Europe

BERLIN (AP) — Two states in eastern Germany are holding elections Sunday that could bring big gains for a far-right party, further destabilize Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national government and highlight continuing cracks in German unity nearly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Voters in Saxony, a region of around 4.1 million people bordering Poland and the Czech Republic, and neighboring Brandenburg, which has 2.5 million inhabitants and surrounds Berlin, are electing new state legislatures.

LONDON, Aug 31 (APP): The United Kingdom based Organization of Kashmir Coalition (OKC) has appreciated Pakistan for its unflinching support and expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris struggling for their freedom from Indian occupation.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: South Ossetia’s President Anatoly Bibilov on Friday ruled out the possibility of a military conflict over Georgia’s construction of a roadblock in the border area.

"There will be no military confrontation, which the Georgian side is seeking. Residents of the Uista village are in safety and are under the protection of border guards," he said.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: In a series of trials held on board the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, Russia’s anthropomorphic robot Fedor successfully matched plug connectors to imitate operations done during a spacewalk.

"We began our training. I helped a cosmonaut, performing some technological manipulations, to pick up the right instrument. After that, I worked in the ‘avatar’ mode to match plug connectors, imitating the repair of cables on the station’s exterior surface," the robot said on his Twitter page on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: An investigation into the case of US citizen Paul Whelan, suspected of espionage in Russia, is de-facto over as the final indictment had already been filed, his lawyer Olga Karlova told TASS on Friday.

"The pretrial investigation will be officially declared over next week, but investigative measures are de-facto over. The final version of his indictment has been filed, under Article 276 (espionage), as was the case from the very beginning," she said.

KIEV, August 31. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has submitted 19 bills to the country’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada, including amendments to ten articles of the Ukrainian constitution, according to the parliament’s official website.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: The final trials of the ExoMars-2020 project’s lander and rover will begin in March 2020, the launch is due on July 26, the deputy director general of Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Association, Kharun Karchayev, said.

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/: Russian military spacecraft Kosmos-2521, unofficially nicknamed the satellite inspector, has performed several new maneuvers since the beginning of 2019, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.

According to NORAD, in January 2019 the satellite was in near-Earth orbit with parameters of 280 km per 285 km. In early February, the orbit of the spacecraft began to decrease gradually and by April 10 its minimum altitude was 227 km. Then the satellite was once again raised - in early June, it had an orbit of 247 for 282 km.

CHELYABINSK, August 31. /TASS/: Indian companies intend to increase the supply of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in particular they are interested in buying gas from future Novatek projects - Arctic LNG-2 and Arctic LNG-3, Russia’s Minister of Energy Alexander Novak told TASS commenting on the results of the meeting with the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Dharmendra Pradhan.

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Russia has announced a ceasefire in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province from Saturday morning, offering respite to civilians who have endured a months-long campaign of bombardment that has killed hundreds.

An agreement was reached on “a unilateral ceasefire by Syrian government forces in the Idlib de-escalation zone, from 6am [0300 GMT] on August 31,” the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria said in a statement.