Europe

MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/: NATO steps to expand its sphere of influence on other countries does not ramp up stability and security in Europe, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, commenting on NATO’s decision to recognize Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner.

MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/: A total of 8,248 new COVID-19 cases have been identified across Russia over the past 24 hours, which takes the overall number of those who are known to have contracted the virus to 545,458, the anti-coronavirus center told the media on Tuesday. The daily growth rate was 1.5% against 1.6% one day before.

Moscow accounts for 1,416 newly-exposed cases, the Moscow Region, for 694, the Irkutsk Region, for 319, St. Petersburg, for 234, and the Sverdlovsk Region, for 231.

16 June 2020; AFP: An estimated 1.7 billion people -- more than 20 percent of the world's population -- risk becoming severely infected with COVID-19 due to underlying health problems such as obesity and heart disease, analysis showed Tuesday.

The novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 420,000 people globally during the first wave of the pandemic, adversely effects patients suffering from co-morbidities.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by July 20 whether to clear Alphabet Inc-owned Google’s $2.1 billion bid for fitness trackers company Fitbit, a deal that has prompted concerns from consumer groups and privacy advocates.

Google sought EU approval on Monday, according to a filing on the European Commission website.

The EU competition enforcer can either clear the deal with or without concessions or it can open a four-month long investigation if it has serious concerns.

PARIS (Reuters) - Armed police were sent into a suburb of Dijon in eastern France to restore order after score-settling between rival gangs resulted in a fourth night of street violence.

Trouble erupted on Friday when some 100 Chechen youths from across France descended on the Dijon suburb of Gresilles to avenge an attack on a Chechen teenager earlier in the week, police officials said.

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights experts said on Tuesday that Israel’s plan to annex significant parts of the occupied West Bank would violate international law banning the taking of territory by force, and urged other countries to actively oppose it.

A joint statement, signed by nearly 50 independent experts, also voiced dismay at U.S. support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “unlawful” plan to extend sovereignty, de facto annexation of land that the Palestinians seek for a state.

16 June 2020; MEMO: A Sudanese man suspected by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing war crimes described the accusations mentioned in his arrest warrant as “baseless” yesterday.

During his first appearance before the court in The Hague yesterday, Janjaweed commander Ali Kushayb stressed that he prefers to be called Ali Muhammad Ali Abdel Rahman.

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Air (NWC.OL) will resume flights between Copenhagen and the Danish city of Aalborg from July 1, making it the carrier’s first route outside Norway following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Norwegian has for several years been the market leader on this route,” the airline said as it announced it would fly three daily round trips between Denmark’s largest and fourth largest cities.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO is seeking details on U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cut U.S. troops numbers in Germany, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday, after the proposed reduction caught allies off guard.

Trump, who has criticized Germany for not spending more on defence, on Monday confirmed last week’s reports of a cut of 9,500 troops in what may be the first time the U.S. president carries through on threats to reduce support in Europe.

GENEVA (Reuters) - African countries are lobbying to set up a U.N. inquiry into “systemic racism” and “police brutality” in the United States and elsewhere, aiming to defend the rights of people of African descent, a draft resolution seen by Reuters shows.

The text, circulating among diplomats in Geneva, voices alarm at “recent incidents of police brutality against peaceful demonstrators defending the rights of Africans and of people of African descent”. It is due to be considered at an urgent debate of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday.