Europe

MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Security Council did not take any action that would lead to the resumption of the previous sanctions against Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

The statement came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that "the United States welcomes the return of virtually all previously terminated UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran" and "Sanctions are being re-imposed on Iran pursuant to the snapback process under UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 2231."

DUBLIN, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Friday evening declared a Level 3 response for the country's capital Dublin in order to suppress the rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city over the past few weeks.

The Level 3 response, a new mechanism introduced by the Irish government to take corresponding restrictive measures according to the different risk levels of the pandemic in the country, will take effect from midnight Friday and remain in place for three weeks until Oct. 9.

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Italian authorities handed over a historical inscription that dates to the ancient Lycian era to the Turkish foreign mission after decades of judicial wrangling about ownership, the Turkish envoy to Rome said Saturday, Anadolu reports.

The historical inscription is 1,800 years old and depicts the regret of parents whose sons committed theft. It was smuggled out of Turkey to Italy and was found by Italian authorities during a raid in 1997.

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday criticised the US’ “demonisation” of Iran and stressed that US sanctions on the country “will not work”.

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Sputnik, Lavrov indicated that the problem with Iran is that the “US authorities have demonised it” and it “got labelled as the main problem of the region in question.”

PARIS (AP) — With precision and boundless energy, a team of carpenters used medieval techniques to raise up — by hand — a three-ton oak truss Saturday in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, a replica of the wooden structures that were consumed in the landmark’s devastating April 2019 fire that also toppled its spire.

The demonstration to mark European Heritage Days gave the hundreds of people a first-hand look at the rustic methods used 800 years ago to build the triangular frames in the nave of Notre Dame de Paris.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: A pre-investigation check into the hospitalization of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny will not be limited to 30 days, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"The check into Navalny’s hospitalization will not be completed on September 20. It will continue until a procedural decision is made to launch or not to launch criminal proceedings," the source said.

According to the source, no reasons to launch a criminal case have been established so far.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: About 66,000 people are being tested for novel coronavirus in Moscow every day, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"First of all, it [the growth in novel coronavirus cases in Moscow] is linked to the increased number of tests made. The number of tests reaches 66,000 daily, which is a huge number. This means that we test about one million people every two weeks," he said.

According to the mayor, the share of positive tests remains the same as 2-3 weeks ago.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: A Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept a US maritime patrol plane approaching the Russian border over the Black Sea, Russia’s National Defense Management Center reported on Friday.

According to the Center, Russian airspace control systems of the Southern Military District detected an aerial target over the Black Sea approaching Russia’s state border.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: The Russian government approved the draft federal budget for 2021 and for the planning period of 2022 and 2023, as well as a forecast of socio-economic development, the government said on its website.

GENEVA, Sept 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Covid-19 weekly death toll of around 50,000 lives is unacceptably high, the World Health Organization said as the one million fatalities landmark approaches.

The WHO said that although global death and infection rates from the new coronavirus were plateauing rather than rising exponentially, the worldwide figures were masking surges at lower regional and local levels.