Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — When Russians talk about the coronavirus over dinner or in hair salons, the conversation often turns to “antitela,” the Russian word for antibodies — the proteins produced by the body to fight infection.

Even President Vladimir Putin referred to them this week in a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bragging about why he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the coronavirus, including someone who spent a whole day with the Kremlin leader.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: Two British victims have filed torture complaints against the UAE's candidate for heading international policing body INTERPOL, Forbes reported on Friday, noting that the complaints were submitted to French prosecutors.

01 Oct 2021; MEMO: Greece signed a multibillion-dollar military agreement with France, media reports have said.

President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in Elysee Palace to announce the deal on Tuesday, which Greek media outlets have reported is worth €5 billion ($5.8 billion). The Guardian reports the deal will see France delivering three state-of-the art Belharra frigates to Greece by 2025, with the option of a fourth warship also on offer.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: The International Press Institute (IPI) said on Friday that justice has not been achieved for late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, three years after his murder.

GENEVA, October 1. /TASS/: Russia’s offer to freeze nuclear arsenals together with the US, put forth one year ago, is no longer relevant, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Friday during a public discussion in the Geneva Center for Security Policy.

"No, it was a one-time offer, and it was said so to the US. They missed the opportunity," the diplomat said, when asked if the proposal is still in effect.

According to Ryabkov, back then, Russia wanted to show it was serious about conducting a strategic dialogue with the previous administration.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: The Russian Ministry of Justice has included two US Scientology organizations as well as the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) in the list of undesirable entities, the ministry’s website reported.

On October 1, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International, L. Ron Hubbard Library as well as the ENEMO were added to the list of organizations whose activity is deemed undesirable in Russia by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

MOSCOW, October 1. / TASS /: The Kremlin strongly opposes the Belarusian government’s move to restrict access to the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper’s website, as this is a violation of media freedom, the presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday.

"We strongly disagree with this. We believe that it violates freedom of the press," the Kremlin spokesman insisted.

"Of course, we expect that the Belarusian side will create a conducive environment for our media to operate in," Peskov emphasized.

TBILISI, October 1. /TASS/: Information that Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia’s ex-president, is currently in Georgia heats up and disturbs the calm pre-election atmosphere, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili stated in her written address on Friday.

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/: Russia is Italy's major economic and trading partner, and the two countries are bound by deep historical and cultural ties, new Italian Ambassador to Moscow Giorgio Starace said in a statement provided to TASS by the embassy's press service.

"For Italy, Russia is a major economic and trading partner. Our country has made strategic investments here, a great many Italian businessmen are active on this market," the statement reads.

LONDON, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British troops will begin training to help deliver petrol supplies as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was making preparations to deal with potential problems until “Christmas and beyond.”

The prime minister said the situation on the filling station forecourts is “stabilizing” as he urged motorists to go about their business in the normal way.