Europe

TBILISI, May 11. /TASS/: Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili called Russia's decision to abolish visa requirements for Georgian nationals and lift the ban on direct flights between the two countries a positive move.

"This is certainly a positive decision from a humanitarian point of view, which is a welcome sight. Any decisions that help simplify our citizens’ lives, travel, business, of course, are positive, and they can be welcomed," Garibashvili told reporters Thursday.

MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/: The seizure of the US assets of Konstantin Malofeyev, the founder of the Tsargrad television channel, is "outright robbery," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Thursday.

MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/: The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday denied reports that its defenses were breeched in some spots of the engagement line.

"The statements circulating on some Telegram channels and alleging breaches of defense in various sections of the engagement line are not true," the ministry said.

It said the situation in the area of the special military operation is generally under control.

MOSCOW, May 11 (NNN-TASS) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, met with his counterparts from Iran, Syria, and Türkiye in Moscow, where they proposed to assemble a roadmap, normalising relations between Türkiye and Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The four sides agreed to appoint their deputy foreign ministers, to prepare the roadmap, aiming to advance relations between Türkiye and Syria. The diplomats would be working with the defence ministries and special services of the four countries.

WARSAW, May 11 (Reuters) - Danil Yugoslavsky had long hated Vladimir Putin. The tech worker says he protested for fair elections in Russia for several years before he left his homeland in despair in 2017 and eventually settled in Spain.

Even so, he never suspected his yearning to topple the Russian president would one day see him join a far-right paramilitary group founded by a former soccer hooligan known as White Rex and march into the war in Ukraine.

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Britain on Thursday became the first country to start supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles, which will allow Ukrainian forces to hit Russian troops and supply dumps deep behind the front lines.

Ukraine has been asking for months for long-range missiles, but support provided by Britain and other allies such as the United States has previously been limited to shorter range weapons.

KYIV, May 11 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian brigade commander fighting in the ruins of Bakhmut said Russian mercenary forces have stepped up shelling and artillery attacks in recent days and were not facing a munitions shortage, despite its chief's claims to the contrary.

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has complained for weeks that Russia's army is depriving his Wagner troops of enough ammunition to capture the eastern Ukrainian city, where months of fierce fighting have been dubbed the "meat grinder".

MOSCOW, May 11 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Thursday that his forces' flanks were under pressure near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, resulting in the loss of ground that his men had captured at heavy cost.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has argued that it is the job of regular Russian forces to protect Wagner's flanks near Bakhmut, the city at the centre of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

"The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst predicted scenario," Prigozhin said in an audio message.

HELSINKI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Up to 24 people, mainly school pupils, were injured when a pedestrian bridge near Helsinki collapsed on Thursday morning, said regional authorities.

The Helsinki region health authority HUS confirmed the number of the injured, saying they had been taken to hospitals. Some have serious injuries, but no one was in critical condition.

The bridge near a building site was a temporary construction but is open for general use.

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global outbreak of mpox, which initially baffled experts when the smallpox-related disease spread to more than 100 countries last year, is no longer an international emergency, after a dramatic drop in cases in recent months.

Last July, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared mpox, also known as monkeypox, to be an “extraordinary” situation that qualified as a global crisis. In doing so, he overruled WHO’s expert committee, which didn’t recommend the emergency designation.