Europe

30 Mar 2019; DW: Liberal lawyer Zuzana Caputova won Slovakia's second-round presidential run-off Saturday, after the ruling party-backed candidate Maros Sefcovic conceded defeat.

Victory for the anti-corruption activist breaks a trend of populist, euroskeptic politicians gaining traction across the European Union.

Election results

A 27-year-old German man reeled in a French hand grenade from World War II while he was fishing in the northern German town of Emden on Friday, local police said.

The man was fishing on a bridge in Emden when the incident happened, police said. He said he was using "normal fishing tackle with a hook."

"Instead of a pike, it was a grenade," a police spokeswoman said on Saturday.

Police closed off the area around where he was fishing and the device was handed over to the explosive ordnance disposal service.

31 Mar 2019; DW: Ukrainians were at the polls in presidential elections on Sunday, choosing from among 39 candidates, including a comedian, a chocolate manufacturer and a former prime minister.

If no candidate gets an absolute majority of votes on Sunday — something that seems likely given the results of pre-election surveys — a runoff between the top two will be held on April 21.

The frontrunners

MOSCOW, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday warned the United States against further interfering in Venezuela's domestic affairs and stirring up speculations about Russia conducting military operations in the South American country.

"We recommend that the United States stop threatening Venezuela, strangling its economy and pushing it towards civil war, which is in open violation of international law," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

29 Mar 2019; DW: Jordanian King Abdullah II received the "Lamp of Peace of Saint Francis" at a ceremony in the Italian city of Assisi on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as last year's recipient, presented the monarch with the award. 

Abdullah has been given the Catholic award for promoting human rights, interfaith dialogue and Middle East peace, and for taking in Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their country.

Promoting interfaith harmony

29 Mar 2019; DW: The controversial Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh was ordered to leave Germany on Friday after losing an urgent appeal to have a previous decision revoking her visa overturned.

The decision from Berlin's Foreign Nationals Office to withdraw Odeh's visa on the grounds it would threaten public order was upheld by the Berlin Higher Administrative Court.  

ANTALYA /Turkey/, March 29. /TASS/. Moscow and Ankara has agreed to step up work to establish Syria’s Constitutional Committee in cooperation with the UN, the Syrian government and the opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Friday at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu following a meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group.

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Washington will never remove sanctions on Moscow because this is what its policies have been based on for years, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said while answering questions from users of the VKontakte social network on Friday.

BRUSSELS, March 29. /TASS/. The European Council’s emergency summit on Brexit will take place on April 10 in view of the rejection of another Brexit deal by the UK House of Commons earlier on Friday, European Council President Donald Tusk stated on Twitter.

"In view of the rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement by the House of Commons, I have decided to call a European Council on 10 April. #Brexit," he wrote.

SOFIA, March 29. /TASS/. NATO and the EU must find ways of cooperating with Russia, confrontation will not bring favorable outcomes, Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov told TASS on Friday.