Europe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Belarus army will take over responsibility for protection of national memorials from protesters, the defence ministry said on Sunday as people began to gather in Minsk for an opposition rally in the third week of unrest in the country.

Any unrest near such monuments and statues would no longer be responded to by police forces but by the army, the statement said.

BRUSSELS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has affirmed that the bloc will work to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after the United States sought to reimpose sanctions on Iran.

He made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday, the EU's external action service (EEAS) said in a press release on Friday.

KRASNOYARSK, August 22. /TASS/: A passenger plane, en route from Khabarovsk to Moscow, made an emergency landing at the airport in Krasnoyarsk after smoke was detected in the baggage compartment, a source in the law enforcement agencies told TASS on Saturday.

"The plane has successfully landed," the source said.

The Boeing 747-412 owned by Rossiya airline was carrying 421 people.

MINSK, August 22. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on the defense ministry’s leadership to take all measures on protecting the country’s territorial integrity, paying a special focus on its western part.

"We must first of all protect the western jewel in the crown of Belarus with the center in Grodno," Lukashenko said during his visit to a military firing range near Grodno, according to BelTA news agency.

The Belarusian leader urged "the toughest measures on protecting the country’s territorial integrity.".

MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/: The fifth and final volume of the US Senate’s Select Intelligence Committee’s report on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election neither contains any real facts nor evidence, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in her commentary on Saturday.

MOSCOW, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s AstraZeneca has received regulatory approval to conduct part of a Phase III trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in Russia, a filing in the Russian registry of clinical trials showed.

The trial of the AZD1222 vaccine will involve 150 participants and will be handled by four medical facilities in St Petersburg and Moscow, the filing, dated Friday, showed.

GENEVA, Aug 22 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The coronavirus crisis in Brazil appears to be leveling off, if not easing, the World Health Organization said, offering a glimpse of light for the world’s second-biggest COVID-19 hot spot.

The number of weekly infections detected have stabilized, transmissions are slowing, and intensive care units are under less pressure, Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, told a news conference in Geneva.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Around 1,500 people marched through the streets of the Russian far eastern city of Khabarovsk on Saturday, marking the seventh consecutive weekend of protests after the region’s governor was detained in early July.

Residents of Khabarovsk, 6,110 km (3,800 miles) east of Moscow, have protested since the detention of Sergei Furgal, the region’s popular governor, on July 9 in connection with murder charges which he denies.

His supporters say the detention is politically motivated.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi will make his first trip to Tehran in that role on Monday to pressure Iran to grant inspectors access to two suspected former atomic sites after a months-long standoff, he said on Saturday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution in June raising pressure on Iran to let inspectors into the sites mentioned in two quarterly IAEA reports because they could still host undeclared nuclear material or traces of it.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government said on Saturday it would unveil details of its 100 billion euro ($118 billion) plan to reinvigorate the economy in the first week of September, instead of next Tuesday, as it focuses on preparing the new school term.

“The recovery plan is ready, the timetable for its implementation still stands,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said in a statement.