Europe

GENEVA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - A plane carrying World Health Organization medicines and health supplies landed in Afghanistan on Monday, the UN health agency said, the first shipment to get in since the country came under the control of the Taliban.

"After days of non-stop work to find a solution, I am very pleased to say that we have now been able to partially replenish stocks of health facilities in Afghanistan and ensure that — for now – WHO-supported health services can continue," Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement.

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has left Russia, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing two anonymous sources.

One of the sources said Yarmysh has flown to the Finnish capital Helsinki. Yarmysh did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

A Russian court imposed 18 months of restrictions on her freedom of movement earlier this month, after finding her guilty of breaching COVID-19 safety rules. 

LONDON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- A multi-million-dollar task force, backed by major chewing gum producers, is to carry out a massive clean-up operation to remove chewing gum blighting 87 percent of sidewalks in England, a British government department announced Monday.

The task force is part of the British government's new strategy to support the evolution and regeneration of high streets across the country, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia’s Parliament on Monday failed to elect a new president to the Baltic country after lawmakers rejected the only candidate in the first round of voting.

Alar Karis, director of the Estonian National Museum, received support from 63 lawmakers with 16 blank votes and the rest either absent or abstaining in the 101-seat Riigikogu legislature. He needed a two-thirds majority, or 68 votes, to be elected in the secret ballot.

The result means that further rounds of voting will be held on Tuesday.

GENEVA (AP) — The trial opened Monday of an influential Olympic official accused of forgery in an alleged plot that implicated political rivals in Kuwait in a coup attempt.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah has been publicly sidelined as an IOC member and president of the global group of national Olympic bodies, known as ANOC, after he was indicted in November 2018.

Long known as the kingmaker of Olympic elections, Sheikh Ahmad’s influence grew when winning the ANOC leadership election in 2012 and a year later he was an ally helping Thomas Bach win the IOC presidency.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A group of pro-democracy activists in Poland entered the grounds of the country’s constitutional court in an act of civil disobedience Monday, on the eve of an expected court ruling critical to the country’s future relationship with the rest of the European Union.

Some stood outside with a large banner that said “Civic Shutdown of the ex-Constitutional Tribunal.” As smoke bombs sent black plumes into the air, a smaller group made it to the court’s main entrance. They had brought boards and nails hoping to nail the door shut, but didn’t manage to do that.

GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization’s European branch says he agrees with the top U.S. infectious diseases expert that a third dose of coronavirus vaccines can help protect the people most vulnerable, and it shouldn’t be seen as a “luxury booster.”

Dr. Hans Kluge cited “deeply worrying” levels of high transmission, saying 33 countries among the 53 in the WHO Europe region have reported an increase in case counts of 10 percent or more over the past two weeks.

MILAN (AP) — Italian firefighters on Monday were tackling remaining hotspots and continuing to search a 20-story apartment building in Milan that was destroyed by fire, but said that there was no indication that anyone was missing inside.

Some cases of smoke inhalation were reported from Sunday’s blaze, but no serious injuries or deaths.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union plans to recommend that its member states reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infection levels in the country, EU diplomats said Monday.

A decision to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel would reverse advice from June, when the 27-nation bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travelers before the summer tourism season.

29 Aug 2021; MEMO: France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday proposing a safe zone in Kabul to try and protect people trying to leave Afghanistan, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, reports Reuters.