Europe

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 19,492 to reach 6,863,541 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Saturday.

According to data from the crisis center, Russia’s coronavirus growth rate was 0.28%.

In particular, St. Petersburg recorded 1,406 new cases, followed by the Moscow Region (849), the Sverdlovsk Region (525), Rostov Region (487).

COPENHAGEN, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — From now on, Denmark will no longer define COVID-19 as a disease that threatens society, according to Health Minister Magnus Heunicke, who declared on Friday that the pandemic was now under control.

“We have record-high vaccination rates. Therefore, on Sept 10, we can drop some of the special rules we had to introduce in the fight against Covid-19.”

PARIS, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — About 71.1 percent of the French population has received at least the first part of their vaccination against the coronavirus, health authorities announced in Paris on Friday.

62.7 percent, nearly two-thirds of the population already have a full vaccination, they said.

The vaccination rate among staff in hospitals and nursing homes, where Covid-19 vaccinations are to become obligatory, is also rising.

Despite the encouraging figures, the number of coronavirus patients admitted to hospitals is also on the rise.

LEIPZIG (Germany), Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sayed Sadaat used to be communications minister in the Afghan government before moving to Germany last December in the hope of a better future.

Now he is a delivery man in the eastern city of Leipzig.

He said some at home criticised him for taking such a job after having served in the government for two years, leaving office in 2018. But for him now, a job is a job.

“I have nothing to feel guilty about,” the 49-year-old British-Afghan dual citizen said, standing in his orange uniform next to his bike.

LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - British troops will end their evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan on Saturday and many hundreds of Afghans entitled to resettlement in Britain are likely to be left behind, armed forces chief General Nick Carter said.

British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Friday that the country was entering the final hours of its evacuation and would process only people who were already inside Kabul airport.

ROME, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Staff involved in efforts to evacuate as many people from Kabul as possible after the Taliban seized power did their best in extremely difficult conditions, NATO's senior civilian representative to Afghanistan said on Saturday.

"We have a clean conscience ... because with what we had, we did our best under the circumstances," Italian diplomat Stefano Pontecorvo told reporters on arriving in Rome.

ATHENS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greece will not become a gateway to Europe for irregular migration flows, like it happened in the period 2015-2019, Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi told the Greek parliament on Friday, pointing to recent developments in Afghanistan.

The Taliban takeover of most of the country following the withdrawal of U.S. forces has sparked deep concern in Greece, and across Europe, over a possible replay of mass migration flows and the humanitarian crisis of recent years.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus has ordered the closure of the country’s largest independent journalists’ organization, the latest move by authorities to suppress critical reporting in a yearlong crackdown on dissent.

Friday’s order by the country’s supreme court to liquidate the Belarusian Association of Journalists follows the jailing of some 30 journalists, raids on newspaper offices, blocking the websites of major independent media and closing the PEN Center writers’ organization that was headed by Nobel literature laureate Svetlana Alexieveich.

MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/: The Kremlin is negative about German election posters that copy 72-year-old leaflets depicting Russia’s Kaliningrad region as part of Germany, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/: A Su-24 bomber crashed near the city of Perm in the Urals and its pilots ejected, the press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported on Friday.

"On August 27, a Su-24 plane crashed 95 km west of the city of Perm while making a flight to the Aircraft Repair Enterprise for scheduled repairs. According to the reports from the scene of the incident, the pilots ejected," the statement says.

A helicopter of the search and rescue service has been dispatched for evacuation from the crash site," the press office said.