Europe

MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/: The Kremlin has to state that the world situation continues to get worse, as the global system of security is degrading and new hotbeds of tension emerge. East-West tensions cause particular concern, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told the international forum of experts Primakov Readings in Moscow on Tuesday.

He stressed that on the forum's agenda there were certain "foreign policy, economic and humanitarian issues that will determine the development of the system of international relations for years ahead."

MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the international community needs to think about the lessons to be learned from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Although it is too early to talk about the victory over the coronavirus, we need to reflect on the lessons to be learned from that disaster, and how to act in the future if such situations arise," the head of state noted in his welcoming address to the participants in the Primakov Readings forum read out by Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov on Tuesday.

GENEVA, June 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Orgamisation called for Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to give Covax first refusal on new doses, or commit half of their volumes to the global jab equity scheme.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said manufacturers should turn their attention to the Covax facility, which has struggled to get donation-funded doses to poorer countries.

(Reuters) --- The head of Austrian state holdings group OBAG, Thomas Schmid, stepped down on Tuesday as prosecutors investigate whether Chancellor Sebastian Kurz perjured himself in saying he was not involved in appointing Schmid and OBAG's supervisory board.

(Reuters) --- Britain urged the European Union on Tuesday to help find an urgent solution to trade difficulties with Northern Ireland before the end of this month, saying there was no case for the bloc to prevent the sale of chilled meat in the province.

"There's no case whatsoever for preventing chilled meat from being sold in Northern Ireland. We think an urgent solution needs to be found," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters.

BRUSSELS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission is engaged in negotiations with third countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, on the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said here on Monday.

ROME, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) is evaluating evidence from Italy that the coronavirus or a similar virus may have been circulating in Italy months earlier than generally believed, a researcher told Xinhua on Monday.

GENEVA (AP) — Envoys from World Trade Organization member nations are taking up a proposal to ease patents and other intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines to help developing countries fight the pandemic, an idea backed by the Biden administration but opposed in other wealthy countries with strong pharmaceutical industries.

LONDON (AP) — The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator says the bloc is ready to act “firmly and resolutely” if the U.K. fails to honor its commitments under the divorce deal that was supposed to keep trade flowing after Britain left the EU.

Maros Sefcovic’s comments, published Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, came a day before he holds talks with his U.K. counterpart on implementing the deal.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic will hear Tuesday if U.N. judges have upheld or overturned his convictions and life sentence for masterminding genocide and other atrocities throughout Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for leading troops responsible for a string of deadly campaigns including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo, was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment.