Europe

3 Oct 2019; MEMO: A town in Germany tried to stop US-Lebanese artist Walid Raad from receiving a €10,000 ($10,951) art prize due to his alleged ties and support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Raad was to be awarded by the German city of Aachen, located near the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands, for his work “The Atlas Group” on the history of the civil war in Lebanon between 1989 and 2004.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The personnel of a special forces unit from Russia’s Central Military District destroyed a notional enemy’s satellite communications basic mobile stations during drills near Samara in the Volga area, the district’s press office reported on Thursday.

KALININGRAD, October 3. /TASS/: A naval strike group of Russia’s Baltic Fleet destroyed a notional enemy’s submarine in joint drills with a Ka-27PL anti-submarine warfare helicopter, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"As part of a tactical exercise of the Baltic Fleet’s anti-submarine warfare forces at the training ranges in the Baltic Sea, the crews of the corvette Stoiky and the small anti-subsurface warfare ships Aleksin, Urengoi and Kazanets practiced assignments to search for and strike a notional enemy’s sub," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The remaining US presence in Syria raises eyebrows and Moscow hopes that US President Donald Trump will fulfill his pledge on withdrawing troops, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Thursday.

According to Lavrov, only a request by the country’s legitimate authorities or the UN Security Council’s resolution could serve as a legal basis for external actors on Syrian soil. "Iran is in Syria at the request of Damascus, unlike the United States," he said.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Three other suspects were arrested by Moscow’s Basmanny Court on Wednesday alongside Vladimir Alexandrov, the deputy CEO of the flagship Russian air carrier Aeroflot, on charges of the 250 mln rubles ($3.8 mln) theft, a court source told TASS.

Fraud charges amounting to 250 mln rubles ($3.8 mln) are brought against Alexandrov, an investigator said on Wednesday at the session in the court.

The remaining three arrested suspects were identified as Aeroflot legal department head Tatyana Davydova and lawyers Dina Kibets and Alexander Slivko.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Russia’s new generation MC-21-300 passenger liner has developed technical problems during a test flight near Zhukovsky, a source in emergency services told TASS.

"The plane developed technical problems with its hydraulic system. One of the landing gear legs failed to retract," the source said.

The MC-21 plane made a successful emergency landing at Zhukovsky airdrome near Moscow, the plane’s developer Irkut corporation has said. "The plane landed normally," Irkut said.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: A newly appointed US ambassador to Russia will be bound by the difficult relations between Russia and the USA, Director of the Institute for US and Canada Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Garbuzov told TASS on Thursday.

"Due to the circumstances around the relations between our states, any ambassador’s hands will be tied," he said. "If the relations were unblocked, an ambassador would be able to show their worth."

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The dangerous situation in the Persian Gulf region, which is to a large extent the result of the United States’ decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program, increases the risk of a large-scale military conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Arab media posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website on Thursday.

3 October 2019; AFP: Britain and the EU on Thursday traded claims about who would be responsible for the failure of a new Brexit deal unveiled by London as the country faces a messy exit from the bloc at the end of October.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the bloc's failure to listen to his new proposal would result in it sharing the blame for a likely chaotic divorce.

3 October 2019; AFP: A man employed at police headquarters in the heart of Paris was shot dead Thursday after wounding at least two people with a knife at the building, sources told AFP.

The premises were cordoned off after the lunchtime attack in the historic centre of Paris, usually thronged with tourists, and a dozen emergency vehicles were at the scene, AFP journalists reported.