Europe

London, May 17 (PTI) The UK government has said it strongly supports the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as Sweden and Finland confirmed their intention to apply for membership of the military alliance, in a historic shift of foreign policy stance in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Monday evening that the two Nordic countries should be integrated into NATO, which operates on a collective defence basis under which an attack against any one ally is considered as an attack against all allies.

17 May 2022; MEMO: The European Union has denied reports claiming the bloc intends to reduce its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), describing them as "false and baseless".

In a statement issued yesterdat, the European Union stressed that it will always be a reliable and major donor to UNRWA, adding that last November, the commission transferred €92 million ($96 million) in one payment.

BERLIN, May 17 (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is open to the idea of seizing Russian state assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, he said in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt and three other European newspapers.

"I am politically open to the idea of seizing foreign assets of the Russian Central Bank," Lindner said, adding that proposals to this effect were already being discussed among the Group of Seven economic powers and in the European Union.

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that there was no threat to Russia if Sweden and Finland joined NATO but cautioned that Moscow would respond if the U.S.-led alliance bolstered military infrastructure in the new Nordic members.

Putin, Russia's paramount leader since 1999, has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet enlargement of the NATO alliance eastwards toward Russia's borders as a reason for the conflict of Ukraine.

KYIV/NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine, May 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Tuesday it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol, ceding control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment.

PARIS, May 16 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday named Elisabeth Borne as the country's new prime minister.

Borne, 61, is a former minister of transport, ecology and labor. She is the second woman to hold the position after Edith Cresson (1991-1992) under President Francois Mitterrand.

MOSCOW, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow would respond if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would deploy military infrastructure on the territories of Finland or Sweden.

"The expansion of military infrastructure into these territories would certainly trigger our response, which would depend on the kind of threats this would pose for us," the Kremlin cited the president as saying at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian fighters who doggedly defended a steel mill in the devastated port city of Mariupol have completed their mission, Ukrainian officials said, and efforts were underway to rescue the last of the defenders who remained inside.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said more than 260 fighters, including some badly wounded, were evacuated from the hulking Azovstal plant Monday and taken to areas under Russia’s control. Officials planned to keep trying to save an unknown number of fighters who stayed behind.

BERLIN, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a “credible” investigation into the death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as he offered condolences to her family.

Blinken said he spoke with the brother of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was a US citizen, during his flight Saturday to Berlin for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

“I had a chance to express deep condolences for her loss, our deep respect for the work that she did as a journalist for many years,” Blinken told reporters in Berlin.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: The crews of Tu-142 aircraft of the Pacific Fleet’s naval aviation practiced anti-submarine warfare tasks during drills over the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific Ocean, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"The Pacific Fleet conducted training flights to practice cohesion of the crews of Tu-142 long-range anti-submarine warfare aircraft and their anti-submarine operations over the Sea of Okhotsk," the press office said in a statement.