Europe

ROME, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) issued here Friday a joint declaration at the close of the Global Health Summit aimed at coordinating worldwide efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rome Declaration is made up of 16 "mutually reinforcing principles" that "reconfirm our commitment to global solidarity, equity, and multilateral cooperation" and to promoting "sustained financing for global health," the G20 leaders wrote.

CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Residents of Spain’s multi-ethnic city of Ceuta are used to being in the news every time the fragile alliance between Spain and Morocco shakes up.

For many “Ceutis,” as locals are known, that comes with being a speck of a European nation in North Africa. The city is culturally closely intertwined with Morocco, with Muslims making over 40% of its population, but also separated from it by high perimeter fences that set apart the two extremes of poverty and prosperity.

YEREVAN, May 21. /TASS/: Armenia’s foreign ministry has rejected Azerbaijan’s statement about disputed territories as a false agenda.

"It is a blatant violation of international law to set conditions with the use of force or a threat of its use. Armenia rejects the false agenda of the so-called disputed territories, which may become a dangerous precedent to justify the use of force in other regions," Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Anna Nagdalyan said on Friday.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 21. /TASS/: A joint group of Russian and Kazakh combat ships held artillery firings against the targets that simulated a notional enemy’s warships during naval drills in the Caspian Sea, the press office of Russia’s Southern Military District reported on Friday.

The maneuvers kicked off on May 18 and will last through May 24 at the Russian and Kazakh naval training ranges located in the middle part of the Caspian Sea, the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/: "Soft power" is an area that Russia has yet to work on, but the country has no problems with real power, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the New Knowledge educational marathon on Friday.

"’Soft power’ is something we still have to work on <...>. As far as our real power is concerned, everything is fine on this score," he said.

"Yet, this armored train [of real power], as is well-known, has been laid up on the storage track and may God forbid it from being pulled out of there," the spokesman added.

MOSCOW, May 21. / TASS /: Since the beginning of this year, the Russian Financial Monitoring Agency has thwarted a number of attempts to bankroll terrorist activities and froze funds to the tune of over 20 mln rubles ($271,000), said the head of the agency Yuri Chikhanchin during a conference organized by the Association of Russian Banks on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology is developing a drug which resolves the issue of the antibiotic resistance, Phase Three trials are beginning, Director of the Center Alexander Gintsburg said.

(Reuters) --- Brussels has persuaded Washington to ease restrictions on exports of materials needed by German biotech firm CureVac (5CV.DE) to make its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, three people familiar with the matter said.

EU officials said the decision will enable CureVac to produce vaccines until August and is part of a months-long effort by Brussels to get the White House to drop or ease some of its export curbs, following the election of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Supplies beyond August, however, remain uncertain.

(Reuters) --- The first operational deployment of Britain's flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to Asia will show countries such as China that Britain believes in the international law of the sea, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

Johnson said the Carrier Strike Group, which will interact with more than 40 nations on the deployment through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea to Japan, would project Britain's values as well as its military capabilities.

21 May 2021; MEMO: Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund yesterday withdrew its investments from two Israeli companies over their involvement in Israel's illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.