Europe

22 Jan 2019; DW: A follow-up pact to the Elysee Treaty marks the latest gesture of friendship between France and Germany. The new bilateral pact pledges deeper cooperation between the two nations and paves the way for EU reforms.

22 Jan 2019; AFP: Cristiano Ronaldo is returning to Madrid for a court date on Tuesday in which he could be fined 18.8 million euros ($21.4 million) for tax fraud as part of a deal reached with the Spanish taxman.

As part of an agreement arranged in June with the former Real Madrid hero's lawyers, prosecutors are also asking that the Portuguese attacker, who last summer left the Spanish capital for Italian champions Juventus, be handed a 23-month jail sentence.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world economy absorbed more bad news Monday: The International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for 2019. And China, the world’s second-biggest economy, said it had slowed to its weakest pace since 1990.

The IMF cut its estimate for global growth this year to 3.5 percent, from the 3.7 percent it had predicted in October and down from 2018′s 3.7 percent. The fund cited heightened trade tensions and rising interest rates.

PARIS (AP) — The ArianeGroup wants to send a scientific mission to the moon before 2025.

Nearly 50 years after Neil Armstrong walked on the Earth’s satellite, the Paris-based company said on Monday it has signed a one-year contract with the European Space agency to study the possibility of preparing a mission, with the aim of mining regolith.

PARIS (AP) — France’s data privacy watchdog fined Google 50 million euros ($57 million) on Monday, the first penalty for a U.S. tech giant under new European data privacy rules that took effect last year.

The National Data Protection Commission said it fined the U.S. internet giant for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent” regarding ad personalization for users.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday — and it looks a lot like Plan A.

May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure.

May’s opponents expressed incredulity: British lawmakers last week dealt the deal a resounding defeat, and EU leaders insist they won’t renegotiate it.

YAKUTSK, January 20. /TASS/. Italian extreme sports lover Paolo Venturini ran nearly 40 km in northern Yakutia’s Oymyakon region where temperature hit minus 52 degrees Celsius, the local department for external relations told reporters on Sunday.

"Paolo Venturini ran for three hours, 54 minutes and 10 seconds covering the 39.12 km from Tomtor to Oymyakon with the temperature of minus 52 degrees," the department’s press service said.

TEL AVIV, January 21. /TASS/. Israel used the mechanism of urgent contacts with the Russian military during strikes against targets in Syria last night, Israel Defense Force spokesman Jonathan Conricus told a news briefing for foreign media on Monday.

"The deconfliction mechanism in Syria is supported by both parties - Israel and Russia. It is being used at the moment while we are having this conversation. It was routinely employed in accordance with the standard procedures last night," Conricus said.

NALCHIK, January 21. /TASS/. Russia’s oldest woman, Nanu Shaova, a native of Russia’s North Caucasian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, has died at the age of 128, the local administration said on Monday.

"Nanu Shaova, a centenarian from the village of Zayukovo, Kabardino-Balkaria’s Baksan district, and Russia’s oldest woman, according to the Russia Book of Records, has died at the age of 128. She would have turned 129 in May. The administration of the Baksan district offers its most sincere condolences to her family," it said in press statement.

MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The Baltic Fleet’s corvettes escorted the US Gravely and Porters destroyers, which have entered the Baltic Sea, the Russian National Defense Management Center told reporters on Monday.

"The Baltic Fleet’s forces escorted the US Navy’s guided missile destroyers Gravely and Porter, which have entered the southern part of the Baltic Sea’s waters," the center said.

The Russian Navy’s Boiky and Soobrazitelnyy corvettes are monitoring the US warships’ activity.