Europe

SIMFEROPOL, September 21. /TASS/: The Kerch Shipyard in Crimea has floated out the Project 22800 latest missile corvette Askold built on order from Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Crimean State Council’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The launch ceremony was held under the direction of Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov who also inspected the course of surface shipbuilding at the Shipyard and its production capacities," the statement sways.

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/: The resumption of Kabul airport’s operations creates the conditions for a return to normal life in Afghanistan, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

"We hail the reopening of Kabul international airport announced on September 20. It creates positive conditions for the country’s return to a normal, peaceful life," the diplomat said.

BERLIN, Sept 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — Germany would likely offer COVID-19 vaccines to children under 12 in early 2022, Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn said.

Spahn said he expected authorization to use the vaccine in this age group to come in the first quarter of next year. “Then we could also protect the younger ones even better,” he told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe.

MOSCOW, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday he planned next week to discuss the possibility of transferring some presidential powers to the government and local authorities, the state-run Belta news agency reported.

It was not immediately clear what powers Lukashenko was talking about. Lukashenko faced the biggest protests of his 27-year rule last year, but weathered them with support from Russia.

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Families rushed to retrieve belongings from their homes and escape the advancing lava on Tuesday, as sirens sounded and helicopters flew overhead in air filled with smoke from an erupting volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma.

Drone footage showed the lava flowing westwards to the coast in three huge tongues, incinerating everything in their path, including a school.

BERLIN, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) saw their lead over Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives narrow in a poll published on Tuesday, pointing to a tightening race just five days before a federal election.

The SPD, whose candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently vice chancellor and finance minister in Merkel's grand coalition, remained stable at 25%, according to the Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv television.

Support for the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, whose chancellor candidate is Armin Laschet, edged up one percentage point to 22%.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights found on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the assassination of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonising death in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance.

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at a plush London hotel.

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - British police said on Tuesday a third Russian had been charged in absentia with the 2018 Novichok murder attempt on former double agent Sergei Skripal, saying they could also now confirm the three suspects were military intelligence operatives.

The attack on Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, caused one of the biggest rows between Russia and the West since the Cold War, leading to the tit-for-tat expulsion of dozens of diplomats after Britain pointed the finger of blame at Moscow.

ROME, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Italy began administering booster COVID-19 vaccine shots on Monday, after the procedure received the official green light from the country's Medicines Agency (AIFA).

As the Health Ministry announced earlier this month, third doses -- of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines -- will be offered to people with fragile immune systems.

MOSCOW, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Embassy in Washington said Tuesday that 50 percent of the cyberattacks against the Russian Central Election Commission were conducted from the territory of the United States.

"The purpose of these hacks is to discredit our electoral system," the embassy said in a Facebook post, adding that Russia is still waiting for an explanation from the United States.

The embassy in the post also commented on a recent press statement issued by the U.S. Department of State with regard to the parliamentary elections in Russia.