Europe

02 Jan 2019; DW: A man has driven a car at groups of pedestrians in the cities of Bottrop and Essen, injuring eight, including foreign nationals. Police say there are signs that the driver is mentally ill and holds xenophobic views.

A man drove a car into pedestrians in two neighboring German cities overnight to New Year's Day, injuring five people in what police say could be attacks motivated by the xenophobic attitude of the driver.

02 Jan 2019; DW: Several people have been killed in a train collision in Denmark. A severe storm has been hampering efforts by emergency workers to reach the train.

Six people were killed on Wednesday morning after a train collision on a bridge linking the islands of Zealand and Funen, according to train operator DSB. 

Danish media reported that a tarpaulin on a freight train hit a passenger train heading in the opposite direction on the Great Belt Bridge towards Copenhagen, prompting it to brake suddenly. 

MOSCOW, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 14 bodies were recovered so far after a gas explosion in a residential building in the city of Magnitogorsk, local branch of the Russian emergency ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dozens remains unaccounted for, as rescue operations are still under way in wake of the new year eve accident in the city 1,400 km east of Moscow.

Wednesday has been declared a day of mourning in the Chelyabinsk Region for those killed in the tragic explosion.

LONDON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua)-- British new pay ratio regulations came into force on Tuesday, aiming to enhance the salary transparency between bosses and ordinary employees.

According to a statement issued by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the pay ratio regulations will apply to large Britain listed companies with over 250 employees, which are required to be disclosed annually.

The first statutory disclosures will be issued from the start of 2020, which will cover CEO and employee pay awarded in 2019.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian emergency officials say the confirmed death toll from the collapse of a section of an apartment building has risen to seven, and 37 residents of the building are still missing.

Rescue crews on Tuesday temporarily halted their search through the rubble in the city of Magnitogorsk while workers tried to remove or stabilize sections of the building in danger of collapse.

The collapse in the 10-story building before dawn on Monday followed an explosion believed to have been triggered by a natural gas leak.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. As 2019 approaches, it may turn out to be the warmest one on record because of the so-called El-Nino phenomenon, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Roman Vilfand told TASS.

"The El-Nino phenomenon occurs when ocean temperatures rise in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific," he said. "The warming has been affecting larger areas, including other oceans. There has been a huge heat transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere, it gradually engulfs the entire Earth," Russia’s top meteorologist added.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. Foreign companies that provide electronic services in the B2B segment are required to register for taxation and independently pay the VAT in Russia starting from January 1, 2019. Starting today, the relevant changes to the Tax Code have entered into force.

KIEV, January 1. /TASS/. Ukrainian comedy actor Vladimir Zelensky, ranked second by opinion polls concerning potential presidential candidates, plans to run for president in the election scheduled for March 31, 2019, as he himself said during the Evening Quarter show on the 1+1 TV channel.

"I am going to run for president. Everybody has been asking me whether it is ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I say ‘yes’," he said.

PARIS (AP) — France is deploying more than 147,000 security forces nationwide to gird for New Year’s Eve unrest as yellow vest protesters prepare to join the public revelry.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement issued Sunday that the heavy security measures are needed because of a “high terrorist threat” and concerns about “non-declared protests.”

BELGRADE, December 30. /TASS/. Serbia does not plan to give up Russian gas for more expensive liquefied gas to please the West, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Studio B TV channel on Saturday.

"I will not pay double for liquefied gas to please someone in the West. I will buy cheap gas so that people can live and industry can develop. Those are not my money, those are people's money, state money," Vucic said.