Europe

PARIS (Reuters) - A summit of seven European Union member states on the Mediterranean due to take place on Thursday will push for a common EU position regarding Turkey, said French President Emmanuel Macron, host of the gathering.

Relations between the EU and Turkey are badly strained on a number of issues, including exploration for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean, where Ankara is at loggerheads with EU member states Cyprus and Greece.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, with Brussels exploring possible legal action against London.

After Britain explicitly said it would act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London.

Britain signed the treaty and formally left the EU in January, but remains a member in all but name until the end of this year under a status quo agreement.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled its first-ever Strategic Foresight Report, which aims to identify challenges and opportunities to better steer the European Union's (EU) strategic choices.

The document is meant to support the Commission in designing "future-proof" policies and legislation that serves both the current needs and longer-term aspirations of European citizens.

LONDON, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Banning and removing Huawei equipment from Britain's 5G networks by 2027 risks severely delaying operators' 5G roll-out plans, adversely affecting its economy by 18.2 billion pounds (around 23.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to an independent report released Wednesday by Assembly, a London-based analyst firm.

In July, the British government drastically reversed its policy on Huawei by announcing that buying new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec. 31, 2020 and all Huawei equipment will be removed from 5G networks by the end of 2027.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: A plane carrying 15 Russian children evacuated from Syria landed at Chkalovsky Airport near Moscow early on Wednesday, the press service of Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Anna Kuznetsova said.

"The plane with Russian children evacuated from Syria performed a landing at the Chkalovsky Airport in the Moscow Region," the press service said in a statement.

The children were accompanied by doctors during the flight. Recommendations of Russia’s sanitary watchdog and the Health Ministry were observed at all stages of the evacuation.

MINSK, September 9. /TASS/: A member of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council Maria Kolesnikova has been arrested and placed in a pre-trial detention center in Minsk.

"The head of the investigative group of the Investigative Committee’s main investigation department Vasilyuk called me and informed that she had been arrested," Maria’s father Alexander Kolesnikov said on Wednesday, according to tut.by portal.

ARKHANGELSK, September 9. /TASS/: Russia has developed application software allowing patients to keep track of their health condition after being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during his working visit to northwestern Russia’s Arkhangelsk on Tuesday.

"Yes, this app has already been developed. Right now, everyone who had been vaccinated as part of the clinical trials will use this app," the minister said.

DONETSK, September 8. /TASS/: The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) suggests the Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine hold an extraordinary meeting on September 9 in a bid to deescalate the situation along the contact line, DPR’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/: Accusations hurled at Russia that it intends "to swallow up" Belarus after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko visits Moscow are "pure nonsense," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"There certainly won't be any swallowing up or merging at all after the visit. This is pure nonsense," he said.

PARIS, Sept 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Disruptions to health services due to the pandemic are putting millions of additional lives at risk worldwide, the United Nations said Wednesday, warning that Covid-19 could reverse decades of progress in reducing child mortality.

The past 30 years have seen remarkable strides forward in preventing or treating causes of infant deaths including premature births and pneumonia.