Europe

19 Mar 2019; DW: Singapore is one of the world's three most expensive cities for the sixth year running, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, released on Tuesday.

The southeast Asian city-state shares the tag of the most costly place to live with Hong Kong and Paris.

When the prices of more than 150 items were compared in 133 cities around the world, the French capital moved up one place in the rankings compared to last year.

19 Mar 2019; DW: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday cleared the way for Germany to deport asylum-seekers to other EU member states.

Judges in the Luxembourg-based court ruled that weak social benefit systems and living conditions in certain countries were not grounds to block transfers.

They said deportations should be only be halted in cases where individuals were likely to face "extreme material need" and "inhuman or degrading treatment."

18 Mar 2019; DW: A third vote by the UK parliament on the Brexit deal may be in jeopardy after the Speaker of the House in the UK parliament warned on Monday he could block the vote.

John Bercow cited a rule from 1604 that disallows parliament from voting on the same matter more than once in the same sitting.

Bercow said a third vote on the matter, if it was not substantially different, would fall afoul of this rule, last invoked in 1920, and he would therefore block it.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Russia has decreased it holdings in US Treasury Securities to $13.180 bln in January from $13.216 bln in December last year, according to the Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for January 2019.

The share of long-term bonds accounted for $6.322 bln, short-term bonds - $6.858 bln.

Russia began to drastically reduce investments in the US national debt in the spring of 2018.

In April 2018, investments fell from $96 bln to $ 48.7 bln, and then in May to $ 14.9 bln.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. NASA's astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Kjell Lindgren have arrived at the Gagarin Space Training Center near Moscow for a series of training sessions.

"NASA’s astronauts will undergo a five-week course of instruction," the space training center said on its website.

Two of them - Hopkins and Glover - may become the first crew of the US spacecraft Crew Dragon (Crew-1) after the certification flight. Lindgren is being trained for a standby crew.

There will be three training sessions.

SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. Russia will lift counter-restrictions if the European Union abolishes its sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting with Thierry Mariani, head of a delegation of French politicians and the President of the French-Russian Dialog Association.

SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has arrived Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the opening of the Central Mosque in Crimea.

"I’ve invited Turkish President Erdogan. He knows about that and, as far as I understand, he is very positive about this invitation. We’ll wait and see if he has the time and opportunity to arrive here," Putin said.

He recalled that Russia would be developing relations with Turkey and friends in other countries.

SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. The aim of the terrorist attack in New Zealand against Muslims last week was to undermine the situation in the country and Russia will do everything possible to prevent such acts of terrorism on its territory, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"We certainly condole over victims in New Zealand following this terrible terrorist act, which was definitely aimed to undermine the situation in the country," Putin said. "We will do everything possible to prevent such situations in our country."

MOSCOW, March 18./TASS/. Crimea will forever remain part of Russia, and economic sanctions, pressure or military threats targeting Russia are pointless, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

"Five years ago a treaty was signed between Russia and the Republic of Crimea on its accession to Russia and the establishment of new entities within the Russian Federation. The residents of the peninsula made a landmark decision at the referendum - to become part of the Russian Federation, thus making a crucial choice," the prime minister said.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Russia has deployed squadrons of Tu-22M3 bombers in Crimea in response to the deployment of NATO’s anti-missile shield in Romania in 2015, the head of the Russian Federation Council’s Committee for Defense and Security, Viktor Bondarev, told journalists on Monday.