Europe

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A Romanian court sentenced former finance minister Darius Valcov to six-and-a-half years’ jail on Tuesday for taking a bribe and peddling influence in awarding public works contracts in one of the European Union’s most corrupt countries.

Valcov, 43, who had also been an economic adviser to cabinet and authored many of the then ruling Social Democrat party’s controversial tax cuts and price caps, has denied wrongdoing.

The verdict is not final, pending his appeal.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will discuss ways to tackle the growing might of China when he meets Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday, just a week after London ordered a purge of Huawei gear from the 5G network.

President Donald Trump lauded Johnson’s ban on Huawei, though he also claimed he had forced London’s hand due to concern over China, which he considers to be the United States’ main geopolitical rival of the 21st century.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will continue to engage constructively with the European Union in talks on a future relationship, but London is not willing to give up its rights as an independent state, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

The two sides will resume talks on Tuesday after Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost hosts his EU counterpart Michel Barnier for dinner later on Monday, but there has been little movement on the “significant differences” that divide them.

Brussels, Jul 21 (AP/PTI) Weary European Union leaders finally clinched an unprecedented 1.82 trillion euro (USD 2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund early Tuesday, somehow finding unity after four days and as many nights of fighting and wrangling over money and power in one of their longest summits ever.

To confront the biggest recession in its history, officials said the EU had a consensus on a 750 billion euro coronavirus fund to be sent as loans and grants to the countries hit hardest by the virus.

LONDON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- China voiced on Monday strong condemnation and firm opposition after the United Kingdom (UK) decided to suspend the extradition treaty with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) immediately and indefinitely and extend the arms embargo to the HKSAR.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London said that recently the kingdom has repeatedly made wrong remarks on the national security law for the HKSAR to interfere in China's internal affairs.

LONDON (AP) — A long-awaited report published Tuesday on Russian influence in British politics criticized the British government for its slow response to Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, with its authors saying it was “astonishing” that no one sought to protect that democratic process.

The report’s authors accused the British government of “actively avoiding” looking into evidence of the Russian threat in the EU referendum. “Serious questions needed to be asked,” the authors said.

LONDON (AP) — Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.

British researchers first began testing the vaccine in April in about 1,000 people, half of whom got the experimental vaccine. Such early trials are designed to evaluate safety and see what kind of immune response was provoked, but can’t tell if the vaccine truly protects.

LONDON (AP) — Britain suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and blocked arms sales to the former British territory after China imposed a tough new national security law.

Amid growing tensions with Beijing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons that he had concerns about the new law in Hong Kong and alleged human rights abuses in China, particularly the treatment of the Uighur minority. He described the measures announced Monday as “reasonable and proportionate.″

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/: Radio contact has been lost with an An-2 plane with six people aboard in Russia’s Siberian republic of Buryatia, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry’s regional department.

"It was reported at 20:21 Moscow time that contact was lost with an An-2 (tail number 71276) of the Fenix air company. There were six people aboard, including two crewmembers. The An-2 plane took off from the settlement of Kyren in Buryatia. Its flight route is unknown," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/: Members of the second group of volunteers taking part in trials of a coronavirus vaccine at Moscow's Burdenko Main Military Clinic Hospital have developed antibodies, Medical Service Colonel Sergei Borisevich, the head of the 48th Central Research Institute of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, told the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

"Tests show that the volunteers have developed coronavirus antibodies, and the vaccine’s components are safe and well-tolerated," he said.