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Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan man portrayed heroically in US film Hotel Rwanda, who had lived in exile in Belgium and the US, has sued a Greek airline, GainJet, for helping Rwanda to kidnap him in August. He was meant to fly from Dubai to Burundi, but landed in Rwanda "bound and gagged", his US lawyers said. Rusesabagina, a government critic, is now in prison in Rwanda on terrorism charges.

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar has freed a group of 18 Italian fishermen who had been held for over 100 days, the Guardian reports, with Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, due to fly out and meet them in Benghazi, eastern Libya. Haftar's gunboats had seized the men 80km out at sea on 1 September, amid a civil war involving EU states on opposing sides.

Spain lower house of parliament approved on Thursday a bill legalising euthanasia, despite opposition from right-wing political and religious groups. The law would enable those with "serious and incurable" or "unbearable suffering" to request euthanasia. The bill now needs to be approved by the senate, which can set amendments. If passed, Spain would be among the few EU countries that allow the practices - namely Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Eurostar has said EU travellers will have to declare excess amounts of alcohol, tobacco, cash, or luxury items when entering the UK after the Brexit transition on 1 January, with British and Belgian customs officers to patrol trains for checks. EU travellers will also get their passports stamped for the first time in decades. And customers were advised to check if their health insurance providers would cover cross-border costs.

EU tribunal said Hungary's legislation made it "virtually impossible" to make an asylum application. Restricting access to international protection procedure is a violation of EU rules.

EU minister for fisheries have agreed on fishing opportunities for 2021, with provisional quotas for the fish stocks shared with the UK. However, experts warned that some of these quotas will lead to overfishing "with detrimental effects on fish populations".

The EU is eager to claim that this step means that one of the 14 key conditions from the May 2019 European Commission Avis to achieve candidate status has been met. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from truth.

The European Commission approved on Thursday Google's controversial purchase of activity-tracker app Fitbit, putting into question new rules aimed at curbing 'Big Tech'. "We approve the proposed acquisition because the commitments will ensure that the market for wearables and the nascent digital health space will remain open and competitive," competition chief Margrethe Vestager said. Google pledged to maintain access for rival apps and device makers for 10 years.

French president Emanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus, according to AFP on Thursday. The Élysée palace said he was tested after showing symptoms. Macron will now self-isolate for seven days, but continue working.

The centre-right group in the European Parliament has disciplined Hungarian MEP Tamás Deutsch, from the ruling Fidesz party, for likening a German colleague to Nazi-era police. The group "strongly condemns" Deutsch's remarks, it said in a statement Wednesday. It barred him from speaking on its behalf in debates and from holding formal posts, such as rapporteur. Some 40 fellow centre-right MEPs had urged the group to expel Deutsch altogether.

British pet owners who want to take them to the EU after 1 January can do so by filing certificates, some 10 days ahead, that they do not have rabies, the European Commission agreed in ongoing Brexit talks Wednesday, The Times reports. The rules will apply even if there is a no-deal Brexit. Previous rules could have seen British cat, dog, and ferret owners wait over three months for clearance.

All British Facebook users will, from 1 January, have their data handled according to Californian state law, where the US firm is based, in order to avoid EU laws on data protection, Reuters reports. "Like other companies, Facebook has had to make changes to respond to Brexit and will be transferring legal responsibilities and obligations for UK users from Facebook Ireland to Facebook Inc.," the company confirmed in a statement.

"It's our moral duty to support them [Belarusian protesters]," EU parliament president David Sassoli told Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanvoskaya in Brussels on Wednesday.

The European Commission proposed a reform of the bloc's cybersecurity rules . "The time of innocence is over. We know that we are a prime target," warned commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas.

The EU's border agency Frontex says 8,150 irregular migrants reached the Canary Islands in November compared to 517 a year ago. "This is the highest monthly total for this route since Frontex began to collect the data in 2009," said Frontex, in a press statement. It noted almost 19,600 irregular migrants were detected reaching the Canary Islands in the first 11 months of this year.

Dozens of civil society organisations have signed a letter demanding the incoming Portuguese EU presidency won't be "used to champion big business interests over the public interest", minimise fossil-fuel contacts and reject corporate sponsorship. They also demand greater lobbying transparency from EU member state embassies. The letter is drafted by Corporate Europe Observatory and addressed to Portugal's prime minister António Costa.

MEPs on Wednesday pushed back against the conclusions of the EU leaders' summit of last week, arguing that the adopted legal text on rule of law is what matters - not the leaders' supplementary 'interpretation'.

EU national politics and leaders' personal ambitions have become its real enlargement criteria, in sad times for the European dream.

The press conference held jointly this week by the three EU institutions declared a breakthrough agreement on a joint-transparency register for lobbyists. Not everyone is convinced.

Belgian pharmacies have been selling anti-corona masks made by Chinese firm Hubei Haixin Protective Products at a factory where 130 women from the Uighur minority were forcibly transferred 3,000km from their homes and families and put to work, according to an investigation by Belgian newspapers du Tijd and L'Echo. "If the masks conform to European standards, we're obliged to approve them for the Belgian market," a Belgian government spokeswoman said.