Europe

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: Cooperation in combating the coronavirus pandemic in the light of agreements on supplies of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine was the focus of a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Bolivian counterpart, Luis Arce, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.

"The sides discussed issues of cooperation in combating the coronavirus infection with due account of the agreement on supplies of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Bolivia," it said.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: Russia is developing the Kh-95 new long-range hypersonic missile for its Aerospace Force, Chief of the Military Academy of the Russian General Staff Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky wrote in an article published in Military Thought magazine on Tuesday.

"Today supremacy in the aerospace is a vital condition for ground and naval groupings of troops (forces) to conduct combat operations successfully," the article reads.

LONDON, August 3. /TASS/: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had a meeting with leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in London. The PA agency reported on Tuesday that Johnson voiced support for "human rights and civil society" in Belarus during the meeting at 10 Downing Street. 

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Tuesday a non-violent transition to democracy from President Alexander Lukashenko's "hell" was possible in the former Soviet republic.

"I absolutely believe in a non-violent transition of power," Tsikhanouskaya, a 38-year-old former teacher and blogger, told Reuters. "What is going on in Belarus is our pain - we want this hell finished as soon as possible in our country."

03 Aug 2021; MEMO: Russia has said that it does not believe that Iran targeted the Israeli-managed tanker Mercer Street off the coast of Oman last week.

According to Iran Press, Zamir Kabulov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan, stressed that Moscow does not believe that Iran was behind the attack on the ship.

"We do not have the slightest reason to believe [that Iran was involved in the attack]," Kabulov was quoted as having told Sputnik.

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, to 1-1/2 years of parole-like restrictions after finding her guilty of inciting people to break COVID-19 safety regulations.

Sobol, who says the accusation against her is politically-motivated nonsense, was charged after an unsanctioned street protest in support of Navalny earlier this year.

KYIV, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A Belarusian activist living in exile in Ukraine was found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday, and Ukrainian police said they had launched a murder case.

Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kyiv-based organisation that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after failing to return home from a run.

Police said they had launched a criminal case for suspected murder, including investigating whether attackershad tried to disguise the killing as suicide.

BRUSSELS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said on Monday it had opened an in-depth investigation into Facebook's proposed acquisition of Kustomer over concerns that the deal would stifle competition for customer relationship management (CRM) software.

In a statement, the Commission said it was also concerned that the proposed transaction would further strengthen Facebook's market position in the online display advertising market by increasing the already significant amount of data available to Facebook for personalization of the adverts it displays.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A heat wave baking southeast Europe has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey and threatened the national power grid in Greece as governments scrambled Monday to secure the resources needed to cope with the emergency.

Temperatures reached 45 C (113 F) in inland areas of Greece and nearby countries and are expected to remain high for most of the week.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Together with huge oil and gas export potential the Russian economy has high non-oil and gas export potential, experts polled by TASS believe. Exports of food, information technologies and creative products are among such growth drivers.

Speaking at the headquarters of the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) last week, US President Joe Biden recalled the Geneva summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and stated that the Russian economy is based exclusively on nuclear weapons and oil resources.