Europe

    Chancellor returns but with diminished authority as first openly nationalist party in decades enters Bundestag. Angela Merkel has secured a fourth term as German chancellor but with her authority diminished, after her conservative bloc secured the lead position in parliamentary elections but failed to halt the march of rightwing populists. Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) was celebrating its historic third place success last night, having secured 13% of the vote, according to exit polls, marking the first time in almost six decades that an openly nationalist party will enter the Bundestag. Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrat-led alliance secured 33% of the vote, according to exit polls, about 12 points ahead of her main rivals, Martin Schulz’s centre left Social Demo...

    Germany is going to the polls on Sunday today for the country's federal elections, with long-serving Chancellor Angela Merkel looking all but certain to win a historic fourth term in office. The poll is also expected to see the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) entering parliament for the first time. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged people to go vote. Voting is a civic duty. Go and vote! Steinmeier wrote in an opinion piece published in the Bild am Sonntag Sunday newspaper. Every vote counts - your vote counts, Steinmeier asserted. People who don't vote allow others to decide the future of our country. Opinion polls suggest Merkel and her party are heading for a clear win, which would gift Merkel a historic fourth term. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CD...

    British Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. David Davis and EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier address the media after the third round of Brexit talks. On Wednesday afternoon, with Jean Claude Juncker’s state of the union speech calling for swifter, deeper integration still ringing in their ears, a gaggle of political leaders in the European parliament met in a room opposite the chamber in Strasbourg. In the appositely named Salle de Margaret Thatcher, Guy Verhofstadt, the colourful former Belgian prime minister who is coordinating MEPs’ response to Brexit, discussed with colleagues from the pro-European political parties on the parliament’s Brexit steering group how they should respond to the seeming stalemate in the Brexit negotiations. The latest d...

    Attempts at intervening in Myanmar’s internal affairs may have only one net effect - still deeper interreligious discord, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. It is essential to remember that the wish to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state may merely bring about further inter-religious discord, she said, reports Russian news agency TASS. Moscow supports efforts for promoting the inter-religious dialogue in Myanmar among the spiritual leaders of all confessions. In that connection we took note of the collective statement by the leading organizations representing Myanmar’s multi-ethnic Muslim community who condemned armed actions by radical elements in that region (Rakhine), Zakharova said. We express support for the governm...

    As more and more refugees arrive in Bangladesh from Myanmar, the European Commission has announced additional humanitarian aid of €3 million to address the most pressing needs of Rohingya civilians. The funding comes on top of the €12 million announced in May 2017 when Commissioner Stylianides visited Rakhine State in Myanmar. The European Commission is providing further emergency humanitarian aid as the situation continues to be critical. This additional funding will help provide emergency shelter, water, food and health assistance for newly arrived refugees in Bangladesh and people in need in Myanmar, as soon as humanitarian access to the latter is restored. The EC continues to call for full humanitarian access and the respect for international human rights law in Myanma...

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed Thursday that the upcoming Russian military drill in Belarus shows Moscow is preparing its forces for a much bigger conflict. The comments came during his annual address to parliament. Russia’s backing of separatists in the eastern region of Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea show no sign of being reversed, Poroshenko added according to Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda. On the contrary, Ukraine thinks the Kremlin’s military ambitions are only going to grow. There are no signs at the moment that Moscow would be ready to pull back from Donbas or leave Crimea, Poroshenko said. In fact, there is more and more evidence for its preparations for an offensive war of continental proportions. Trending: Trump Sends DACA Tweet After R...

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump’s so-called bromance is not on the rocks because there was never romance to begin with, Putin told reporters on Tuesday. While visiting China for a summit of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Putin addressed journalists questions about the increasingly cool relations between Moscow and Washington. Both administrations have said that tensions between the two countries stemming from the conflict in Ukraine reached a post-Cold War peak and have only increased in recent months, despite Putin and Trump trading pleasantries in the press. Putin refused to discuss calls in the U.S. to impeach Trump, and when he was asked for a personal assessment of his American counterpart’s performance a...

    The lightning struck in several areas of the Vieux Canal festival in the town of Azerailles. A woman in her 60s and a 44-year-old man are reported to be in a serious condition in hospital. Those injured also included children who were in a tent during the storm. Officials said the victims were directly hit by the lightning and suffered burns. Areas in France are often put on high alert at this time of year for violent storms. The festival’s emergency teams treated those hurt in the incident before they were taken to hospitals nearby. The rest of Saturday’s performances were cancelled after the lightning strikes. French electronic act Pony Pony Run Run and pop group Black Bones were due to perform.

    A firefighter who gave CPR to Princess Diana after pulling her from the wreckage of the car crash that killed her has said that night will stay with me forever. Sergeant Xavier Gourmelon, 50, said he was certain the Princess of Wales would survive the crash after he resuscitated her when she went into cardiac arrest in the Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997. He was in charge of a medically trained fire crew at the scene and said she uttered the words “My God, what’s happened?” moments before she lost consciousness. In his first interview since the crash ahead of the 20th anniversary of her death on Thursday, Mr Gourmelon told how he pulled the 36-year-old princess from the wrecked Mercedes. He said after giving her CPR, he was convinced she would survive. Father-of-two Mr Gou...

    A former nurse, only identified as Niels H., hides his face behind a folder next to his lawyer, Ulrike Baumann, at a court in Oldenburg, Germany. The court found the 38-year-old guilty of charges including two counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison. (AP Photo/dpa, Carmen Jaspersen) At a hospital in northern Germany, he was once dubbed a bad luck charm since so many of his patients required resuscitation. What doctors and nurses there didn’t know was that he was overdosing patients with cardiovascular medication because he got a strange satisfaction from bringing them back to life. But he wasn’t always successful. Prosecutors accused the 38-year-old male nurse known only as Niels H. because of Germany’s strict privacy laws of three murders and two attempted mu...