Europe

6 Nov 2018; DW: A federation representing more than 100 mosques in the Netherlands has called on Twitter to block the account of anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders. The group says it will take legal action if the platform fails to act.

The Turkish Islamic Cultural Federation (TICF) has sent a formal request to Twitter demanding that Dutch firebrand politician Geert Wilders be banned for inciting hatred.

TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy Alexander Lavrentiev arrived in the capital Tehran on Monday to express Russia's support for Iran as the U.S. fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic take effect.

In a meeting with Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani here on Monday, Lavrentiev said that he has traveled to Tehran to "voice Moscow's unequivocal support for Iran against the fresh round of U.S. sanctions," according to Tasnim news agency.

LONDON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected calls Sunday for a second referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union (EU) as a report suggested she has drawn up a secret Brexit plan with Brussels.

Downing Street's insisted a new poll would be a betrayal of trust following the 2016 referendum when 52 percent of the population backed ending EU membership.

The statement comes as a report in one of Britain's leading newspapers, the Sunday Times, suggests May has drawn up a secret Brexit plan with EU.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s outgoing domestic intelligence chief won’t be given a new government job after lashing out at one of the governing parties, the interior minister said Monday. It was a late twist to a saga that has contributed to the administration’s unpopularity.

The center-left Social Democrats, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, demanded Hans-Georg Maassen’s removal from the BfV spy agency in September after he appeared to downplay far-right violence against migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. The United States is dealing another powerful blow to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) by unveiling new sanctions against Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. Dialogue between nations on the basis on common interests will help settle problems between states and cooperate in the interests of all nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday at a ceremony of decorating foreign nationals with Russian state awards for their contribution to the development of relations with Russia.

The ceremony was timed to mark Russia’s national holiday, Unity Day, on November 4.

BERLIN; 4 Nov 2018; AA: Germany’s foreign minister has called for continued investigation into the shadowy neo-Nazi terrorist group NSU, which killed nine immigrants between 2000 and 2007.

“It’s a disgrace for us that the right-wing extremists could continue their killing spree for such a long time,” Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter on Sunday, on the seventh anniversary of the exposure of the killers on November 4, 2011.

LONDON (AP) — Brexit is undermining Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace by creating tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday, even as hopes rose for a solution to the Irish border problem that has deadlocked negotiations.

“Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement” — the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland — “and it is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland,” Varadkar said.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. The festival of the world’s greatest clowns will be held in the Big St. Petersburg State Circus (a branch of the Russian State Circus Company) in early December, the company said on its official Instagram page on Tuesday.

"The Big St. Petersburg Circus on the Fontanka River will open its doors at the festival of the world’s best clowns at the beginning of December. This grand and beautiful event will be a wonderful start for beginning celebrations to mark the circus’ centenary," the report said.

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. During a joint Russian-Pakistani military exercise, Friendship-2018, Russian special forces and their Pakistani colleagues practiced an operation against a sabotage and reconnaissance group operating in mountainous terrain, the press service of the Southern Military District said on Wednesday.

"The personnel performed its reconnaissance tasks wearing advanced combat gear, Ratnik," a spokesperson said.