Europe

BRUSSELS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Parties to the Iran nuclear deal have agreed to convene in Austria next week to discuss ways to bring the deal back to life.

The deal, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 between Iran and the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union (EU).

Washington withdrew from the deal in 2018 and tightened sanctions on Iran under former President Donald Trump. In response to the U.S. moves, Iran suspended the implementation of parts of its obligations under the deal.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s medicines regulator is urging people to continue taking the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, despite revealing that seven people in the U.K. have died from rare blood clots after getting the jab.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, said it wasn’t clear if the shots are causing the clots, and that its “rigorous review into the U.K. reports of rare and specific types of blood clots is ongoing.”

02 Apr 2021; MEMO: Britain's organised crime agency is reviewing a report by a group of London-based lawyers which accuses Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh and associates of money laundering and corrupt practices, four sources familiar with the matter said, Reuters reports.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, April 2. /TASS/: Over 50 battalion tactical groups of Russia’s Southern Military District will practice fighting enemy drones jointly with electronic warfare and air defense forces in drills, the District’s press office reported on Friday.

"Over 50 battalion tactical groups and tactical groups of the branches of the Southern Military District’s troops will practice interaction with electronic warfare and air defense units during a control check for the purpose of defense against unmanned aviation strikes," the press office said in a statement.

REUTOV /Moscow Region/, April 2. /TASS/: The Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (part of Tactical Missiles Corporation) has launched work on developing active phased array radar mini-satellites that can help monitor the Arctic, Company CEO and Chief Designer Alexander Leonov said on the sidelines of the conference on cosmonautics on Friday.

MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/: European countries look the other way when it comes to the disgraceful policy of outright segregation pursued by the Baltic states and Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin told TASS on Friday.

YEREVAN, April 2. /TASS/: Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan has awarded defense ministry medals to specialists of the Russia radiation, chemical and biological protection forces for their assistance in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic, the press service of the Armenian defense ministry said on Friday.

MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/: Russian radars tracked 50 foreign aircraft that conducted air reconnaissance near Russia’s state borders over the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper reported on Friday.

The paper’s infographics show that 37 foreign spy planes and 13 drones conducted air reconnaissance along Russia’s state borders in the past week.

The flights by foreign spy aircraft were tracked by Russian radar stations. No violations of the Russian state border were allowed, the paper said.

PARIS, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The severity of crop losses driven by heat waves and drought have tripled in the last fifty years in Europe, according to a study that highlights the vulnerability of food systems to climate change.

Research published recently in the journal Environmental Research Letters, looked at agricultural production in 28 European countries — the current European Union and United Kingdom — from 1961 to 2018.

02 Apr 2021; MEMO: Two UK school textbooks on the Middle East have been "significantly altered" following intervention from leading advocates of the Zionist state in favour of the Israeli narrative. The alterations, slammed as "propaganda under the guise of education" and "not fit for purpose" have raised serious concerns over the textbook, prompting a pause in further distribution.