Europe

LONDON, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain has warned all UK nationals in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately due to the “worsening security situation” as fighting intensifies.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Friday updated its website to advise against all travel to Afghanistan.

“All British nationals in Afghanistan are advised to leave now by commercial means. If you are still in Afghanistan, you are advised to leave now by commercial means because of the worsening security situation,” it said.

BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats have broken a taboo in modern German politics by taking aim at the religious beliefs of a close aide to Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after a Sept. 26 election.

In a video published online, the left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD) singled out a number of leading conservatives including Nathanael Liminski, who heads Laschet's office in his regional government in North Rhine-Westphalia.

TRAPANI, Italy, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A ship carrying 257 migrants docked in the Italian port of Trapani on Saturday almost a week after rescuing the people from international waters off Tunisia.

Migrants onboard the vessel, mainly men from Morocco, Bangladesh, Egypt and Syria, waved and applauded as the ship, run by German organisation Sea Watch, approached the port of Trapani on the Italian island of Sicily.

One sat on deck and held up a sign which read "Italy Good".

BUCHAREST, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Moldova's new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita took the oath of office late Friday before President Maia Sandu at the Presidential Palace in central Chisinau, capital of Moldova, soon after receiving a vote of confidence in the parliament.

The head of state urged the new cabinet to rise to the expectations of Moldovans, saying that "I will support you, the parliament will support you... but it is very important to have the support of the citizens."

PARIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- In order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular the spread of the Delta variant, European countries are toughening up the tone with new measures such as requiring the health pass for accessing public places and making vaccination mandatory for certain professions.

MOSCOW (AP) — Wildfires in Russia’s vast Siberia region endangered several villages Saturday and prompted authorities to evacuate residents of some areas.

In northeastern Siberia, 93 active forest fires burned across 1.1 million hectares (2.8 million acres) of Sakha-Yakutia, officials said, making it the worst affected region of Russia.

A fire engulfed dozens of houses in the village of Byas-Kuel, and all village residents were evacuated, according to the local task force dealing with the emergency.

THRAKOMAKEDONES, Greece (AP) — Wildfires rampaged through some of Greece’s last remaining forests for yet another day Saturday, encroaching on more inhabited areas after burning scores of homes, businesses and farms during the country’s worst heat wave in three decades.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: Russian Ministry of Justice included the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the Citizens’ Rights Protection Foundation and the Navalny’s Headquarters movement, all deemed extremist by a court earlier, to the registry of banned organizations, the Ministry told TASS Friday.

ST. PETERSBURG, August 6. /TASS/: Nordwind Airlines will launch direct flights from the Pulkovo Airport of St. Petersburg to Germany’s Stuttgart from August 22, Northern Capital Gateway, the management company of the Pulkovo Airport, told reporters on Friday.

"The air service between St. Petersburg and Stuttgart will open from August 22 on Sundays. The time en route will be about three hours," the company said.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: The Russian Economic Development Ministry projects an increase in exports of non-resource goods from the country by 15-20% by the end of 2021 in annual terms, the ministry’s department director Lilia Shchur-Trukhanovich told an online conference on Friday.

"In 2020, [Russian] exports of non-resource goods increased by 4% compared with 2019. We understand that it was a very difficult year, nevertheless there was an increase. We have a more optimistic outlook for this year. We suggest that the growth will be around 15-20%," she said.