Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Tuesday, hanging on to gains from the previous session thanks to high compliance with production cuts from members of the OPEC+ producer group.

Brent crude LCOc1 was virtually flat at $45.39 a barrel at 0905 GMT, having gained 1.3% on Monday. U.S. crude LCOc1 edged down by 5 cents, or 0.1%, at $42.84 after a rise of 2.1% in the previous session.

A technical panel found that compliance with OPEC+ oil output cuts in July was between 95% and 97%, according to a draft report seen by Reuters.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Tuesday about the situation in Belarus and made clear that the Belarusian government must avoid using force against peaceful protesters, her spokesman said.

“The chancellor stressed that the Belarusian government must avoid violence towards peaceful demonstrators, immediately release political prisoners and start a national dialogue with the opposition and society in order to overcome the crisis,” Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway’s $1.15 trillion sovereign wealth fund posted a loss of 188 billion Norwegian crowns ($21.27 billion) in the first half of 2020 as stocks and real estate holdings fell in value during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Tuesday.

The decline followed record earnings in 2019, when the fund raked in profits of $180 billion as global stock markets soared.

“Even though markets recovered well in the second quarter, we are still witnessing considerable uncertainty,” the fund’s deputy chief executive, Trond Grande, said in a statement.

Leidschendam, NETHERLANDS (Reuters) - The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon began reading a verdict on Tuesday in the case of four Hezbollah members charged with conspiracy to carry out the 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others.

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire, had close ties with the United States, Western and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, and was seen as a threat to Iranian and Syrian influence in Lebanon. He led efforts to rebuild Beirut following the 1975-1990 civil war.

MOSCOW, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian fighter jets on Monday intercepted three U.S. and one British reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic and Black seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russian airspace control systems detected an air target approaching the Russian border over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, the ministry's Zvezda broadcasting service said in a statement.

The crew of a Russian Su-27SM fighter approached the aerial object and identified it at a safe distance as a U.S. Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance plane, Zvezda said.

KIEV, August 17. /TASS/: The Ukrainian government has decided to withdraw from the agreement with Russia on mutual establishment of trade missions, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported Monday.

"Today, at an urgent meeting of the cabinet of ministers, the decision was made to terminate the agreement between the Ukrainian government and the Russian government on mutual establishment of trade offices, which was active since October 1992," the agency’s Facebook page quoted Emine Dzhaparova, the first deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, as saying.

KALININRAD, August 17. /TASS/: Over 20 crews of aircraft and helicopters of the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation are involved in tactical flight drills in the Kaliningrad Region, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"During scheduled drills, over 20 crews of Su-27, Su-24 and Su-30SM aircraft, Mi-24 and Mi-8 attack and military-transport helicopters and also of shipborne Ka-27 gunships and An-26 military-transport planes of the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation are accomplishing a set of various assignments," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron should call for supporting those taking part in protests in the European Union, not Belarusian protesters, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Monday.

Macron said on August 16 that the EU must continue to be mobilized in support of participants in peaceful protests taking part in the Belarusian capital of Minsk and other cities of the country.

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/: Dutch Charge d’Affaires in Moscow Dominique Kuhling-Bakker was summoned to Russia’s Foreign Ministry over the spy equipment found in the car of the Russian military attache in The Hague, the ministry said on Monday.

"Russia’s Foreign Ministry lodged a resolute protest to the Dutch ambassador over the surveillance equipment found in the car of the Russian military attache in The Hague," the ministry said in a statement.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s anti-trust authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday.

“We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences how traders set prices on the market-place,” Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market after the United States.