Europe

MINSK, May 31. /TASS/: The Minsk City Court on Monday dismissed the complaint filed over the detention of Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, TASS reports from the courtroom.

"[The court] hereby rules to dismiss the complaint of the defense attorney, lawyer Filanovich, relating to Sofia Sapega. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed," the judge said.

The hearing was held without the detained Russian woman.

(Reuters) --- Air France (AIRF.PA) cancelled two more flights to Moscow on Monday after Russian authorities failed to approve flight plans that avoid Belarus airspace.

The European Union has urged its airlines to avoid Belarus amid outrage over the forced landing of a Ryanair (RYA.I) jet en route to Lithuania from Greece on May 23 and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board.

(Reuters) --- Personnel at Belarus' diplomatic mission to NATO will have their access restricted at the alliance's headquarters, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, following the forced landing of a passenger plane by Minsk.

Belarus is not a member of NATO but has had ties with the military alliance since 1992 following the fall of the Soviet Union, and has maintained a diplomatic mission to NATO since 1998.

(Reuters) --- Greece and Turkey pledged on Monday to smooth differences which erupted into a public spat between their foreign ministers, announcing a meeting between President Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at next month's NATO summit.

The two historic rivals are at odds over many issues from competing territorial claims in the eastern Mediterranean to migrant boats and the status of Cyprus. They came close to armed conflict last year but have been trying to lower tensions.

(Reuters) --- The World Health Organization, at the heart of the world's sluggish handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, faces a potential shake-up to prevent future outbreaks as a top official warned that "the pathogens have the upper hand".

Health ministers agreed on Monday to study recommendations for ambitious reforms made by independent experts to strengthen the capacity of both the U.N. agency and countries to contain new viruses.

(Reuters) --- Belarus's leading opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Monday that detained blogger Roman Protasevich had been beaten and tortured in jail.

A lawyer who visited Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega said he was fine, "but it's doubtful, because for sure he was tortured, for sure he was beaten", she told reporters at a news conference in Tallinn.

(Reuters) --- The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) used a partnership with Denmark's foreign intelligence unit to spy on senior officials of neighbouring countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish state broadcaster DR said.

The findings are the result of a 2015 internal investigation in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service into NSA's role in the partnership, DR said, citing nine unnamed sources with access to the investigation.

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech police recommended again on Monday that Prime Minister Andrej Babis should be indicted over alleged fraud involving European Union subsidies.

Prague’s prosecution office said it has received the results of the updated police investigation into Babis’ possible involvement in the $2 million fraud. Prosecutors now have to decide whether to file charges against Babis or dismiss them.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A Bosnian court on Monday sentenced the Balkan country’s former security minister to six months in prison for corruption.

The Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday ruled that Sadik Ahmetovic abused his position for illegal financial gains at cost to the state budget.

The case is related to project agreements for the ministry from 2011 and 2012 that were worth some 7,000 euros ($8,500.)

BERLIN, May 30. / TASS /: The European Medicines Agency (EMA) needs to speed up the certification of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 jab, German federal state of Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Soeder stated on Sunday in the Bild am Sontag newspaper.

"The vaccination pace cannot be slowed down. First of all, we need to fast-track the process of Sputnik V’s [registration in the EU]," the Bavarian prime minister said. According to him, this process cannot be delayed "solely for ideological reasons".