Europe

LONDON, March 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain told Hong Kong on Friday that it had “no right” to order other countries not to accept a United Kingdom travel document for a popular youth working scheme after the city confirmed it had made the request to several other nations.

The row is the latest diplomatic spat centring on the British National (Overseas), or BNO, passport as China imposes a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

The BNO passport is a legacy of Hong Kong’s handover to China by colonial Britain in 1997.

LONDON (Reuters) -Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond on Friday launched a new pro-independence political party to run in May elections for Scotland’s devolved parliament, seeking to help build a political majority for breaking away from the rest of Britain.

“I’m announcing the public launch of a new political force: the Alba Party,” Salmond said in a statement broadcast on Twitter.

“Alba will contest the upcoming Scottish elections as a list-only party under my leadership, seeking to build a super majority for independence in the Scottish Parliament.”

LONDON (Reuters) -Bank of England policymaker Michael Saunders said on Friday there might be more spare capacity - meaning potentially less inflation pressure - in Britain’s economy after its COVID crash than the central bank said last month.

Saunders said Britain’s economy might recover from last year’s 10% slump more quickly than the BoE’s central forecasts, made in early February, which foresee a 5% bounce-back in 2021 as the country races ahead with coronavirus vaccinations.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday it would not respond to a call by jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s wife to have her husband freed to receive urgent medical treatment.

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, called on Thursday for her husband to be immediately released and treated by doctors he trusted after his lawyers said he was in pain and being denied proper healthcare.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: The coronavirus situation in Moscow is stable but senior citizens are falling ill more often now, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday.

"We have reached a high level of immunization of people, it was gradual and steady, and we had the vaccination campaign on top of that. The situation is indeed stable today. We see that the share of infections has grown higher among seniors," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: Russia’s S-300V4 air defense systems deployed on the Kuril Islands and S-400 surface-to-air launchers on the Sakhalin Island and MiG-31BM interceptor-fighters in Chukotka have reliably protected the Russian Far Eastern frontiers from the Chukchi Sea to the Sea of Japan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: The number of NATO spy plane flights near Russia’s state border grew by over 30% in 2021 and the Russian air defenses timely spotted the reconnaissance aircraft in all the cases, Head of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee, Aerospace Force Ex-Chief Viktor Bondarev said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has no side effects after getting vaccinated with the first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"The president has no side effects, he is feeling well, he has taken to the vaccine well," the spokesman said.

On Tuesday evening, Peskov said that Putin had been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus. He added that Putin was well, but kept quiet about the vaccine the president used.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/: The West’s policy aimed at containing and suppressing Russia has remain unchanged, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

When asked if the Kremlin shared the opinion that Russia was facing "a psychological war," he said, going on to point out, "a deliberate policy aimed at containing and suppressing Russia is clear enough." "Indeed, it is ongoing and is visible to the naked eye," Peskov added.

GENEVA, March 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) –: The UN human rights office said it confirmed the accuracy of published remarks by the independent expert who led an investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi alleging that a senior Saudi official had made a threat against her.

The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday quoted Agnes Callamard, UN expert on summary killings, as saying a Saudi official had threatened she would be “taken care of” if she was not reined in following her investigation into the journalist’s murder.