Europe

MINSK, August 26. /TASS/: Some 51 people were detained during protests in Belarus on August 25, which were attended by 4,800 citizens, the republic’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The biggest number of protesters were in Minsk, Brest and Molodechno," the ministry said.

Some 16,750 people also took part in the events in support of peace, security and calm in Belarus. The most active events took place in the Brest and Grodno regions as well as in the capital and in the Minsk Region.

MINSK, Aug 26 (NNN-Xinhua) — Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Belarus Petr Miklashevich said the Coordination Council, created on the initiative of ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, is unconstitutional.

The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus does not provide for a possibility to establish public organizations and bodies authorized to revise results of a presidential election, Miklashevich told reporters.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The euro zone economy is growing along the lines the European Central Bank projected in June, so policymakers have time to wait for more hard data, Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said on Wednesday.

The euro zone economy appeared initially to rebound quicker than expected from its pandemic-induced recession but more recent data, including a weak PMI reading suggested the recovery is flattening and the bloc could fall short of forecasts in the third quarter.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously dismissed appeals by Chinese mobile technology companies Huawei and ZTE in patent disputes with Unwired Planet International Ltd and Conversant Wireless Licensing.

PARIS (Reuters) - France is joining military exercises with Italy, Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean amid a worsening dispute between Turkey and Greece over energy resources in the region, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Wednesday.

Tensions between Turkey and Greece escalated after Ankara sent its Oruc Reis survey vessel to disputed eastern Mediterranean waters this month, a move Athens has called illegal.

ATHENS, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer on Tuesday expressed his confidence in the Greek government's handling of the migration issue during his meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens, said Greek government sources.

The discussion focused on the developments in the "explosive problem that threatens the Greek borders, which are also the borders of Europe" and Nehammer reaffirmed his country's readiness to further assist Greece in practice, the same sources said.

ROME, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Tuesday that starting "a new Cold War" is to reverse the course of history and kidnap the whole world.

Wang made the remarks at a press briefing here with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio after their talks.

Responding to a question regarding China's comments on the so-called "new Cold War" that China and the U.S. are possibly heading into, Wang said China does not intend to engage in such a Cold War and is firmly against any hype about a so-called "new Cold War."

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — There is wide agreement that Britain’s devastating coronavirus outbreak has been met by strong, effective political leadership. Just not from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

While Johnson has often seemed to flounder and flip-flop his way through the biggest national crisis in decades, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has won praise for her sober, straight-talking response.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: The information systems for struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic were created within tight deadlines, hence it was just impossible to meet all the safety requirements, but the experience gained in the process will be taken into account in further work, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Oleg Khramov, told the weekly Argumenty I Fakty on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Repeat coronavirus infection is possible if the antibody titer is at the low level, that is, the presence of antibodies does not guarantee a 100% protection from the infection, Director of the Scientific Information Center for Prevention and Treatment of Viral Infections Georgy Vikulov told the Govorit Moskva radio station.