Europe

KASTANIES, Greece (Reuters) - Greek police fired teargas towards migrants gathered on its border with Turkey on Saturday, as a crisis over Syria shifted onto the European Union’s doorstep.

Greece, which has tense relations with its neighbor Turkey at the best of times and was a primary gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, reiterated it would keep migrants out.

“The government will do whatever it takes to protect its borders,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters.

29 Feb 2020; MEMO: The rapid spread of the coronavirus increased fears of a pandemic on Friday, with six countries reporting their first cases and the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its global spread and impact risk alert to “very high”, Reuters reports.

World shares fell again, winding up their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and bringing the global wipeout to $6 trillion.

BERLIN, Feb 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) – There are almost 60 cases of COVID-19 infection in Germany, according to Susanne Wackers, spokesperson of the federal health ministry, at a press conference.

Since Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases in Germany climbed sharply from 16 to almost 60.

The 16 cases confirmed prior to Tuesday had all been discharged from hospital after recovery.

On Friday evening, the Messe Berlin announced that the ITB Berlin travel trade show is cancelled.

GENEVA, Feb 28 (APP):The United Nations human rights chief Thursday expressed serious concern over the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir, which has been under a repressive lockdown for nearly six months, as well as on the escalating anti-Muslim violence in New Delhi where a number of people have been killed during peaceful protests against the controversial citizenship act.

Addressing the Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet, the high commissioner for human rights, appealed to the Indian leaders to take steps to prevent violence.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet will soon receive the nuclear-powered submarine Knyaz Vladimir and the frigate Admiral Kasatonov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s board meeting on Friday.

Overall, six warships and submarines are due to arrive for the Northern Fleet by the year-end, the defense chief said.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet continues trials of Russia’s latest hypersonic weapons, Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

"The trials of new armament, including hypersonic weapons, continue. All this will make it possible to qualitatively boost the combat potential of the Russian Navy’s Northern and other fleets," Shoigu told the ministry’s board meeting.

The ministry’s board meeting discussed, in particular, the fulfillment of the Northern Fleet’s plan of activity for 2019-2025.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/: The Syrian Army has the right to suppress terrorists in the Idlib province and Moscow cannot prevent it from doing so, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"The Syrian Army has every right to respond to repeated ceasefire violations in the Idlib zone and suppress terrorists. We cannot stop the Syrian Army from implementing the provisions of UN Security Council resolutions on the uncompromising fight against all forms of terrorism," Lavrov emphasized.

MOSCOW, February 28./TASS/: The Western nations should not repeat their own mistakes by banking on terrorists in order to achieve their geopolitical goals, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned at a news conference on Friday.

He criticized statements from Western representatives, who maintain that the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (one of the names of the Russia-banned Jabhat al-Nusra) is rehabilitating, ceasing to be extremist.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of Russia’s Security Council have voiced their utmost concern about the recent escalation in Syria’s Idlib, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday after the president’s emergency meeting with permanent members of Russia’s Security Council.

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/: S7 airline plans to make charter flights between Russia and South Korea by mid-March at the least, the company’s press service told TASS on Friday.

"More than 10,000 passengers that purchased tickets for flights between Russia and South Korea with departures in March. We plan that passengers will be returned home by S7 charters. The charter flight schedule has been prepared until the middle of March so far," the company said.