Europe

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Friday what he called “Islamic separatism” in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy.”

Macron defended satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that helped inspire two French-born Islamic extremists to mount a deadly January 2015 attack on the paper’s newsroom.

The weekly republished the images this week as the trial began of 14 people over the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher supermarket.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet of the Northern Fleet was scrambled to intercept a Norwegian Orion patrol aircraft approaching the Russian border over the Barents Sea, Russia’s National Defense Control Center reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: The Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology under the Russian Health Ministry may be granted permission to release a batch of the newly-developed vaccine Sputnik V against the novel coronavirus for civilian use next week, the institute’s deputy director for research, associate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Denis Logunov, said on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: The coronavirus situation in Moscow may get more complicated this fall due to the beginning of the school year and people’s return from their summer cottages, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a blog post on Friday.

"The pandemic is not over yet. Moreover, in the fall we may face the aggravation of the situation. Children went to schools, students to the universities, many people returned from their summer cottages. All that will create conditions for a certain increase in the number of infected people," he stressed.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Belarusian intelligence data proving blogger Alexei Navalny’s alleged poisoning was a fake have been handed over to the federal security service FSB and the special service will now report them to President Vladimir Putin, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

TBILISI, September 4. /TASS/: At least one person was killed and some more were wounded in an explosion outside the Tbilisi concert hall in the center of the Georgian capital, the Interpressnews agency reported on Friday.

According to the agency, the explosion rocked Tbilisi on Friday afternoon. The police and emergency services have arrived at the site.

There were no immediate reports of the causes of the blast. The emergency services promised to make an official statement later.

04 Sep 2020; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) had committed “unprecedented” violations against Qatari citizens since the Gulf crisis erupted more than three years ago, Doha’s legal representative said on Wednesday.

04 Sep 2020; MEMO: In the ongoing campaign by pro-Israel groups to police academic discussion on the Zionist state, a British university has become the centre of an anti-Semitism row following a decision not to take action against a lecturer on the grounds of “free speech”.

04 Sep 2020; MEMO: Greece has pulled out of NATO-backed talks with Turkey, and is demanding that its neighbour should drop its “threats” in order for talks to go ahead in the effort to de-escalate tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The decision was taken by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis this morning as he met with a senior member of China’s Communist Party who is visiting Athens. “Let threats go away so that the contacts can begin,” he said.

PARIS, Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said 22 schools were closed in France due to cases of COVID-19.

“In mainland France there are currently 12 schools closed out of a total of over 60,000, which is a small figure. Adding 10 schools in La Reunion (island), that makes it 22,” Blanquer told Europe 1 radio.

As over 12 million pupils returned to school in France on Tuesday, some parents and teachers’ unions have voiced concern at plans for reopening classrooms as the spread of the virus gathers renewed pace.