Europe

LONDON (AP) — The British and Irish leaders were meeting Friday to discuss the Irish border — and mend fences — amid rising tensions between Britain and the European Union over Brexit.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was due to dine with Irish premier Leo Varadkar in Dublin to press her case for changes to Britain’s divorce deal with the EU. Britain’s Parliament rejected the agreement last month, largely over concerns about a provision designed to ensure an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

The fatal blaze occurred shortly before midnight Thursday in Lambrecht, a town of 4,000 residents in a hilly region popular for its forested hiking tracks between Speyer and Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

A police spokeswoman said the fire possibly began in the kitchen of the apartment on the building's top floor. Among the dead were a couple registered as occupants. The other three were likely to have been visitors.

More than 100 firefighters fought the blaze through into Friday morning.

07 Feb 2019; DW: Paris has signaled it will support changes to EU guidelines regulating gas imports. Germany has thus far ignored opposition to its project, but it may not be able to any longer.

France's Foreign Ministry has signaled its intention to vote for changes to the EU's Third Energy Package Gas Directive regulating gas imports when the topic comes up for discussion Friday in Brussels.

BERLIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The German industrial production fell unexpectedly for the fourth month in a row in December 2018, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) reported on Thursday.

After the price, seasonal and calendar adjustments, the industrial production in December 2018 was down by 0.4 percent from the previous month. Compared to the same month in 2017, it shrank notably by 3.9 percent, according to a statement of Destatis.

KIEV, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday adopted a bill to ban Russian observers from monitoring Ukraine's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

The legislation was supported by 232 votes in favor, surpassing the minimum of 226 required, the parliament said in a statement on its website.

According to the explanatory note, the law was adopted to prevent "Russia's intervention in Ukraine's elections" and prevent "information attacks" aimed at distorting facts about the electoral process in Ukraine.

BUCHAREST, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) member states needed to conclude a comprehensive agreement on asylum system, so as to be better prepared for future challenges, EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said Thursday.

"We have to find temporary solutions regarding the migrants' debarkation, but, at the same time, we need to reach a comprehensive and structured agreement regarding our common asylum system," he said.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May were constructive and robust, but the European Union (EU) will not reopen negotiations on the Brexit deal, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday in a joint statement.

May arrived in Brussels earlier Thursday to meet Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani for further talks on Brexit concessions despite the EU's repeated refusal to renegotiate.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- In one of the strongest public remarks ever, a senior representative of China's tech company Huawei on Thursday night rebutted fear-mongering against the company.

In a ballroom in Brussels packed with well over 100 guests, mostly Europeans, Huawei's envoy to the European Union institutions launched into a robust defense of the Chinese technology giant.

06 Feb 2019; DW: The Taliban on Wednesday hailed unprecedented talks with Afghan politicians as "very successful", despite disagreements over women's rights and the group's demand for an Islamic constitution in the war-torn country.

The extraordinary two-day gathering in Moscow saw Taliban leaders stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former president Hamid Karzai, who called the insurgents his "brothers" as both sides agreed to seek lasting peace.

07 Feb 2019; DW: Police said a "family-related and organized network" from Romania was behind the forced prostitution of children. Berlin's Tiergarten Park has become a center for men seeking sex with young boys.

Four Romanian men have been arrested in Berlin for the forced prostitution of minors, including their own children, police said Wednesday.