Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Monday as news that China planned to ship large volumes of U.S. crude in August and September countered rising tensions between the two countries and a delay in the review of their trade pact over the weekend.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 13 cents, or 0.3%, to $44.67 a barrel by 1048 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 4 cents, or 0.1%, to $41.97 a barrel.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan discussed the conflicts in Libya and Syria in a telephone call on Monday.

The Kremlin said that the two leaders, focused mainly on the crisis in Libya, where they back opposing sides, highlighting the need to make real steps towards a sustainable ceasefire.

MINSK (Reuters) - Facing growing protests that have posed the biggest challenge to his 26 years in power, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday he was ready to share power in Belarus, although not under pressure from the streets.

His apparent concession came after exiled opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she was willing to lead the country.

BRUSSELS, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, on Sunday urged Turkey to immediately end renewed drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"I call on the Turkish authorities to end these activities immediately and to engage fully and in good faith in a broad dialogue with the European Union," he said in a statement.

MOSCOW, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday discussed the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold a seven-state summit on Iran.

On Friday, Putin proposed holding an urgent online meeting of the heads of the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council with the participation of the leaders of Germany and Iran to discuss Iran and the Persian Gulf situation.

VIENNA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Russia will start the second round of nuclear disarmament talks here on Monday.

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will meet for the second time in Vienna.

"Heading to Austria for #armscontrol talks," Billingslea tweeted on Friday, adding that the United States was sending "one of the highest level delegations ever."

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Thousands of factory workers in Belarus took to the streets and hundreds of demonstrators besieged the state television headquarters Monday, raising the pressure on authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to step down after 26 years in office.

On the ninth straight day of protests against the official results of the Aug. 9 presidential vote handing him a sixth term, Lukashenko flew by helicopter to a factory in the capital in a bid to rally support but was heckled by workers chanting “Go away!”

LONDON, Aug 15 (APP): Thousands of the British Pakistani and Kashmiri community held a big peaceful demonstration outside Indian High Commission London on Saturday afternoon to mark India’s Independence day as ‘Black day’ which was also joined by Indian Sikh community.

The participants expressed their full solidarity with the defenceless and oppressed people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), who were struggling to achieve their inalienable right to self determination and freedom from Indian yoke for the last over seven decades.

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/: Swiss Airlines resumed flights from Russia on Saturday, Domodedovo airport said in its official telegram channel.

"Domodedovo has served the first regular flight of Swiss Airlines after the resumption of flights between Russia and Switzerland. Flight LX 1327 took off today from Domodedovo to Zurich," the airport said.

Earlier, the Swiss carrier announced plans to resume flights to Moscow, but did not give an exact date.

GENEVA, August 15. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world exceeded 21.02 mln, having increased by more than 294,000 in 24 hours - record figure during the pandemic. According to data released on Saturday by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of deaths increased by almost 10,000 and exceeded 755,000.

As of 11:00 Moscow time on August 15, 21,026,758 cases and 755,786 deaths were registered in the world. The number of cases increased by 294,237 per day, the number of deaths increased by 9,985.