Europe

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German automaker Volkswagen said Tuesday it plans to ramp up its production of electric vehicles over the next ten years to 22 million and reduce its carbon footprint over vehicle life cycles by 30 percent.

Previously, the company said it would aim for 15 million. That was ambitious in itself given that it made fewer than 50,000 battery-only vehicles last year.

The company is pivoting to electric vehicles as it seeks to comply with new limits on carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, and a push by China for more low-emission vehicles.

12 Mar 2019; DW: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday endorsed some of the key European reform ideas put forward by her successor to the Christian Democratic Union leadership Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, including a joint EU aircraft carrier.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as leader of the CDU in December, etched out her vision in a weekend response to French President Emmanuel Macron's proposals for European Union reform.

12 Mar 2019; DW: The United States on Monday warned Germany that sensitive communications could be compromised if "untrusted vendors" were used within its 5G telecom infrastructure, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

12 Mar 2019; DW: A Belgium court on Monday sentenced a French jihadist to life in prison for murdering four people at Brussel's Jewish Museum in 2014.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, was found guilty earlier this month of committing "four terrorist murders" when he gunned down an Israeli couple and two museum workers in cold blood in less than 90 seconds on May 24, 2014.

11 Mar 2019; DW: A combined German-French parliamentary assembly that will be able to propose joint, but non-binding, resolutions has been given the green light by France's National Assembly. Its first sitting is on March 25 in Paris.

French National Assembly president Richard Ferrand (pictured above) said Monday the chamber had approved the combined Franco-German parliamentary body conceived in January in Aachen — despite objections from France's radical left and far right.

LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday secured "legally binding" changes to her Brexit deal just less than 24 hours before a meaningful vote in the parliament on it, according to senior British official here.

David Lidington, the British Cabinet Office minister, told the House of Commons that the parliament will vote on this "improved" deal on Tuesday.

Paris, Mar 11 (AFP) Crude production is set to continue expanding in the United States thanks to shale oil, with the country becoming a net exporter from 2021, a development which should reinforce global energy security, the IEA said Monday.

"The second wave of the US shale revolution is coming," Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said in a statement.

11 Mar 2019; DW: Nina Mayer was nearing her 25th birthday on March 11, 2009. She was a teacher at the Albertville school in Winnenden, a town near Stuttgart. In her free time, Mayer played the piano and helped disabled children.

"She had an unshakable belief in the goodness in this world, which would eventually make everything right," said her mother, Gisela.

11 Mar 2019; DW: A report released by a London think tank on Monday said that 275 financial firms are in the process of transferring a combined $1.2 trillion (€1.06 trillion) worth of funds, assets and staff from Britain to the EU. The "Brexitometer," published by the New Financial think tank, said that the moves are an "inevitable consequence" of the "political circumstances" surrounding Brexit.

LONDON (AP) — With tensions escalating, Britain’s House of Commons leader said Saturday that European Union officials need to take seriously British proposals for ending the Brexit impasse before a crucial vote in Parliament.

Andrea Leadsom said EU leaders are wrongly accusing Britain of failing to put forward detailed proposals, while offering proposed solutions that Britain had rejected months ago because they would threaten ties to Northern Ireland.