Europe

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russia has launched the underwater trials of the Poseidon nuclear-capable strategic drone whose development was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his state-of-the-nation address to both houses of the Russian parliament, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"In the sea area protected from a potential enemy’s reconnaissance means, the underwater trials of the nuclear propulsion unit of the Poseidon drone are underway," the source said.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The family of Russian national Maria Butina, arrested in the United States on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent, needs about 30 mln rubles ($436,000) to pay her lawyer’s fees, Maria’s father Valery Butin told a Russian TV show on Tuesday.

"The debt amounts to about 30 mln rubles at the moment. It is indeed a huge debt. The case is politicized, this is why the fees are that high but the lawyer did not abandon the case in July and has been actually working for free since then," Butin said.

MOSCOW, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree expanding the list of Ukrainian individuals and entities subject to sanctions, the government said Tuesday.

Moscow will add over 200 Ukrainian citizens and legal entities to the list that already has 322 individuals and 68 entities, according to a Russian government statement.

"This was done to protect the interests of the Russian state, companies and citizens," Medvedev tweeted following his signing of the decree.

25 Dec 2018; DW: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged the people of Germany to address tensions in society by engaging with each other. The country must not be allowed to drift apart, he says in his annual Christmas speech.

25 Dec 2018; DW: Pope Francis has reminded Christians that their messiah was born in poverty and said they should focus on love and charity instead of "consumerism." The event in St. Peter's Basilica was attended by 10,000 people.

Pope Francis used the Christmas Eve Mass to condemn the pursuit of riches on Monday, and urged Christians to consider Jesus' humble birth story. According to the New Testament, Christ was born in a Bethlehem stable and was then placed in a manger.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Anti-aircraft gunners of the Central Military District have returned to Novosibirsk after performing tasks to protect Russia’s facilities in Syria, the district’s press service told TASS on Monday.

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry deems as important the decision of the UN General Assembly to convene a conference on the establishment of a zone free of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East in 2019, the ministry reported on Monday in comments on the decision approved on December 22.

GENEVA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A UN expert on Monday expressed his deep concern about the death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan migrant girl while she was in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.

Emphasizing that the U.S. should stop the detention of children, either unaccompanied or with their families, based on their migratory status, and seek alternatives to detention, Felipe González Morales, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, also called for a thorough investigation into how the girl died.

LONDON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- British police said Sunday night that there might never have been drone activity over Gatwick Airport at all.

There is no footage of the device which sparked it and it is "a possibility" there never was one, the police said.

Asked about speculation there was never such a drone flown over the airport, Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley told the BBC: "Of course, that's a possibility. We are working with human beings saying they have seen something."

London, Dec 23 (PTI) An Indian man who was convicted of 23 counts of sexual abuse of a male child within his family has been stripped of his British citizenship and faces deportation to India.

The man, who can only be identified as RSD for legal reasons, came to the UK from India in 1997 and was granted British citizenship in 2004. In 2011, he was found guilty of grooming and raping a 7-year-old child.