Europe

LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended his response to the fall of Afghanistan on Friday, dismissing as inaccurate media reports that he failed to help evacuate local translators who had worked for Britain because he was on holiday.

"The whole of government has been working tirelessly over the last week to help as many people evacuate from Afghanistan as possible," Raab said, adding that he had been focused on events at the airport.

LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - London's police warned on Friday that protests by environmental activists planned for the next two weeks will cause disruption across the capital and will distract officers from dealing with crime.

Extinction Rebellion, which caused days of traffic chaos in London two years ago, said it will target the capital's financial district in disruptive protests which are due to start on Monday.

The group accuses financial firms of helping to fuel climate change and it brought much of central London to a standstill during 11 days of action in 2019.

LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The ruling Scottish National Party agreed a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party on Friday that cements a pro-independence majority in the devolved parliament ahead of a looming political battle over the future of the United Kingdom.

The deal between the SNP and the Greens, who will be part of a government for the first time in British history, will increase the pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to allow a second independence referendum.

BERLIN, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A member of Angela Merkel's conservatives dismissed suggestions on Friday that they should drop their candidate to succeed her as German leader, despite his souring popularity ratings that could cost them an election they had looked certain to win.

Less than six weeks before the Sept. 26 vote, support for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has fallen to 23%, some 10 points lower from the last election and only 2 points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel began talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday with ties at post-Cold War lows, her final official trip to Russia before she steps down after nearly 16 years.

Relations between two of Europe's longest serving leaders soured in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, drawing broad condemnation and sanctions from the West.

Friday's talks coincide with the first anniversary of the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, an incident that severely strained Russia-Germany ties.

LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The United States is joining with Britain in taking action against those responsible for poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the two countries said in a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Britain sanctioned seven men it said were Russian intelligence operatives suspected of involvement in the poisoning Navalny, describing the move as a warning to Russia over its use of chemical weapons.

The statement did not outline any specific actions.

LONDON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Group of Seven (G7) on Thursday sought to secure close cooperation in personnel evacuation and the resettlement of refugees as chaos continues at the Kabul airport amid the hasty withdrawal of the U.S.-led military troops in Afghanistan and the Taliban's swift takeover of the Asian country.

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marked the anniversary of a poisoning attack against him by urging global leaders Friday to put more attention on combating corruption and to target tycoons close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an article published in three European newspapers, Navalny chided Western leaders for relegating the fight against corruption to a “secondary agenda” item and said that graft plays an essential part in policy failures, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BERLIN (AP) — A union representing many train drivers at Germany’s national railway operator is calling members out on a new two-day strike starting Monday, the second round of walkouts in a bitter dispute with the company.

Claus Weselsky, the head of the GDL union, said drivers of passenger trains will strike from 2 a.m. Monday to 2 a.m. Wednesday. Freight train drivers will start their strike on Saturday afternoon.

MILAN (AP) — The Italian charity Pangea helped tens of thousands of Afghan women become self-supporting in the last 20 years. Now, dozens of its staff in Afghanistan are in hiding with their families amid reports that Taliban are going door-to-door in search of citizens who worked with Westerners.

Pangea founder Luca Lo Presti has asked that 30 Afghan charity workers and their families be included on Italian flights that have carried 500 people to safety this week, but the requests were flatly refused. On Thursday, the military coordinator told him: “Not today.”