Europe

PARIS, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Pollution caused about 9 million people to die prematurely in 2019, according to a new global report, with experts raising alarm over increasing deaths from breathing outside air and the “horrifying” toll of lead poisoning.

Human-created waste in the air, water and soil rarely kills people immediately, but causes instead heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems, diarrhoea and other serious illnesses.

PARIS, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The war in Ukraine and drought fuelled by climate change has sent global prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser soaring.

Rising prices for basic food staples is fuelling protests from Indonesia to Iran.

European wheat prices have jumped 74 per cent and benchmark palm oil futures went up 24 per cent since January.

The trend is growing and is alarming policymakers, with United Nations agencies warning that the price hikes will worsen an existing food crisis in Africa and could cause “catastrophic” child malnutrition.

HELSINKI, May 19 (Reuters) - The NATO alliance has not expressed any interest in placing nuclear weapons or permanent bases in Finland, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told an Italian newspaper in an interview published on Thursday during a visit to Rome.

"There isn't even interest (within NATO) to put nuclear weapons or bases in Finland," Marin told daily Corriere della Sera, her office said.

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - British police ended their investigation on Thursday into COVID-19 lockdown parties held at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office, having handed out 126 fines in a scandal that had called into question his leadership.

Johnson has faced widespread calls from opposition politicians and some in his own party for him to resign over the "partygate" scandal after it was revealed both he and officials had broken stringent laws his government had made.

GENEVA (AP) — The number of coronavirus deaths globally dropped by about 21% in the past week while cases rose in most parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization.

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany (AP) — Finance ministers for the Group of Seven leading economies on Thursday will deal with the immediate effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, overtaking their more ambitious plans to reform the global economy.

A refugee crisis, high inflation, food insecurity exacerbated by the wa r and climate change, and the ramifications of a multiyear pandemic are just a few issues drawing leaders’ attention.

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s former king is set to return to the country Thursday for his first visit since leaving nearly two years ago amid a cloud of financial scandals.

The royal household said Juan Carlos I would first visit the northwestern town of Sanxenxo, where a yachting event is scheduled. He plans to travel to Madrid on Monday to see his son, King Felipe VI, and other members of the royal family, the palace said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

BERLIN (AP) — German police say they have detained a suspect in connection with a Thursday morning attack at a high school in the northern city of Bremerhaven in which one person was injured.

Police said the incident happened at the Lloyd high school in the center of the city.

A police spokesperson initially confirmed that there had been a shooting, but later revised that information to say only that the attacker was armed.

“The armed person was detained and is in police custody,” police said in a statement.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The battle that turned Mariupol into a worldwide symbol of defiance and suffering drew toward a close as Russia said nearly 1,000 last-ditch Ukrainian fighters who held out inside a pulverized steel plant had surrendered.

Ukraine’s military made no mention of Mariupol in its early morning briefing Thursday, saying only that Russian forces were still pressing their offensive on various sections of the front in the east, but were being successfully repelled.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: The Western countries have undermined strategic stability in Europe and the Middle East and jeopardized the architecture of security in the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as destabilized the world situation in general, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, said in a message of greeting to foreign ambassadors who are meeting with the Security Council’s staff on Wednesday.