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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

ʼWhy did you kill my girlfriend?ʼ — UK nerve agent survivor meets Russia envoy Charlie Rowleyʼs partner Dawn Sturgess was killed after being exposed to the Novichok nerve agent, which was used to attack ex-Russia spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury on March 4, 2018.

Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner ,Dawn Sturgess, died last year after being exposure to the nerve agent Novichok, held a 90-minute meeting on Saturday with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at Russiaʼs embassy in London. The meeting was arranged by Britainʼs Sunday Mirror newspaper. Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, fell ill on June 30 last year. British authorities determined that the couple was exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the last phase of the Cold War. The same substance used in a failed attempt to kill ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury three months earlier.

Libya: US pulls forces amid fighting near capital The United States military said on Sunday it had pulled some of its forces out of Libya. The temporary withdrawal came amid anupsurge in fighting in the oil-rich country.

"Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of US forces supporting US Africa Command [AFRICOM] temporarily relocated from the country in response to security conditions on the ground," said astatement from the command, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. "The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," said US Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser. The American troop withdrawal was followed by an announcement by Libyaʼs Tripoli-based interim government that it had launched a "counter offensive" to defend the capital, reported Franceʼs Agence France-Presse news agency.

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Israelʼs Netanyahu pledges to annex West Bank settlements The move could hinder peace talks with the Palestinians

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that if reelected to a fourth term, he will "ensure" that Israel has control of the area west of the Jordan River.

Coca-Cola, wine harvest cause bottleneck in Germany Coca-Cola and a good wine harvest are no doubt two completely different things. But in Germany, they merge when it comes to explaining an unparalleled shortage of glass for wine bottles.

Oliver Schell owns a family winery in Germanyʼs Ahr region. He was ready to fill his first bottles with 2018 vintage wine as early as last week. Sadly, he found out that schlegelflaschen — the elegant long bottles made of white glass that he normally uses for his wine — are not available anymore. He had to settle for alternative, shorter bottles.

But there isnʼt an alternative for everything. Bottling at the Schell Winery has

to be postponed. "We have the wine ready in the cellar, but we canʼt get it to our clients," says Schell. In the 10 years that he has been in the wine business, heʼs never faced that problem before. For many winemakers in Germany, now is the time to finally put the wine in bottles. But the glassmakers cannot produce enough bottles, says Andreas Köhl, spokesman of the Farmers and Winegrowersʼ Association in Rhineland-Palatinate. "Especially the green 1-liter bottles are in short supply as well as bottles for white wine and rose." In Rhineland-Palatinate alone there are 4,900 wineries that bottle wine.

Tintin and Snowy turn 90 — havenʼt aged a day He has fought organized crime, solved mysteries and even helped to bring down despotic regimes. The famous Belgian cub-reporter Tintin, with his trademark shock of strawberry-blonde hair, blue sweater and plus-four trousers, has taken his fans with him on world adventures that have been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects. Tintin made his first appearance 90 years ago, in the Catholic conservative Belgian

newspaper Le Vingtième Siècleʼs youth supplement, Le Petit Vingtième. Tintin and Snowy headed deep into Soviet territory, with Stalinʼs secret police watching them from around every corner. The story first appeared on January 10, 1929, running as a serial until May 1930; it was essentially anti-communist propaganda, neatly packaged for children. In 1930, the series was published in book form as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

Sudan: Thousands keep up protests at army headquarters for second day Sudanʼs President Omar al-Bashir is defying calls to resign as opposition marches continue, with protesters camping outside his Khartoum residence. Several people have been killed in the latest marches, activists say. Thousands of Sudanese protesters on Sundayrallied outside the armyʼs headquartersin the capital Khartoum for a second day, calling on the military to back their demand for President Omar al-Bashir to resign.

The complex that also houses the Defense Ministry and the official residence of Bashir, whose nearly 30year-rule the protesters are determined to end. The crowds chanted "Sudan is rising, the army is rising," protesters chanted. Protesters lobbed stones at security forces who used tear gas, live rounds and batons in repeated attempts to drive the crowd from the area. Thousands are still continuing their protest.

Rwanda marks 25 years since genocide "What happened here will never happen again," said President Paul Kagame. The country will mark the deaths of 800,000 people with a candlelight vigil in a stadium that once sheltered victims. Thousands of Rwandans, as well as President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame, marked the 25th anniversary of the countryʼs 1994 genocide in a somber ceremony on Sunday. The Kagames laid wreaths at a mass burial ground where 250,000 victims have been laid to rest, and leaders from across Africa, the European Union, and Canada also came to take part.

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81/2019 • 8 April, 2019

Chinese investments in EU in a downward spin Chinese investments in the European Union fell sharply for the second consecutive year in 2018, a report by the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and US consulting firm Rhodium Group showed. Chinese companies completed FDI deals worth €17.3 billion ($19.6 billion) last year, down 40 percent from 2017 levels and way below the record €37.2 billion investment seen in 2016. The decline is part of a trend that has seen Chinese investments fall in most regions of the world over the past two years as Beijing continues to maintain a tight grip on outward investment by its residents amid slowing economic growth and atrade war with the United States.

Chinese investors have also been forced to back away by "growing political and regulatory backlash against Chinese capital around the globe,"the authors of the report,Thilo Hanemann, Agatha Kratz and Mikko Huotari, wrote. "This shift in attitudes has been remarkably rapid in Europe," they said.

Paris SaintGermain fined €100,000 for racial profiling French champions Paris SaintGermain (PSG) have been fined €100,000 ($113,557 million) by the French Football League (LFP) after scouts were found to have racially profiled potential young recruits between 2013 and 2018. According to research by the French investigative website Mediapart, part of the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network processing documents from the so-called "Football Leaks" revelations, the clubʼs scouting department used forms which included a drop-down menu featuring the options: French, North African, black African and West Indian.

Kaliningrad gets Moscow energy boost as Baltic states pull plug

ITB Berlin tourism partner

Russia has launched a power plant to make its Kaliningrad exclave self-reliant when its EU neighbors unplug the power grid. Home to Russiaʼs Baltic Fleet, old East Prussia is still a prime piece of real estate.

Malaysia faces a potential backlash from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights groups after claiming that the Muslim-majority country doesnʼt have gays. On Tuesday, Tourism Minister Datuk Mohammaddin bin Ketapi was asked by reporters ahead of the opening of the ITB Berlin tourism fair whether the country was safe for gay and Jewish visitors. After initially sidestepping the question, the minister was asked again whether gays were welcome and he replied: "I donʼt think we have anything like that in our country." Denial could hurt bookings Despite efforts by Malaysian officials to downplay the incident, Ketapiʼs comments could derail attempts to entice more tourists to visit Malaysia. The remarks came after he spoke for several minutes about the countryʼs natural beauty and welcoming culture. The country has set itself a target of receiving 30 million visitors in 2019.

The Russian state energy holding InterRAO recently announced the launch of the Pregolsky gas-powered station with a capacity of 455.2 megawatts (MW), the largest of four stations Moscow hopes will make Kaliningradʼs energy self-sufficient.

The stations will have a combined capacity of about 1 gigawatt. In itself it is nothing terribly special. But, in the growing war of words between Russia and NATO, Kaliningrad is becoming a strategic and symbolic hot spot.

Once the capital of Prussia and home to philosopherImmanuel Kant, the

area is still of great strategic importance to Moscow, home to the Russian Baltic Fleet at the port of Baltiysk, the countryʼs only ice-free European port. Russia recently deployed another regimental set of the S-400 Triumph air defense missiles in the exclave. The Mayakovskaya and Talakhovskaya plants, which are also gas-powered, have a combined capacity of 312 megawatts (MW). They started operations last March, while the fourth, coal-powered Primorsky, could be completed in 2020 and is designed to act as a backup.

#MeToo Mexico stirs the cultural industry After being accused of sexual harassment as part of a wave of #MeToo allegations, the Mexican musician Armando Vega Gil killed himself.

Armando Vega Gil, bass player from the Mexican band Botellita de Jerez, said he did not want to make anyone responsible for his suicide. Yet in his final post on Twitter, he wrote, "My death is not a confession of guilt. To

the contrary, it is a radical declaration of my innocence." Prior to his death, he had been accused by an anonymous woman of sexual abuse when she was 13 years old. The woman posted the accusation on Twitter with the hashtag #MeTooMusicosMexicanos (#MeTooMexicanMusicians), a social media campaign encouraging women to bring their experiences with harassment in the music industry to light.

IX. Food Truck Show Kincsem Park From 3 to 5 May, food trucks roll into the area adjacent to Kincsem Park racecourse. Offering many culinary treats and drinks, this event is ideal for the whole family. While munching on your pulled-pork sandwiches, you can also bet on horses and cheer from the grandstands.

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Malaysia claims it has ʼno gaysʼ

Disaster-prone nations threatened by huge insurance gap New research from Lloydʼs and CEBR has shown that vast assets are underinsured, posing a huge threat to livelihoods particularly in poorer nations. Those most at risk are also those with the lowest insurance levels. Disaster-prone developing nations are exposed to crippling losses when storms, floods or earthquakes strike, because they suffer from a dangerous lack of insurance, industry experts said Monday. Globally, assets worth about $163 billion (€141 billion) are not insured against catastrophes, posing a significant threat to livelihoods and prosperity,London-based insurance market Lloydʼs said in a fresh report. The value of underinsured assets had shrunk by only 3 percent since 2012, it noted. Many nations with the lowest levels of insurance were also among those most exposed to risks, including from climate change impacts, and were least able to fund recovery efforts, the study stressed. "If insurance is not available,catastrophes can have a much greater impact on economies and lives, Lloydʼs Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said in a statement. Emerging and low-income nations accounted for almost the entire global insurance gap, the report noted.