Europe

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/: Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos already knows the shape and parameters of a future orbital station and the stages of its creation, Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

"The preliminary design will be ready in the summer. Today, we already know the station’s main parameters and shape and the stages of its creation," he said.

Putin noted that one of the purposes of the station would be to implement the Moon program.

MADRID, April 12 (NNN-XINHUA) — The latest data from the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) showed that last month was the second hottest March of the 21st century recorded in the country, with the least rainfall in about 30 years.

Despite a spell of freezing weather at the start of March, the average temperature for the month was 11.6 degrees Celsius for mainland Spain, which is 1.8 degrees above the average for the period of 1991-2020, said the AEMET.

KYIV/MOSCOW, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UK is among a number of countries with military special forces operating inside Ukraine, according to one of dozens of documents leaked online.

It confirms what has been the subject of quiet speculation for over a year.

The leaked files, some marked “top secret”, paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including sensitive details of Ukraine’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.

The US government says it is investigating the source of the leak.

BELFAST, April 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden urged Northern Irish political leaders to restore their powersharing government with the promise that scores of major U.S. corporations were ready to invest in the region as he marked the 25th anniversary of peace in Belfast.

Biden, who is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, spent just over half a day in the UK region - where he met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak - before leaving for the Irish Republic for two-and-a-half days of speeches and meetings with officials and distant relatives.

BERLIN, April 12 (Reuters) - The German government on Wednesday watered down plans to legalise cannabis, presenting legislation that would allow private cultivation and distribution through non-profit groups but not widespread sales of the drug in shops.

The legislation also foresees a pilot project for a small number of licensed shops in some regions to test the effects of a commercial supply chain of recreational cannabis on public health, the protection of minors and the black market.

KYIV, April 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine compared Russia on Wednesday to Islamic State and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate after a video emerged online showing apparent Russian soldiers filming themselves beheading a Ukrainian captive with a knife.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity or provenance of the video on social media, which showed a man in uniform beheading a man who wears the yellow arm band used by Ukrainian soldiers.

KIEV, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Ukraine's economy will fall by 3 percent this year compared with a 30.3 percent contraction in 2022, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Tuesday, citing the fund's newly released report.

Inflation in Ukraine will slightly go up, with consumer prices rising to 21.1 percent this year compared with 20.2 percent in 2022, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Police tackled and detained a protester Wednesday after he ran, shouting, toward Emmanuel Macron as the French president arrived at a University of Amsterdam science campus on the second day of his state visit to the Netherlands.

It was the second straight day that protesters targeted Macron, who is facing angry unrest at home over his pension reforms. On Tuesday, demonstrators shouted and held up banners at the start of a speech in The Hague.

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — Huddled in the back of a café near the train station where a missile killed dozens of people a year ago, Nastya took slow, deliberate breaths to calm herself. Overnight, her neighborhood had been bombed again, and she just couldn’t take any more.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland on Wednesday to participate in marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to this part of the United Kingdom after the U.S. helped negotiate an end to decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands.