit, diminishing the chances that Britain would crash out of the European Union this week without any future plan.

But British Prime Minister Theresa May still has a rough day ahead of her as she heads to an emergency summit in Brussels on Wednesday to plead for a new Brexit extension — for the second time in three weeks. Such gatherings aren’t getting any friendlier. 

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday mocked U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election, saying “a mountain gave birth to a mouse.”

In his first comments since Mueller finished his probe, Putin sought to cast the 22-month investigation as a failure and disregarded the special counsel’s exposure of a Russian operation to put Donald Trump in the White House.

8 Apr 2019; DW: The German government is planning to take part in a United Nations observer mission in Yemen, which has been torn by civil war since 2014, German media reported Tuesday.

The mission will help implement and monitor a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeida as outlined by a Security Council resolution from December. Germany will reportedly send a maximum of 10 unarmed soldiers and police, German news agencies reported, citing a government briefing document.