Europe

BERLIN (Reuters) - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s condition is very worrying after his evacuation to Germany for medical treatment on Saturday, said Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation.

“His health condition is very worrying,” Bizilj, whose foundation sent the air ambulance that collected Navalny in Russia’s far east, told journalists outside the Charite hospital in Berlin where Navalny was admitted for treatment.

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: Germany on Friday expressed concern over continuing human rights violations in Egypt, urging the Arab state to respect civic rights as well as freedom of expression and press freedom, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We are constantly raising our concerns about human rights cases in Egypt,” spokeswoman of the German Foreign Ministry told a weekly press briefing in Berlin.

MOSCOW, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States has no rights to restore United Nations (UN) sanctions on Iran as it has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal and failed to honor its obligations, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

The United States continues its "dangerous" steps in the UN Security Council in hope of realizing its own anti-Iranian plans, the ministry said in a statement Friday on the U.S. "illegal actions" to restore lifted sanctions against Iran.

22 Aug 2020; MEMO: In the last 48 hours, Spanish authorities have discovered the lifeless bodies of 20 people trying to reach the Canary Islands from Africa in rafts, Anadolu Agency reports.

In August alone, 127 migrants have disappeared or lost their lives on the dangerous Atlantic route, while 359 people have arrived safely, according to local media.

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Authorities in Belarus detained a leader of striking factory workers and threatened demonstrators with criminal charges Friday in a bid to stop the massive post-election protests challenging the country’s authoritarian president, who accused the United States of fomenting the unrest.

OMSK, Russia (AP) — A plane carrying a Russian dissident who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning left for a German hospital Saturday following much wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment.

The plane could be seen taking off from an airport in the Siberian city of Omsk just after 8 a.m. local time. Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, confirmed the departure on Twitter. The flight to Berlin was expected to take about five hours.

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/: The latest TOS-2 ‘Tosochka’ heavy flamethrower that rolled through Moscow’s Red Square for the first time during the Victory Parade on June 24 will arrive for Russian troops by the end of the year, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

"The new TOS-2 heavy flamethrower system characterized by increased range and firepower is set to arrive for the troops until the end of the year," the defense chief said at the ministry’s board meeting.

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/: Libya’s Government of the National Accord declared an immediate ceasefire and suspension of all military operation across the entirety of the Republic, Sky News - Arabia TV Channel reported Friday.

"A comprehensive ceasefire will make it possible to stop the foreign military intervention [in the country’s internal affairs] and to end the presence of mercenaries [on the Libyan territory]," the GNA said, according to the report.

OMSK, August 21. /TASS/: A medical conference concluded that a flight might pose danger to blogger Alexey Navalny’s live, who is currently in coma in Omsk Ambulance Hospital number 1, the hospital’s chief medical officer Alexander Murakhovsky told journalists Friday.

The blogger’s family insists that Navalny be transported to Germany for examination and treatment. A flight from Nuremberg, ready to transport him to German medics has already arrived in Omsk.

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has voiced skepticism about French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to act as a mediator in settling the situation in Belarus.

"Macron has said he wants to mediate negotiations in Belarus. Well, let me first be a mediator between the yellow vests and Macron. The situation there is, God save us, awful, with terror, and the yellow vests. He (Macron - TASS) sees nothing," Lukashenko said in a statement posted on the Pul Pervogo Telegram channel.