Germany

MUNICH (AP) — Diplomats from nations that lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner pushed Iran’s foreign minister Saturday for more cooperation from Tehran on the investigation and other issues.

Amid heightened tensions with the United States, Iran said it accidentally shot the aircraft down Jan. 8 after mistaking it for an incoming missile attack. All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines plane died.

MUNICH (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Saturday cast China as a rising threat to world order — saying the world’s most populous nation steals Western know-how, intimidates smaller neighbors and seeks an “advantage by any means and at any cost.”

MUNICH (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday that a truce agreement between the United States and the Taliban that could lead to the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan is not without risk but “looks very promising.”

Ahead of a formal announcement of the seven-day “reduction in violence” deal, Esper said it was time to give peace a chance in Afghanistan through a political negotiation. He spoke a day after a senior U.S. official said the deal had been concluded and would take effect very soon.

MUNICH, February 15. /TASS/: The Turkish delegation will pay a visit to Russia on February 17 to discuss situation in the Syrian province of Idlib, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

The minister told reporters that the delegation will go to Russia on Monday.

Cavusoglu again reiterated that Turkey won’t tolerate attacks in Idlib and Ankara is ready to take necessary action if diplomatic efforts don’t bear fruit.

MUNICH, February 15. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has revealed that he would like to hold local elections in all Ukrainian territories in October and "in Crimea as well."

"Our aspiration is to hold local elections in the whole of Ukraine in October, we would like [to hold] them in Crimea as well," he said, delivering a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

15 February 2020; AFP: Ten thousand people are expected to join a demonstration Saturday in Erfurt, capital of Thuringia state in Germany's former communist east, where far-right lawmakers last week helped install a new state premier.

MUNICH (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended on Saturday his nation’s global role despite misgivings in Europe, vowing that Western values would prevail over Russian and Chinese desires for “empire”.

Seeking to reassure Europeans troubled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, his ambivalence over the NATO military alliance and tariffs on European goods, Pompeo said there was no crisis in Western leadership.

MUNICH (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday he would allow North Macedonia and Albania to begin talks on joining the European Union if the bloc’s executive gave them a positive review next month.

Macron’s comments at the Munich Security Conference look set to end his freeze on the two Balkan countries’ progress towards EU membership and reassure other European leaders that France still backs expanding the bloc to new members.

MUNICH (Reuters) - China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed U.S. criticism of his country as “lies” on Saturday, shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized its foreign policy and desire for “empire”.

“All these accusations against China are lies, not based on facts,” Wang told the Munich Security Conference. “But if we replace the subject of the lie from China to America, maybe those lies become facts.”

BERLIN, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German police detained 12 men, including one of its own officers, on Friday suspected of setting up a far-right organisation with the goal of carrying out attacks against politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (GBA) said.

The arrests followed raids, some by heavily-armed special units, which hit 13 locations in six German states.