Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned “racist thuggery” after far-right protesters clashed in London on Saturday with anti-racist demonstrators and police trying to keep the two sides apart.

Fights broke out between groups outside Waterloo station, with fireworks thrown before police cordoned off areas. On a nearby bridge, stones were lobbed at police. Sporadic skirmishes continued in parts of the city centre.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will open its borders to countries in the European Union’s Schengen area on June 21, except for Portugal where the border will open on July 1 as previously announced, Spanish media including El Pais newspaper and Ser radio station reported.

The Spanish government had previously said it would allow foreign tourists to enter Spain on July 1 without self-quarantining, apart from the Balearic Islands which could start receiving tourists on Monday as part of a test program.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday Russia was developing the means to counter other countries’ hypersonic weapons, local news agencies reported.

“It’s very likely that we will have means to combat hypersonic weapons by the time the world’s leading countries have such weapons,” the RIA news agency cited Putin as saying.

THE HAGUE, June 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The international community bashed U.S. sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The White House said, U.S. President, Donald Trump authorised economic sanctions against ICC officials “directly engaged with any effort to investigate or prosecute United States personnel, without the consent of the United States,” as well as, the expansion of visa restrictions against these officials and their family members.

ROME, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Italy recorded 346 new cases of infection from the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period, but total active infections decreased to 27,485, down from 28,997 a day ago, officials said Saturday.

This came 10 days after the last remaining restrictions under a nationwide lockdown were lifted and Italians were again free to travel within their own country, beginning on June 3. It also came one day after total active infections dipped below the 30,000 mark for the first time since March.

LONDON, June 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) – More than 100 people were arrested, during Saturday’s far-right protests in London, which turned violent later and left six police officers injured, Scotland Yard said.

As of 21:00 BST (2000 GMT), at least 100 were arrested for offenses including violent disorder, assaulting police officers, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class A drugs, being drunk and disorderly and breach of the peace, Scotland Yard said.

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukrainian authorities said Saturday they intercepted an attempt to offer a $6 million bribe in return for the dropping of a criminal investigation into the head of a natural gas company where the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden once held a board seat.

At a news conference, during which officials displayed large bags of seized U.S. currency, Ukraine’s anti-corruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnitsky said neither of the Bidens is connected to the bribe attempt.

MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/: Russia will develop the most advanced structure of mega-science installations structure over 5-7 years, President of the Kurchatov Institute research center Mikhail Kovalchuk said.

Russia is currently creating a network of domestic mega-science installations, for example, a neutron reactor with the highest capacity in Gatchina and a unique synchrotron in the Moscow Region, Kovalchuk said.

BERLIN, June 12. / TASS /: The German government fears that new US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 project, if introduced, may for the first time affect German public administration, related to the project in one way or another, as well as German companies, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported on Friday, with reference to a Ministry of Economy document intended for internal use.

MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/: The coronavirus spread reached its peak in Russia on May 11 when the period of non-working days came to an end in the country, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said at a news briefing on Saturday.

"Today it can already be said that beginning from March 17, i.e. the time when the epidemic actually started to develop in Russia, testing or the number of PCR tests increased by 139 times. And from the date, which is considered as the peak, May 11, 2020, the PCR testing increased by 5.6 times," the vice-premier said.