Europe

03 Feb 2019; DW: Germany's Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said on Sunday that the idea of the UK avoiding Brexit was unlikely. Maas told German media group Funke that he would liked to have seen an "exit from Brexit," but that he held no hopes of it happening.

Brussels and London find themselves at an impasse over the final agreement to the UK's exit from the EU, with the most recent deal having failed in the British Parliament, as the deadline of March 29 looms.

PARIS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- For the 12th straight weekend of protests, thousands of "Yellow Vest" protesters marched in Paris and other French cities on Saturday in relatively calm rallies, but some sporadic incidents led to 30 arrests in the French capital.

As previous demonstrations, discontent people chanted the national anthem and anti-President Emmanuel Macron's leadership slogans. Some of them had put plasters and others wore eye patches to pay tribute to those wounded in the months-long protests.

MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Russian government will provide necessary mechanisms to finance the development of new weapons, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday, in response to Washington's withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

"Given the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty and the response steps announced by the President of Russia, the government of the Russian Federation will provide the necessary means and mechanisms to finance the development of new types of weapons," Medvedev said on Twitter.

Caracas, January 31; GANASHAKTI: On Thursday the Italian Government withdrew from the position assumed by the European Parliament and informed that it does not recognize Juan Guaido as "president in charge" of Venezuela.

"Italy does not recognize the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido," Italy's Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Manlio Di Stefano, said.

The senior official explained that Italy is "totally against" that a country or a group of countries "can determine the internal policies" of a sovereign State.

01 Feb 2019; AFP: The International Criminal Court finally freed former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Friday after his shock acquittal last month on charges of crimes against humanity.

Supporters sang and waved flags in the Hague after judges agreed to release the 73-year-old on condition that he stays in an as-yet-unnamed country pending an appeal by the prosecution.

01 Feb 2019; DW: If Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, UK citizens should still be able to visit the bloc visa-free for up to 90 days, ambassadors of the remaining 27 EU nations said on Friday. The 90 days can be taken in any 180-day period, the envoys said in Brussels. 

PARIS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- France regretted United States move to leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, asking Russia to use the six-month window to keep talks on nuclear arms pact and come into compliance with the agreement, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a press release issued late on Friday.

"France regrets to arrive at a situation in which the United States had to notify its withdrawal from the INF Treaty," the ministry said, reiterating Paris "commitment to arms control instruments, which help to ensure strategic stability."

MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Russia will suspend the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in a mirror response to the decision of the United States.

"We will do as follows. We will come up with a tit-for-tat response. American partners have announced suspension of their participation in the treaty, and we will suspend," Putin said at a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

LONDON (AP) — Nearly a third of U.K. firms may shift operations abroad because of Britain’s pending departure from the European Union, a survey of 1,200 company directors suggested Friday, as political stalemate over a Brexit deal heightened jitters among businesses.

The survey by employers’ group the Institute of Directors found that 16 percent of businesses already had relocation plans while a further 13 percent were “actively considering” a move.

31 Jan 2019; AFP: Growth in the eurozone slowed sharply to 1.8 percent in 2018, data showed Thursday, as a recovery ran out of steam on worries over the US-China trade war and Brexit.

The economy expanded by a comparatively booming 2.4 percent in 2017.

The dampened outlook is a huge disappointment to policy-makers as growth in the eurozone had until recently been regarded as one of the strongest engines of the global economy.