Ansa news

(ANSA-AFP) - KYIV, AUG 20 - Russian bombardments killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine's capital and its surrounding region overnight, authorities said on Thursday. The two countries have ramped up long-range attacks in recent months, driving up the civilian death toll on both sides in the four-and-a-half-year war. The massive missile attack on Kyiv struck residential areas and warehouses, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. A medical facility and an educational institution…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 19 - Increased security measures have been implemented in the vicinity of the Bezmer military base in southern Bulgaria, indicating a higher level of alert than is currently present. Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told reporters today that Iran is considering attacking US military sites in Europe, including the Bulgarian Bezmer base, if President Donald Trump orders a new escalation against the Islamic Republic. "We are in close coordination with the Ministry…

(ANSA) - ZAGABRIA, AUG 19 - The Italian Ambassador to Croatia, Paolo Trichilo, accompanied by the Consul General in Rijeka, Iva Palmieri, and the Honorary Consul, Tiziano Sošić, traveled to Pula to participate in the commemoration organized by city authorities, with the support of the Embassy, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Vergarolla massacre. The explosion of military ordnance on Vergarolla Beach on August 18, 1946—under circumstances that remain unclear—resulted in the deaths…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 19 - A Ukrainian man was arrested Wednesday in Croatia on suspicion of taking part in the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines running between Russia and Germany in 2022, German prosecutors said. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said the suspect, Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, a trained scuba diver, was arrested in Pula, Croatia, and was "strongly suspected of jointly causing explosions". The man, whom the office itself only partially named in its statement, was detained…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 19 - Slovenia's sole nuclear power plant, Krško, resumed full power output on Tuesday evening due to improved weather conditions and cooling from the Sava River, according to Slovenian news agency STA. Cooling towers are still in use to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. In the midst of a prolonged heatwave and drought, the nuclear plant reduced its power output to 80% on August 6 to limit its impact on the Sava river. It increased output to 90% capacity last…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 19 - "Lithuania has not discussed or intends to consider withdrawing its support for the International Criminal Court," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in response to questions about possible US pressure on allies to distance themselves from the ICC. "No one asked us to take such a step," Nauseda explained. "For a country that praised the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the question cannot be asked. How else could we explain this decision…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 18 - German investors' optimism has increased more than expected. The ZEW index of investor expectations increased to 34.2 in August from 26.3 the month before. This exceeds the median estimate of 30 made by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. (ANSA).

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 18 - "Today, Italy honours the memory of our compatriots who were killed on the beach of Vergarolla on August 18, 1946, in the most serious and bloody massacre in the Italian Republic's history. A carnage that had been forgotten for decades has been restored to collective memory thanks to the invaluable commitment of the Italian community of Pula, the exiles, their descendants, and associations," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement. "What happened eighty years…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 18 - Turkey has designated two areas in the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean near the Turkish coast and Greek islands as "national marine parks," prompting a response from Athens. According to a decree signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the parks covers 1,700 square kilometres of Mediterranean waters between Fethiye and Kas, towns in southwest Turkey, and around Kastellorizo, Greece's easternmost island in the Mediterranean, a few nautical miles off the Turkish…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 18 - The police in Slovenia recorded 17,121 cases of illegal border crossings in the first seven months of the year, a 37% increase compared to the same period last year. Citizens of Bangladesh accounted for the largest number at 3,028, followed by citizens of Afghanistan (2,186), Egypt (1,903), and Sudan (1,794), the Slovenian news agency STA reported. The number of Sudanese citizens intercepted has increased dramatically, rising from 11 in the first seven months of last…

(ANSA) - BUDAPEST, AUG 18 - The Constitutional Court of Hungary rejected Orban's Fidesz party's appeal against the amendment that ended the term of Tamas Sulyok, the former president. The constitutional amendment also established a 12-year term limit for deputies and a 70-year age limit for Constitutional Court judges, which altered the Court's composition. Fidesz claims the amendment is "an arbitrary act" by Peter Magyar's government and "unconstitutional in every way." The Court disagreed with…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 17 - Alpac Capital, a Portuguese financial investment firm, has acquired four of Serbia's leading independent (and opposition) media outlets. Its CEO, Pedro Vargas David, who is rumoured to have ties to some European right-wing groups and Viktor Orbán, took over as editor-in-chief today, dismissing the previous editors and raising concerns among their respective editorial staffs and opposition. The news, which has so far gone unreported by pro-government media, was released…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 17 - "The fires continue to rage. And European solidarity is in full force. French teams have been deployed to Spain. Sweden and the Netherlands are battling flames in Belgium. Norway and Germany have sent helicopters to the scene. We are closely following developments," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media. (ANSA).

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 17 - Senior German government officials are willing to discuss the potential sale of Commerzbank's 12.7% stake to UniCredit if the two banks can agree on a common strategy. Bloomberg reports that this position does not represent the government's official stance. Some officials believe a sale at a fair price with guarantees for Commerzbank's future is acceptable. A German government spokesperson told Bloomberg that the position had not changed and declined to comment. Representatives…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 17 - Ivica Dačić, president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), previously led by Slobodan Milošević and now part of Serbia's governing majority, has stated that the party will run alone in the upcoming parliamentary elections and have its own presidential candidate. He denied negotiations with President Aleksandar Vučić's United Serbia list for a pre-election coalition. (ANSA).

(ANSA) - VILNIUS, AUG 16 - The United States is reportedly stepping up pressure on the Lithuanian government to have the Baltic country withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of a campaign aimed at securing the withdrawal from the ICC of all states on whose territory U.S. troops are stationed. This was reported by the website of Lithuanian state television, LRT, citing confidential sources. According to the sources cited, the United States did not, however, threaten to withdraw…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 14 - Fires continue to burn in Carnia, on the Amariana and Cozzarel mountains, north of Udine in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Following the activation of the cross-border protocol with the Republic of Slovenia, three Slovenian Air Tractor Fire Boss aircraft, as well as two ground liaison officers and a two-person drone team, are now operational. The state-owned Canadair aircraft, which had been flying earlier this morning, was grounded due to dense smoke, which prevented…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 14 - According to preliminary data available to Frontex, irregular border crossings into the European Union decreased by 37% in the first seven months of 2026 compared to the same period the previous year, with approximately 61 000 detections recorded at the EU's external borders. In the Western Balkans, 4,910 irregular border crossings (6,673) were detected, down 26%. According to the data currently available, most major migratory routes saw fewer crossings than in 2025.…

(ANSA-AFP) - RIGA, AUG 14 - NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the country's defence ministry confirmed Friday, followed by an announcement from the military. The interception came against a backdrop of heightened concern in Europe over unauthorised drone activity, as the Russia-Ukraine war grinds on more than four years. NATO "fighter jets have successfully shot down a foreign unmanned aerial vehicle that had entered Latvia as a result of Russian electromagnetic…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 14 - Slovenia's GDP grew by 5.0% in real terms in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the national statistical office in Ljubljana. Growth accelerated further than in the first quarter, when it stood at 3.2%, according to revised figures. The year-on-year GDP growth rate in the first half of the year was 4.1% in real terms, according to the Statistics Office. (ANSA).

(ANSA-AFP) - SARAJEVO, AUG 14 - Croatian wildfires forced hundreds of people to flee from a small tourist town on the country's Adriatic coast, as firefighters battled Friday to contain the rapidly expanding blaze. More than 150 firefighters were deployed to Lokva Rogoznica, where flames quickly swept through surrounding pine forests and vegetation, before moving into residential areas and destroying homes and vehicles, local media reported. The fire is the latest to break out in Croatia which is…

(ANSA) - ROMA, 14 AGO - L'Ucraina e la Polonia stanno finalizzando i negoziati per il trasferimento di vecchi caccia sovietici MiG-29 in cambio di un lotto di droni e delle più recenti tecnologie per la loro produzione; i velivoli potrebbero essere spediti nelle prossime settimane. La notizia, ripresa dalla Ukrainska Pravda, è riportata dalla testata polacca Wirtualna Polska, con riferimento a fonti delle forze armate e del ministero della Difesa di Varsavia. Secondo quanto riportato, dopo una…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 13 - Gas storage levels in Germany are falling, remaining below 48% in mid-August, whereas the EU is above 59% and Italy is nearly 78%. According to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, an association of European transmission network operators, German stocks fell by 0.9% yesterday, to 47.28% at 116.52 TWh, down from 65.45% at 161.44 TWh a year earlier. This situation caused European inventories to fall by 0.01%, to 59.32% at 670.43 TWh, down from 72.64% at 820.99 TWh the previous…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 13 - Fires are raging on the outskirts of Albania's capital, Tirana, with large areas ablaze since last night. Numerous civil defence, firefighting, and army units are battling the fires. There is no immediate report, but two military helicopters have been dispatched to the affected areas. The situation in Kruja, about 30 kilometres north of the capital, is critical, with fires threatening several homes. There are also two other helicopters on the scene. In the last 24 hours,…

(ANSA-AFP) - BUCHAREST, AUG 13 - Romania began Thursday the complete shutdown of its only nuclear plant after water levels in the Danube, used to cool the site, fell to a record low, the national nuclear energy company said. Nuclearelectrica already shut down last month one of the two reactors at the Cernavoda power plant, which usually generates a fifth of the Eastern European country's total electricity. The second needed to shut as well "due to the significant and ongoing drop in the water level…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 12 - Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Greece are in advanced talks to establish a repatriation centre for Uganda. Anadolu reports this, citing Greek media Kathimerini and diplomatic sources. "The facility is expected to be capable of accommodating migrants transferred from Europe by 2027." "The ministers in charge of migration policies from the five countries are expected to meet in Copenhagen on September 4th to assess the status of negotiations." (ANSA).

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 12 - NATO allies met this morning at the North Atlantic Council to discuss recent airspace violations in Poland and Romania, as well as drone incidents, according to an Alliance statement. The 32 allies expressed their "full solidarity" and "support" for the Allies involved. The allies emphasised that Russia is "fully accountable for the airspace violations, which are dangerous and unacceptable and demonstrate Russia's increasing risk appetite." (ANSA).

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 12 - "We are somewhat surprised by the uproar on the issue and the disagreements" with Rome, said the German Interior Ministry spokeswoman in response to a question about Germany's expulsions to Italy under the Dublin agreement. "This is because Germany and Italy have been working well together on migration issues and the implementation of the common asylum system for some time: in autumn 2025, we signed bilateral agreements with Italy and Greece establishing that the Dublin…

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 12 - Estonia has received its first payment of €351.6 million from Safe, the European defence loan facility. The European Commission announced the payment, stating that it represents 15% of the total €2.3 billion allocated to Tallinn. According to Brussels, the pre-financing will enable Estonia to "accelerate priority defence investments, strengthen resilience, and modernise its military capabilities," which aligns with common European goals. (ANSA).

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUG 12 - According to final estimates from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), inflation in Germany, as measured by the annual change in the consumer price index, will be 2.8% in July 2026. The rate accelerated from 2.3% in June to 2.6% in May 2026. Only in April did inflation rise slightly, to 2.9%. "Energy prices continued to rise at an above-average rate, and thus remained the primary driver of inflation. The increase in energy prices was much more pronounced than in…