Europe

MOSCOW, September 11. / TASS /: Norilsk Nickel has almost finished gathering fuel that got into water bodies near Norilsk after the accident at TPP-3, the first vice-president and operating director of the company Sergei Dyachenko told reporters on Friday.

According to the company, this is a volume of no more than 12,000 tons, which is much less than the estimates made by Rosprirodnadzor, the Russian environmental regulator.

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/: The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be adjusted to ensure that it avoids a collision with a US spacecraft, Roscosmos said on Saturday.

"On Monday, September 14, 2020, at 02:23 Moscow time, the International Space Station is predicted to approach the American BRICSat-2 satellite, which has turned into so-called ‘space debris’," the state corporation noted.

SERTOLOVO, September 12. /TASS/: The first batches of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to all regions of the country, delivery is expected until Monday, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters on Saturday.

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — EU leaders will hold video talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday hoping to make progress on trade and investment, even as tensions mount between Beijing and the West over Hong Kong and the treatment of minority Uighurs.

The virtual meeting between top Chinese officials and EU Council President Charles Michel, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, replaces a full summit with all 27 European leaders which had to be cancelled because of coronavirus.

LONDON, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain announced a £23.8 million investment to triple the size of its base in an Omani port close to the sensitive waters of the Gulf.

The expansion of the “logistics hub” at Duqm will “facilitate Royal Navy deployments to the Indian Ocean” and “further support British Army training in Oman,” the Ministry of Defence said.

“The long-standing friendships between the UK and the Gulf states are more important than ever,” said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as he visited Oman and Qatar.

BERLIN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's policy is the issue that Germans are worried about the most, according to the results of an annual study on people's fears by Germany's R+V insurance group published recently.

More than half of the 2,400 people surveyed in the study, or 53 percent, said that the U.S. president's policy makes the world a more dangerous place.

"That is justified," said Professor Manfred G. Schmidt, political scientist at Heidelberg University, who has been advising the R+V Infocenter on evaluating the study for a number of years.

ATHENS, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Greece's European partners are already offering assistance to the country to cope with the crisis on Lesbos island after the destruction of the Moria refugee migrant camp by a fire this week. They are preparing to agree a coherent, single migration and asylum policy to find a definitive solution to the challenge, Margaritis Schinas, European Commission Vice President, said here on Friday.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: Amnesty International has called for an independent and impartial international investigation into the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by a Saudi hit squad inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: Chinese, Iranian and Russian forces are to participate in joint military exercises in southern Russia later this month, alongside troops from Armenia, Belarus, Myanmar and Pakistan. India cancelled its involvement over mounting cross-border tensions between Delhi and Beijing.

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Health Secretariat of the Brazilian State of Bahia have signed a cooperation agreement on supply of up to 50 mln doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, the Fund said in a statement on Friday.

"Deliveries are expected to start in November 2020 subject to approval by Brazil’s regulators with the consideration of results of post-registration trials," the statement said. The agreement will also enable the parties to distribute the vaccine across Brazil in the future.