Europe

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Thursday that any COVID-19 vaccines it has authorized for emergency use should be recognized by countries as they open up their borders to inoculated travelers.

The move could challenge Western countries to broaden their acceptance of two apparently less effective Chinese vaccines, which the U.N. health agency has licensed but most European and North American countries have not.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to push Angela Merkel to drop her efforts to impose COVID-19 restrictions on British travelers as the German chancellor makes her final visit to Britain before stepping down in the coming months.

Johnson will hold talks with Merkel at his country residence on Friday. The German leader is also expected to speak to a meeting of the Cabinet, the first foreign leader to do so since Bill Clinton in 1997, although this time the address will be delivered by video link.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Google is facing a fine of up to 6 mln rubles ($82,000) for refusing to localize the data of its Russian users in accordance with legislation currently in force, a source in the Justice of the Peace of Court No. 422 in Moscow’s Tagansky District, which received the respective files, told TASS.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Czech Ambassador to Moscow Vitezslav Pivonka was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry amid the new Prague’s claims to the Russian Federation over the 2014 explosions at arms depots in Vrbetice, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"We view the proposal of the Czech side to hold a discussion of its claims as unacceptable, of course. We will express our attitude to this politicized romp to the head of the Czech diplomatic mission in Moscow, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry," she said. 

VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME /Amur Region/, July 1. /TASS/: A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat booster and 36 British OneWeb communications satellites blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East on Thursday.

The Fregat booster with the satellites successfully separated from the carrier rocket several minutes after the launch, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced in a live broadcast on its website.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: A major war is currently impossible because of the nuclear parity, Kremlins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview Thursday, answering a question on a potential world war with the use of nuclear weapons.

"Can a war happen? Putin said it clearly [during the Direct Line] that this is unlikely. We are being safeguarded by the nuclear parity," Peskov said.

According to Peskov, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of nuclear parity because it is a mechanism that "stabilizes the entire system of international relations."

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: Russia will keep providing fraternal Belarus with comprehensive support amid the challenging domestic political situation in that country and the external attempts to fuel tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin told an online forum of Russian and Belarusian regions.

"We will continue providing our fraternal Belarusian people with comprehensive support in the current rather challenging domestic political situation in Belarus, amid the ongoing political and sanctions pressure and persistent attempts to rock the boat from overseas," Putin stressed.

GENEVA, July 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China was certified as malaria-free on Wednesday by the World Health Organization, following a 70-year effort to eradicate the mosquito-borne disease.

The country reported 30 million cases of the infectious disease annually in the 1940s but has now gone four consecutive years without an indigenous case.

“We congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he was confident Britons fully vaccinated against COVID-19 would be able to travel abroad this year.

Britain permitted limited quarantine-free travel in May and June, and is trying to encourage other European countries to accept British travellers.

The British government has said it will this month set out details of plans to allow those who have had both COVID-19 vaccine shots to avoid self-isolation on return from top tourist destinations such as Spain and France.

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Voters in a northern English region were casting their ballots on Thursday in a new test of whether British Prime Minister Boris Johnson can extend his Conservative Party's control over traditionally opposition-supporting areas.

The constituency Batley and Spen, which has voted for the opposition Labour Party since 1997, could hand another victory to Johnson, whose pursuit of Brexit and promise to tackle inequality has won over many voters in northern England.