Europe

PARIS, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The divergences between China and the United States are not about power, status or social system, but about the choices of multilateralism or unilateralism, win-win cooperation or a zero-sum game, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Sunday.

Wang made the remarks when responding to a question by Thierry de Montbrial, president of French Institute of International Relations, about how to avoid the so-called "new Cold War" between China and the United States.

PARIS (AP) — China’s foreign minister defended detention camps in Xinjiang and Hong Kong’s new security law on Sunday, brushing off human rights concerns by European countries and cautioning against interference in Chinese affairs.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on his first European tour since the virus pandemic erupted, seeking to revive trade and relations strained by the resulting global health and economic crisis.

30 Aug 2020; MEMO: A former advisor to the Belgian prime minister said Turkey’s position on the Eastern Mediterranean is relevant.

“Turkey actually has a point,” Koert Debeuf said in a tweet.

He also shared a map highlighting territorial waters based on the agreement between Greece and Italy on the countries’ exclusive economic zones.

“Greek territorial waters are a bit out of proportion compared with the Turkish one," he added.

MINSK, August 29. /TASS/: The Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition has called on the republic’s Internal Affairs Minister, Yuri Karaev, either to resign or to turn himself in, Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the presidium of the Coordination Council said during a live broadcast on YouTube on Saturday.

29 Aug 2020; AA: Turkey on Saturday vehemently condemned an Islamophobic incident in Sweden where a group of neo-fascist politicians burned the Muslim holy book Quran.

"We strongly condemn the hideous provocations by an Islamophobic and racist politician and his followers who came to Denmark from Sweden's Malmo city,” Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (NNN-Xinhua) — NATO fighters accompanied 10 Russian Tu-142 aircraft during their flight in the far sea area, which flew as part of the Ocean Shield-2020 naval exercises, said Russian navy commander Nikolai Yevmenov.

“Ten Tu-142 antisubmarine aircraft performed scheduled flights to the far sea zone over the waters of the Black, Baltic, Norwegian, Chukchi and Beaufort seas, along the Northern Sea Route and over the neutral waters of the Pacific Ocean,” Yevmenov said.

LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi Sunak is considering a sweeping set of tax increases to help fix the huge hole in the public finances left by the coronavirus pandemic, two newspapers said.

Tax hikes suggested by Treasury officials could raise an extra 20-30 billion pounds a year, the Telegraph and the Sunday Times reported, and some of them could be announced in an autumn budget statement by Sunak.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Sunday that a senior officer had been placed under investigation over a suspected breach of security.

According to Europe 1 radio, a French lieutenant colonel, based in Italy and stationed with NATO, is suspected of having transmitted sensitive documents to the Russian secret services.

Asked to comment on the report, Parly said the ministry had informed prosecutors about the case. She did not elaborate on what the officer was suspected of having done.

PARIS (Reuters) - The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said on Sunday it was possible to conclude an EU-China investment accord by the end of 2020.

“I am thinking of the investment agreement. We have the possibility of concluding it before the end of the year. It is important more than ever to take a step,” Wang Yi said, speaking at the IFRI think tank in Paris, via an interpreter.

LONDON (Reuters) - British universities should scrap plans to reopen next month to prevent travelling students from fuelling the country’s coronavirus pandemic, a union said, calling for courses to be taught online.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has come under fire over its moves to restart education, especially after a row over exam results for school students and a failed attempt to bring all pupils back to their classes earlier this year.