Europe

LONDON (AP) — The European Union on Monday accused Facebook parent Meta of breaching antitrust rules by distorting competition in the online classified ads business, the bloc’s latest maneuver to curb the power of Big Tech companies.

In its complaint following an investigation launched last year, the EU’s executive commission took issue with the tech company tying its online classified ad business, Facebook Marketplace, to Facebook. It’s also concerned that Meta imposes unfair trading conditions on rivals “for its own benefit.”

Meta disputed the allegations.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Multiple explosive drones attacked Ukraine’s capital before dawn Monday, local authorities reported, as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to visit ally Belarus, which provided the Kremlin’s forces with a launch pad for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost 10 months ago.

The drone attack came three days after what Ukrainian officials described as one of Russia’s biggest assaults on Kyiv since the war started and as Moscow presses on with its effort to torment Ukraine from the air amid a broad battlefield stalemate.

19 Dec 2022; MEMO: The French foreign ministry condemned on Sunday Israel's expulsion of Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist Salah Hamouri from his home city of Jerusalem, Euro News has reported. Hamouri has French citizenship.

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergey Shoigu inspected the grouping of troops in the areas of the special military operation and spoke with servicemen on the front line, the Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: Pyotr Ivanov, who was elected president of the Russian Athletics Federation (RAF) in late November 2020, has resumed his duties as head of the organization, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin told reporters on Sunday at the RAF conference.

Ivanov temporarily resigned as president of the Russian Athletics Federation on February 13, 2021, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned high-ranking Russian officials from heading sports federations until December 16, 2022.

MADRID, December 18. /TASS/: Pope Francis believes that the conflict in Ukraine is a 'world war' and will not end soon, according to his interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC published on Sunday.

"Now [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky is sending one of his religious advisers to me for the third time," the pontiff reported, "I'm in touch, accepting, helping". "I don't see the end [of the conflict] in the short term, because this is a world war," he noted. "There are already several hands involved in the war," Francis pointed out, "There are many interests.".

BERLIN, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Most of the jewels stolen from a historic Dresden art collection in 2019 in a $120 million heist have been recovered, German police and prosecutors said on Saturday.

The 31 pieces, including a breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle and an ornate diamond head-dress, had been secured by investigators in Berlin, authorities said.

Their return followed negotiations between prosecutors and defence lawyers for the Germans who are on trial for the November 2019 break-in at the Gruenes Gewoelbe (Green Vault) Museum.

LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The British government is "resolute" it will not budge on nurses' pay, senior minister Oliver Dowden said on Sunday, ahead of a planned second nationwide walkout by the profession over an average pay offer of 4% while inflation runs at more than 10%.

An estimated 10,000 nurses in the state-funded National Health Service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland plan to walk out again on Tuesday after staging strikes on Thursday in protest over the pay increase they have been offered.

KYIV, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday proposed holding a global peace summit this winter, in a video message Kyiv was hoping would be broadcast ahead of the soccer World Cup final in Qatar, although it appeared unlikely FIFA would allow the move.

CNN reported on Friday that Zelenskiy had asked world soccer's governing body FIFA to let him share a message of peace before the final. 

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - A 17-metre-long Canadian-made robotic arm on the International Space Station will inspect a docked Soyuz spacecraft after a leak was noticed just before a spacewalk last week, Russia's state space corporation said on Sunday.

After the spacewalk was called off on Dec. 15, Roscosmos said there had been damage to the outer skin of an instrument assembly compartment of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule. It said there was a coolant leak.