Europe

SEVASTOPOL, June 29. /TASS/: The crew of the Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Makarov repelled an attack by a notional enemy’s underwater saboteurs and aircraft during drills in the Mediterranean Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"The crew of the Black Sea Fleet’s frigate Admiral Makarov performing its missions within the Navy’s permanent Mediterranean taskforce held planned drills for providing air defense and repelling an attack by notional underwater saboteurs," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/: Terrorists have moved their trade in weapons, explosives, and drugs online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Anti-Terrorism Center (ATC) Andrei Novikov said in an interview with TASS.

He pointed out that at the early stages of the pandemic practically all CIS intelligence services noted a certain confusion of terrorist organizations regarding their financial support.

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/: The measurements of the radiation level conducted by the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) indicate its stability, the agency’s press service said.

On June 26, a number of media reported that nuclear and radiation safety monitoring agencies of Sweden, Norway and Finland detected a slight rise in the concentration of radioactive isotopes over Northern Europe, of the so-called reactor origin.

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/: The Covid-19 lockdowns and the ensuing pandemic-linked border closures weakened terrorist activity in Russia and CIS countries, Head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Anti-Terrorism Center (ATC) Andrey Novikov said in an interview with TASS.

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/: The Khrunichev Space Center will produce several Angara carrier rockets at a price of less than 5 billion rubles ($71 million), the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Monday.

"The contract for several rockets of this type as part of the experimental design work has been signed at the price of less than 5 billion rubles per rocket, which is considerably lower than the initial price," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/: The number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Russia in the past day reached 6,719 and the figure has been less than 7,000 for the fourth day in a row, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Monday.

According to the crisis center, the total case tally rose to 641,156. The daily growth rate did not exceed 1.1% in the past four days.

PARIS/TOULOUSE (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) was finalising an imminent restructuring plan expected to include thousands of job cuts on Monday as its chief executive confirmed plans to hold output down by 40% for two years.

Europe’s largest planemaker could set out its largest ever reorganisation plan by Wednesday, union sources said ahead of meetings early this week with Airbus, which declined to comment.

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court on Monday found former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon guilty of embezzlement of public funds in a fake jobs scandal that wrecked his 2017 run for president and opened the Elysee Palace door for Emmanuel Macron.

The court also convicted Fillon’s wife, Penelope, of complicity to embezzle and conceal of public money.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has not been informed of any emergency situation in regard to the nuclear particles detected over the Baltic Sea, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

“We have an absolutely advanced radiation levels safety monitoring system and there are no any emergency alarms,” Peskov told reporters. “We do not know the source of this information.”

VIENNA/ANKARA (Reuters) - Austria pledged on Monday to find out who was behind clashes between Kurdish and Turkish protesters in the Austrian capital last week that have further strained already tense relations between Vienna and Ankara.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly criticised Austria’s handling of the protests, which it said were by groups linked to militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).