Europe

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Chemical substances found through long-distance astronomical observation of Venus cannot conclusively prove there is life on the planet, Roscosmos Executive Director for Long-Term Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko said.

"The discovery of chemical substances that can be considered chemical markers of vital functions in the atmosphere of Venus through long-distance astronomical monitoring cannot be seen as objective proof of life on the planet," Bloshenko said, quoted by the Roscosmos website.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Multilateral agreements on nuclear weapons are impossible without factoring in the US missile defense system’s potential, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said during a video conference with his colleagues from other Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries Tuesday.

He named "deterioration of the situation in strategic stability, including the US consistent actions on complete dismantling of its legal basis."

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Russian National Guard forces began withdrawing from their temporary deployment areas at the Russian-Belarusian border and return to their permanent bases, a Rossiya-24 TV channel reported Tuesday.

"Russia is withdrawing the reserve forces, deployed at the Belarusian border. The forces abandon their temporary deployment locations and return to their permanent bases," the TV channel reported.

Previously, presidents of Russia and Belarus agreed to withdraw the armed forces reserve, deployed at the border.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov is against linking the cancellation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Berlin with the incident involving Russian blogger Alexei Navalny.

"Our minister made the decision to cancel the visit because its agenda was considerably reduced and changed by the German side," Peskov told the media, when asked if the cancellation of Lavrov’s visit to Berlin might be attributed to the Navalny affair.

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/: Federal Security Service (FSB) investigator Alexander Chaban promised to show Ivan Safronov, a Roscosmos advisor charged with treason, the materials which he allegedly handed over to the Czech intelligence, Safronov’s lawyer Ivan Pavlov told TASS Tuesday.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday that Europe needs to show practical solidarity with Greece on the migration issue.

“It’s time for Europe’s support to pass from words into actions, to be expressed in tangible solidarity,” Mitsotakis said after a meeting European Union Council President Charles Michel.

The Moria camp on Lesbos island which was devastated by a fire last week “belongs to the past”, Mitsotakis said, adding that a new facilty would be built to replace it, with more support and involvement from the European Union.

KYIV (Reuters) - Hundreds of Hasidic Jews who set off on a pilgrimage to Ukraine despite coronavirus restrictions blocked the frontier on Tuesday after border guards would not let them in.

A video posted by Ukrainian border guards showed dozens of Jews, including children, in traditional dress, carrying suitcases and wandering along a roadway amid parked trucks.

They sang songs and some danced. The guards said they had been forced to stop traffic on Monday night on the crossing at Novi Yarylovychi between Belarus and northern Ukraine because the pilgrims were in the way.

SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major oil industry producers and traders are forecasting a bleak future for worldwide fuel demand, due to the coronavirus pandemic’s ongoing assault on the global economy.

The novel coronavirus hammered fuel demand in the spring, causing consumption to drop by more than one-third as billions of people worldwide restricted their movements. Consumption rebounded in the summer, but some countries where infections were under control are seeing a resurgence in the deadly virus, sparking waves of lockdowns that could hamper the recovery.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Dozens of Western countries voiced concern on Tuesday at Saudi Arabia’s continued detention of women activists and called for those behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be brought to justice.

At least a dozen prominent women’s rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as it lifted a ban on women driving cars, a step that many of the detainees had long campaigned for. The women were rounded up as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital on Tuesday, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently following his poisoning last month.

The photo - the strongest evidence yet of Navalny’s advancing recovery since he fell violently sick in Siberia on Aug. 20 - was swiftly followed by confirmation from his press spokeswoman that he planned to return to Russia.