Europe

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed a directive to resume international air service with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the Maldives on a mutual basis, the government’s press service reported on Thursday.

"Egypt (Cairo), three flights a week; the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), two flights a week; the Republic of Maldives (Velana airport), two flights a week," the statement said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott would bring huge expertise to a role as a trade adviser, despite socially conservative views about women and gay people that opponents say make him unfit for the job.

Abbott, who led Australia from 2013-2015, has so far refused to deny or confirm that he will become a trade adviser for Britain. But some British lawmakers have taken issue with comments attributed to Abbott that they cast as “misogynist”.

PEZINOK, Slovakia (Reuters) - A Slovak court ruled on Thursday that an influential businessman was not guilty in the case of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, the presiding judge said.

The court found one other defendant guilty of taking part in the murder, but did not find evidence the hit was ordered by businessman Marian Kocner.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended losses on Thursday, falling to their lowest point since early August, as worries about weaker U.S. gasoline demand and a sluggish economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic dented sentiment.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell 79 cents, or 1.8%, to $43.64 a barrel by 0845 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures were down 67 cents, or 1.6%, at $40.84 a barrel.

Both benchmarks fell more than 2% on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will hold a new round of talks with the United States on a trade deal next week, trade department minister Greg Hands said on Thursday, adding that the government talks to both sides of the U.S. political divide before this year’s election.

Britain has prioritised striking a trade deal with the United States as it seeks to carve out new business relationships around the world following its exit from the European Union, and with it all EU-negotiated trade deals.

LONDON (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) brought a little cheer to Britain’s troubled labour market on Thursday, saying it will create a further 7,000 permanent jobs in 2020, taking total new hires this year to 10,000.

Last month the number of people in work in Britain suffered the biggest drop since 2009 and the coronavirus is expected to take a much heavier toll on unemployment when the government winds down its huge job-protection scheme.

LONDON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators from Britain and the European Union (EU) had "a useful review" of the Brexit agenda, but "major difficulties" still exist on the way to make a progress in resolving outstanding issues, the spokesman for the British prime minister said here Wednesday.

BERLIN (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent used in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy, the German government said Wednesday, provoking outrage from Western leaders who demanded Moscow provide an explanation.

The findings — which experts say point strongly to Russian state involvement — added to tensions between Russia and the West. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Navalny’s poisoning attempted murder, meant to silence one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics.

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/: Google paid a fine of 1.5 ml rubles ($20,149) for poor filtering of banned content in the search engine, a spokesperson with the Tagansky court told TASS.

"Google has paid a fine of 1.5 mln rubles. The court received the relevant notices and a receipt," the court said.

In August, the Magistrates' Court of the Tagansky District of Moscow ruled to impose a 1.5 million rubles on Google for a repeated violation related to insufficient search engine filtering of prohibited content.

ATHENS, September 2. /TASS/: Greece has allowed entry for up to 500 Russians per week since September 7 provided that they have a negative COVID-19 test result and a voucher confirming their hotel booking, said a joint ministerial decision, due to be in force for two weeks.

According to the regulation, Russians will be allowed to arrive by plane at the airports in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion. This regulation will be in effect from 00:01 on September 7 until 23:59 on September 21.