Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula's annexation, a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over the Ukraine conflict.. - 'Void' ICC warrant - Putin's visit came a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over the "deportation" of Ukrainian children.
France's Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who has pushed through a controversial pensions overhaul without a parliament vote, is an experienced technocrat known for her resilience.. France's second-ever female prime minister was born in Paris and studied at the elite Ecole Polytechnique.
Kazakhstan holds snap parliamentary elections Sunday as the leader of the Central Asian country pushes political reforms that critics say are designed to consolidate power one year after deadly protests.. That's what elections are in an authoritarian country," he said.
UBS was up against the clock Sunday in talks to finalise a mammoth takeover of its troubled rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse and reassure investors before the markets reopen.. - 'Merger of the century' - Credit Suisse, the country's SNB central bank and the Swiss financial watchdog FINMA all declined to comment when contacted by AFP about the possibility of a UBS takeover.
Kosovo and Serbia stopped short of signing a potentially landmark deal late Saturday night after holding a marathon round of talks, even as the EU hailed progress toward reaching a long-sought agreement between the arch-foes.. "The parties were not able to find a mutually acceptable solution as ambitious as we were providing or proposing," said Borrell, even as he hailed reaching a deal that went unsigned in the end.
UBS and Credit Suisse, the two biggest banks in Switzerland, are in takeover talks, according to several media -- a move long deemed unthinkable as the pair are so similar.. Investment banking represents 25.2 percent of UBS's turnover, compared to nearly 20.6 percent at Credit Suisse, with the pair running many similar activities such as mergers and acquisitions advice.
At least 12 people were killed, one was wounded and buildings were damaged in a powerful earthquake that shook Peru and Ecuador earlier Saturday, Ecuador's presidency said.. Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso urged people to remain "calm and to be informed through official channels" about damage to buildings in a message on Twitter.
Britain's interior minister defended a controversial plan to deport asylum seekers who arrive in the UK illegally to Rwanda during a visit to the country on Saturday, saying it was "compassionate".. It is seeking to outlaw asylum claims by all illegal arrivals and transfer them to "safe" third countries, such as Rwanda, in a bid to stop thousands of migrants from crossing the Channel on small boats.
At least six people were killed in a clash between remnants of the defunct Shining Path rebel group and a military patrol in a coca-growing valley in central Peru, a Defense Ministry unit reported Saturday.. The Vizcatan del Ene area is in the central department of Junin, part of a large coca-growing area where remnants of the Shining Path allied to drug traffickers have long taken refuge, authorities said.
Russian strikes killed two people and wounded eight in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Saturday, the mayor said, accusing Moscow of having used cluster bombs in the attack.. "Consequences of Kramatorsk bombardment with cluster bombs: two people were killed and eight were wounded, three of them seriously."
