Europe

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russia may need a few additional ground stations to receive information from the Arktika satellites, Deputy Head of the Section for Multispectral Scanners Development at the Russian Space Systems Company Yuri Gektin told TASS on Tuesday

"For the stable inflow of information from those space apparatuses, we may need to build a few stations in higher latitudes," he said.

Presently, one Arktika-M satellite transmits data from the orbit. Scientists will have to analyze new tasks and to decide in which direction to develop the equipment, he added.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russian businessman and Concord CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin sent a written request to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding to delete the $250,000 reward offer for information that would assist in Prigozhin’s arrest from the FBI website, Concord press service announced on its VK page Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/: Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of parliament) has passed the third reading of a bill allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again.

According to one of the amended provisions of the Russian Constitution, presidential term limits apply to the incumbent head of state without regard to his previous terms in office. That said, it makes Vladimir Putin eligible for two more presidential terms.

PARIS, March 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France will reopen its embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli next Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron revealed this when he received the new President and Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday.

The gesture signifies support for the interim government.

24 Mar 2021; MEMO: Turkey is a "strong and valued ally," a top US diplomat said yesterday, asserting that it is in the interest of NATO to have Ankara in the bloc, Anadolu news agency reported.

"It's no secret that we have differences with Turkey, including over the S-400s, and including certain actions that it has taken, including in the Eastern Mediterranean," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Brussels.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Armenia’s parliament voted on Wednesday to lift martial law, the RIA news agency reported, ahead of an early parliamentary election planned in June.

Armenia brought in martial law in September when war broke out between ethnic Armenians in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces. The conflict that erupted on Sept. 27 was brought to a halt on Nov. 10 by a Russian-brokered peace deal.

LONDON (Reuters) - Capitalism and greed gave Britain its success in vaccinating its population, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told lawmakers in a closed meeting, praising pharmaceutical companies for developing a shot in record time.

The comments, reported by The Sun newspaper, were made by Johnson during a Zoom meeting and could inflame a row with the European Union which is considering a ban on vaccine exports to Britain.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose more than 1% on Wednesday after a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal raising supply concerns, although fears of a slow recovery in demand due to European lockdowns limited gains.

Ships in the Suez Canal were being diverted to an older channel on Wednesday after a large container ship ran aground, blocking vessels passing through one of the world’s most important waterways.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called an unexpected meeting with leaders of the federal states for Wednesday morning to discuss the coronavirus pandemic after they agreed early on Tuesday to extend the lockdown, government sources said.

The meeting comes as COVID-19 infections have been rising fast in a third wave of the pandemic in Germany.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved on Wednesday a debt-financed supplementary budget of 60 billion euros ($71 billion) which will lift annual new borrowing to a record high of more than 240 billion euros this year, a government official said.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz also suggested a draft budget for next year with additional net new debt of 81.5 billion euros for which parliament will have to suspend a constitutional debt brake for a third year in a row, the official added.