Europe

27 Dec 2018; DW: An estimated 800,000 people were killed during the 100 days of bloodshed following the 1994 assassination of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. Kigali accuses Paris of complicity in the genocide.

French judges have reportedly dropped a long-running investigation into the killing of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, which triggered countrywide violence and genocide in 1994.

27 Dec 2018; DW: The idea, similar to Germany's church tax, would aim to make mosques independent of foreign donors. Germany's government and progressive Muslim leaders have supported the idea.

Lawmakers from Germany's grand coalition government said on Wednesday that they were considering introducing a "mosque tax" for German Muslims, similar to the church taxes that German Christians pay.

BERLIN, December 26. /TASS/. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has spoken out against the deployment of US medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads in Europe in the event of Washington’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

"Europe should not turn into a platform for discussions on arms buildup under any circumstances," the minister said in an interview with the DPA news agency published on Wednesday.

"The deployment of new medium-range missiles in Germany would encounter huge dissatisfaction."

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The United States is building up the number of carriers of cruise missiles - destroyers, cruisers and submarines - near Russia’s borders, the editor-in-chief of the military magazine Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland), Viktor Murakhovsky, said in the wake of a recent statement by the Russian Navy’s Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Korolyov.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The United States has made a right decision to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan but there is a need to wait and see what steps Washington finally takes, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Israel’s air strikes on the outskirts of Damascus grossly violate Syria’s sovereignty along with resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The fact of the strikes and the way they were delivered is a question of our most serious concern. There is every indication that Syria’s sovereignty was grossly violated along with UN Security Council’s resolutions, including Resolution 1701," the ministry stressed.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Russia and Turkey will hold high-level talks on Syria in Moscow in the near future, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The meeting with a representative Turkish delegation is in the works. The high-level contacts on Syria might be held in Moscow in the near future," the ministry said.

KIEV, December 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have taken under control two thirds of the so-called "grey security zone" in Donbass, Ukrainian presidential advisor and aide to the defense minister Yury Biryukov told Pryamoy TV channel on Wednesday.

"From the situation that we began with in May 2014, two thirds of the territory were liberated. Almost the whole 'gray zone' was liberated and taken under control," Biryukov said.

Moscow, Dec 26 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hailed final tests of a hypersonic missile, which he earlier said would render existing missile defence systems obsolete.

"On my instructions, the Ministry of Defence prepared and conducted a final test of this system. This has just been completed with absolute success," Putin said during a televised meeting with members of the government.

25 Dec 2018; DW: Despite the yellow vests winning a reprieve from a hike in fuel taxes, millions of French people want more done to fight climate change. Their legal case for lower carbon emissions could take several years.

A petition to force the French government to take urgent action against climate change has grown to 1.7 million signatures in just a few days, the organizers' website showed on Tuesday.