Europe

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: A piece of space junk flew at a distance of 1.8 km from the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Thursday.—

"According to the data of Russian specialists, an uncatalogued piece of space debris flew at a distance of 1.8 km from the International Space Station at around 4:15 p.m. Moscow time," the statement says.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: The French Foreign Ministry’s call not to recognize Russian and Chinese vaccines in the EU is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"Such remarks are unacceptable. This is a hybrid of racism, imperial hegemonism and neo-Nazism: entire peoples are denied equal rights and opportunities, and this is being done in violation of laws, ethics and morals, pushing the world towards confrontation at a moment when it endures the most difficult trials by the pandemic," she said in her Telegram channel Thursday.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has annulled a 2015 decree banning flights by Russian airlines to Egyptian resorts. The relevant document was posted on Thursday on the official web portal of legal information.

VILNIUS, July 8 9NNN-AGENCIES) — Lithuania has announced it will build a barrier on the border with Belarus and deploy troops to prevent migrants from illegally crossing into its territory.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said more than 1,000 migrants had been held after crossing along the 679km border since June 1.

Lithuania, an EU member, also accused Belarus of flying in foreign migrants and allowing them to go to the border.

Bilateral ties have been strained since May’s arrest of a Belarusian dissident.

GENEVA, July 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A United Nations human rights investigator called on countries to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar’s oil and gas sector to cripple the junta that took power five months ago.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government on Feb 1, unleashing nationwide anger that quickly turned into protests and strikes brutally suppressed by security forces, with nearly 900 killed.

MOSCOW, July 8 (Reuters) - Authorities in Belarus said on Thursday they had blocked the website of a newspaper that has been critical of veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko and the editor's wife said her husband had been taken away for questioning.

The newspaper, Nasha Niva, one of Belarus's oldest, covered protests against Lukashenko last summer and was an important source of information for opposition supporters.

It said on Thursday that security forces had raided its office and detained its editor-in-chief, Yahor Martsinovich.

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Most British soldiers have been pulled out of Afghanistan, ending Britain's official role in a two-decades long conflict even as the Taliban are gaining ground and amid fears the departure of foreign soldiers could lead to civil war.

"All British troops assigned to NATO's mission in Afghanistan are now returning home," Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament, praising what British forces had achieved while at the same time acknowledging the "perils" facing Afghanistan.

08 July 2021; MEMO: The International Commission of Jurists has called for immediate action to stop politically motivated executions in Egypt, considering them invalid because of the lack of fair trials.

Beirut, Jul 7 (AP-PTI) Coronavirus infections have been on the rise in the 22 countries of the eastern Mediterranean region after two months of steady decline because of increased international travel, low protection and limited vaccination, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday.

The region, which includes the Gulf, North African and Asian countries, has registered over 11 million infections and over 220,000 deaths since last year. Iran has been the worst impacted by the pandemic, followed by Iraq.

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/: Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers escorted by Su-30M2 fighters performed a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"Two Tu-22M3 long-range bombers performed a scheduled flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Black Sea," the ministry said in a statement.

In their flight, the Russian bombers were escorted by Su-30M2 fighters of the Southern Military District’s Air Force and Air Defense Army, the statement says.