Europe

ABOARD USS ROSS (AP) — Ukraine and NATO have conducted Black Sea drills involving dozens of warships in a two-week show of their strong defense ties and capability following a confrontation between Russia’s military forces and a British destroyer off Crimea last month.

PARIS (AP) — France will withdraw more than 2,000 troops from an anti-extremism force in Africa’s Sahel region by early next year and pivot its military presence to specialized regional forces instead, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.

Macron announced last month a future reduction of France’s military presence, arguing that it’s no longer adapted to the needs in the area. The French Barkhane force, operating in Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, had also met opposition from some Africans.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russia is ready to discuss the certification of citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 with India, and an agreement can be reached in this sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday during a press conference after talks with his Indian colleague Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

"We are ready to discuss the possibilities of coordinating our actions related to vaccinated citizens, regarding the certification of those who were vaccinated. I think that we can reach an agreement here, and it will serve as an example to other states," he said.

SEVASTOPOL, July 9. /TASS/: The combat teams of Pantsyr-S1 anti-aircraft missile/gun systems of Russia’s Southern Military District held drills in Crimea to hunt and eliminate enemy drones that attempted to attack S-400 air defense launchers, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus reproduction rate went up to 1.01 on Friday according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s latest data. In Moscow, this figure rose to 0.83.

The reproduction rate is greater than 1 in eight out of ten regions with the highest COVID case count. Only in Moscow (0.83) and the Moscow Region (0.98), it is lower than 1.

In St. Petersburg, where the amount of daily COVID-19 cases is nearing 2,000, the rate is 1.09. In the Voronezh Region, the Irkutsk and Rostov Regions, it is about 1.11.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Moscow is determined to continue fostering the potential of its Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation with Beijing by boosting ties in a wide range of areas, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

She pointed out that July 16 would mark 20 years since the treaty was signed, thereby "establishing the legal basis for the present-day model of Russia-China relations, comprehensive partnership, strategic interaction and practical cooperation."

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Rescue teams discovered body fragments of all 28 people killed in the An-26 plane crash in Kamchatka, a source in the emergency services told TASS Friday.

"The rescuers were able to reach a remote point on the rock, where the An-26 plane fell. Body parts of all victims were discovered there. One person was identified by a tattoo," the source said, adding that all bodies will undergo a DNA examination. 

LONDON, Jul 8 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia’s Chief of General Staff, Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, met yesterday with the British Chief of Defence Staff, General, Nick Carter, during the inaugural meeting of the bilateral military cooperation committee.

During the meeting, strategic relations between the two friendly countries were reviewed. They also discussed bilateral military cooperation and common challenges facing Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

Earlier this week, military chiefs of the two countries met during an annual meeting of the Dragon Group.

GENEVA, July 9 (Reuters) - Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank amount to a war crime, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Friday, calling on countries to inflict a cost on Israel for its "illegal occupation".

Michael Lynk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, was addressing a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, boycotted by Israel which does not recognise his mandate or cooperate with him.

"Inmy report, I conclude that the Israeli settlements do amount to a war crime," Lynk said.

MOSCOW, July 8 (Reuters) - Thirty-two percent of Russians support the extremism ban on jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's political network while 27% oppose it, according to an opinion poll by the Moscow-based Levada Centre published on Friday.

Levada, which polled 1,630 people on June 24-30, said 38% had voiced indifference over last month's ruling that designated Navalny's groups as "extremist". It also said that support for Navalny's activities had dipped to 14% from 20% last September.