Europe

11 July 2020; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Libyan conflict in a video conference with the country’s Security Council on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The situation in Libya was discussed with an emphasis on the absence of alternative to a peaceful settlement in this country,” the Kremlin said in a statement on its official website following the meeting.

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

BRUSSELS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Friday adopted a new regulation that will allow European vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 to be developed more quickly, said the European Parliament (EP).

The regulation that allows temporary derogation from certain rules for clinical trials was approved by 505 votes in favor, 67 against and 109 abstentions, following an urgent debate last week, said an EP press release.

MOSCOW, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday held an online conference with the country's Security Council, mainly to discuss developments in Ukraine and Libya, the Kremlin said in a statement.

In particular, disappointment was expressed due to a lack of dynamics to resolve the crisis in the southeast of Ukraine, the statement said.

The situation in Libya was touched upon with a focus on the lack of an alternative to a peaceful settlement in this country, it said.

PARIS (AP) — France’s highest administrative body ordered the government to take immediate measures to combat pollution in Paris and several regions or pay up to 20 million euros ($22.6 million) a year in fines.

The Council of State’s unusual ruling Friday came after the government failed to fulfill a 2017 order to reduce pollution in accordance with EU rules.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators who tried to storm Serbia’s parliament on Friday, the fourth night of protests against the Balkan country president’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

Demonstrators — who were defying a ban on mass gatherings amid a spike in virus infections — threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police guarding the domed parliament building in central Belgrade and removed the metal fences in front of it. Smoke rose above the entry stairway.

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: Heightened tensions between the United States and China do not meet Russia’s interests in any way, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

"I believe that it [standoff] in no way meets our interests, European Union interests or interests of other states," he said.

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: Thirty foreign planes conducted air reconnaissance near Russian borders over the week, according to the infographics published in the Defense Ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on Friday.

"Thirty spy planes of foreign states conducted air reconnaissance along the borders of the Russian Federation and were tracked by Russian radar systems," the infographics says.

Moreover, two drones flew close to the Russian borders, according to the infographics.

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: The Russian Defense Ministry and the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology have started the final stage of clinical trials of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, the ministry stated on Friday.

According to the Defense Ministry, "an in-ward treatment of the first group of volunteers, who were tested for the safety and tolerability of the vaccine, will end on July 15."

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: The detention of Ivan Safronov, an advisor to the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, is in no way linked to his professional activities, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin told reporters on Friday.

"I would like to highlight a few important things," he said in response to a question. "First, I highly appreciate the skills of Russian intelligence personnel. Second, the defendant’s detention and the charges brought against him are in no way linked to his professional activities," Naryshkin pointed out.

MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/: In Russia, the number of COVID-19 infections grew over a day by 6,635 to a total of 713,936, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Friday.

According to the crisis center, the daily growth of this indicator has not exceeded 0.9% for the past four days.