Europe

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: The Baltic Fleet’s missile corvette Sovetsk test-launched a Kalibr-NK cruise missile from the White Sea in the Arctic, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The small missile ship Sovetsk successfully test-fired a seaborne Kalibr cruise missile from the White Sea against a coastal target at the Chizha proving ground [in the Arkhangelsk Region]. The data recording equipment indicated that the missile successfully struck the coastal target at a distance of over a thousand kilometers," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Aeroflot has launched the sale of tickets for direct passenger flights from Moscow to the Egyptian resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, the air carrier said in a press release.

Flights will be operated daily from October 1. According to the schedule, Aeroflot will operate one flight from Moscow to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh each day.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Armenia highly values Russia’s efforts toward implementing the trilateral statement on the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Tuesday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Gazprom is finalizing startup on the first string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to begin supplies and is close to completion of second string laying, a top manager of the company said on Tuesday at a teleconference.

"As you are aware, the mechanical completion of the first string was completed in June. Pipes were connected by the tie-in. Startup is now at the final stage, which will support readiness of the first string for commercial operation start," the top manager said.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Most of Russia's proposals and calls were ignored in the UN Security Council's resolution on Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Tuesday.

PARIS, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) – France set conditions for the recognition of the Taliban as the new rulers of Afghanistan, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said, yesterday, adding that, “we expect deeds, not words.”

“We are working to form the largest possible international consensus on this subject, in cooperation with our partners,” he said.

STAVANGER, Norway, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Climate change has surfaced as a key issue for Norwegian voters in a Sept. 12-13 parliamentary election, and none more so than in the country's oil industry capital, Stavanger, which is preparing for a low-carbon future.

Norway emitted about 13.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 from fossil fuel production, but emissions from its oil and gas used abroad were 30 times higher at more than 400 million tonnes, said Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at Oslo-based climate think-tank CICERO.

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved one-off payments to law enforcement and military officials ahead of a parliamentary election next month, a move critics said was designed to encourage them to vote for the ruling party.

The payments, worth 15,000 roubles ($200) each, will be made in September to fire fighters, police officers, prosecutors and soldiers, among others, according to two decrees signed by Putin and published on the Kremlin website on Tuesday.

BERLIN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

"Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn't called Klaus or Erika," Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.

BRUSSELS, Aug 31 (Reuters) - European Union countries on Tuesday proposed to step up aid to Afghanistan and its neighbours but could not agree a common policy on accepting asylum-seekers fleeing Taliban rule.

Western nations involved in the fight against the Taliban have already evacuated 100,000 people who supported them, and should take them in, along with others who failed to get onto the last evacuation flights. Chancellor Angela Merkel said this group included up to 40,000 people with the right to German residency.