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BRITAIN

British boy’s body found off Mediterranean island

A 12-year-old British boy who disappeared while riding his bike in gale-force winds on a French island was found dead underwater on Thursday, local prosecutors said.

Published: 2 November 2012 09:25 CET

"The body corresponds to the young boy who disappeared Saturday," said Toulon prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux, referring to Pierre Barnes.

He told AFP that boaters had alerted authorities after they spotted the body by the small Mediterranean tourist island of Porquerolles not far from the creek where Barnes's bicycle and shoe had been discovered.

The boy had just arrived on the island with his English father, French mother and three siblings when he went out on his bike as winds barrelled at 130 kilometres (80 miles) an hour.

An autopsy would take place in short order, Tarabeux said.

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BRITAIN

Brexit deal ‘still possible’: German foreign minister

Germany's foreign minister on Friday said he believed a Brexit deal was still possible, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a no-deal scenario was very likely.

Published: 12 December 2020 07:51 CET
Brexit deal 'still possible': German foreign minister
Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas and his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney pose by a Christmas tree. Photo: Fabrizio Bensch/Pool/AFP
“We believe that an agreement is difficult but still possible,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said ahead of a meeting with Irish counterpart Simon Coveney in Berlin. “We will keep negotiating … as long as a crack of
the window is open.”
   
Coveney added that he believed “it's possible to get a deal on a future relationship and on a trade agreement.”
   
“We want an agreement, but of course one that is sensible,” Maas said, adding that the EU was also “prepared for the case that there is no agreement”.
 
   
Johnson earlier said he had not seen “a big offer, a big change” in the EU offer on fishing and fair competition rules, making a no-deal outcome “very, very likely”, two days ahead of a crunch decision on talks.
   
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had also earlier told the bloc's leaders here were “low expectations” a post-Brexit trade deal could be struck with Britain, EU sources said.
   
Negotiators from the EU and Britain held talks in Brussels Friday to see if they could reach an accord by the weekend cut-off point set by von der Leyen and Johnson at a combative dinner meeting this week.
   
Britain left the EU on January 31 after five decades of integration, but a transition period during which it remains bound by the bloc's rules ends on December 31.
   
Without a post-Brexit deal, Britain's trade with its biggest market would in future operate on pared-down World Trade Organization rules, including tariffs and quotas.
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