Europe

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/: A joint mission of the United States, Canada and Norway will perform an observation flight above Russia’s territory on February 25-29, chief of the Russian National Center for Nuclear Risk Reduction Sergei Ryzhkov said on Tuesday.

"Implementing the international Treaty on Open Skies, a joint mission of the United States, Canada and Norway will perform an observation flight above the territory of the Russian Federation in the period of February 25-29, on the Swedish Saab 340 aircraft to take off from Kubinka airfield [near Moscow]," he said.

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/: Russia’s National Projects are about concrete tasks, resources to fulfill them and personal responsibility, and this is what makes them different from the previous programs, Russian President Vladimir Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin."

"Each issue implies personal responsibility. That is what the National Projects are all about," he said, adding: "We have never used such tools before."

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/: Moscow does not interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States and strongly opposes foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on a statement by the Russian embassy in Washington saying that anti-Russian electoral rhetoric had led to an unprecedented deterioration in relations between the two countries.

BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) : The European Commission slammed a Belgian street parade for featuring anti-Semitic floats that it said were “incompatible” with EU values.

The Aalst carnival, a centuries-old event in central Belgium long known for mocking public figures, has in recent years been accused of parading insulting and derogatory depictions of Jews.

Last year it lost its place on a UNESCO heritage list because of anti-Semitism.

SOFIA, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Bulgaria’s food safety agency authorities reported two new outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu in the southern part of the Balkan country.

One of the new outbreaks was found at a farm with more than 55,000 egg-laying hens in Trilistnik, near the city of Plovdiv. The other outbreak was reported at a farm with more than 11,000 ducks in Padarsko, also near Plovdiv.

All the hens and ducks at the two farms would be culled, the food agency said.

LYON (France), Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Passengers who arrived by bus in Lyon in southeast France from Milan in Italy were kept onboard after the driver was hospitalised with symptoms similar to those caused by the new coronavirus, security sources said.

Police erected a security cordon around the bus at Lyon’s Perrache station and ordered the passengers to remain on board, a spokeswoman for the Lyon area’s public security department said.

No information was given as to how many people were on the bus.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Health Minister Jens Spahn will not run for the chair of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), two sources in the party said on Tuesday.

Spahn had been expected to run for the position. He is due to hold a news conference with Armin Laschet - the premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, who is expected to announce his candidacy - at 0830 GMT.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday that people who had visited northern Italy should self isolate if they had any flu-like symptoms.

Italy is trying to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus so far that flared up in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

“The official advice which will be formally updated at eight o’clock this morning is going to change so that those who have been to northern Italy - that is essentially anybody who has been to Italy north of Pisa - should, if they have flu-like symptoms, self isolate,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

LESBOS, Greece (AP) — Clashes broke out overnight on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios, where residents tried to prevent the arrival of riot police and excavating machines to be used to build new migrant detention camps.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds that gathered early Tuesday to try and prevent police from disembarking from government-chartered ferries.

On Lesbos, protesters set fire to trash bins and used municipal garbage trucks to try and block off the port area.

LONDON (AP) — Truth-telling journalist or reckless criminal: A British judge was given two conflicting portraits of Julian Assange as the WikiLeaks founder’s long-awaited extradition hearing began Monday in a London court.

A lawyer for the U.S. authorities, who want to try Assange on espionage charges, said the Australian computer expert was an “ordinary” criminal whose publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents a decade ago put many people at risk of torture and death.