Europe

BRUSSELS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nearly one and half month after the signing of the trade truce between the European Union (EU) and the United States, the two sides finally launch their first high-profile meeting, as U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer is set to land here Monday.

Reached between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump in late July, the truce has somewhat eased trade tensions between the two sides in recent weeks, but it doesn't mean they are over.

Disagreements are already obvious.

PRESEVO, Serbia; 7 Sep 2018; AP: The European Union’s top diplomat says she’s concluded separate talks with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo but that there has been no breakthrough in normalizing their strained relations.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday after meetings with Serbian President Aleksander Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci that she held several rounds of talks but that “difficulties remain.”

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS; 7 Sep 2018; AA: A wanted former militant of Liberia's brutal civil war was arrested, being charged over crimes against humanity in France, local media reported Friday.

The man, identified as Kunti K., a naturalized Dutch citizen of Liberian origin, was arrested in Paris on Tuesday, French daily Le Figaro reported citing police sources.

The 44-year-old man arrived in France in 2016, after leaving the Netherlands and passing through Belgium, according to police.

UN, September 6. /TASS/. The United States should disclose the list of its possible targets in Syria if they believe that chemical weapons are being stored there, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, told the UN Security Council session on Syria on Thursday.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. The United States can forward information concerning preparations for an alleged attack involving the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Idlib to Russia though bilateral conduits, if Washington has such information, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. The spokeswoman responded to the remarks by US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey who said that there was plenty of evidence proving that Damascus was getting ready to conduct a chemical weapons attack in Idlib.

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. The UK must provide fingerprints of the suspects in the Skripal case to Interpol, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday on the Rossiya-1 channel.

"We should start the conversation with facts, that is, with fingerprints. If according to the British side, these people have come from Russia, they must have received British visas, so, please, "fingers at the table". Because none of us can work without Interpol here," the diplomat stressed.

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. A hole in the hull of the Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft was drilled when the spaceship was fully assembled, a source in the space industry told TASS on Thursday.

"The hole was drilled when the spaceship was already assembled," he said, adding that the spacecraft's manufacturer, the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation had decided to check all manned Soyuz and cargo Progress spaceships, both those that are being assembled and those sent to the Baikonur space center.

2 Sep 2018; DW: Almost 20,000 people have marched through Berlin and Hamburg demanding that Germany take in more migrants stranded at sea. Sunday's marches were organized in response to the violent anti-migrant protests in Chemnitz.

Up to 16,000 people marched through the northern German city of Hamburg on Sunday, urging officials to open up the city's ports to stranded migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean.

GENEVA; 3 Sep 2018; (AP) — A key opponent of high-tech, automated weapons known as “killer robots” is blaming countries like the U.S. and Russia for blocking consensus at a U.N.-backed conference, where most countries wanted to ensure that humans stay at the controls of lethal machines.

Coordinator Mary Wareham of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots spoke Monday after experts from dozens of countries agreed before dawn Saturday at the U.N. in Geneva on 10 “possible guiding principles” about such “Lethal Automated Weapons Systems.”

TASS, September 3. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has commented on the situation in Syria, saying that President Bashar al-Assad won the war but failed to achieve peace in the region.