Europe

31 August 2019; AFP: Demonstrators rallied on Saturday in cities across Britain against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial move to suspend parliament weeks before Brexit.

The protests come ahead of an intense political week in which Johnson's opponents will seek to block the move in court and legislate against a no-deal departure from the EU -- and could even try to topple his government in a no-confidence vote.

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal’s ruling Socialists have extended their big lead in an opinion poll five weeks before an Oct. 6 parliamentary election, the latest edition of the survey showed on Saturday, suggesting Prime Minister Antonio Costa could win his first full majority.

The survey by pollster Pitagorica for TSF radio and the Jornal de Noticias newspaper put the center-left Socialists on 43.6% of voting intentions, up from 43.2% a month ago, leaving the main opposition Social Democrats well behind at just 20.4%.

WARSAW (Reuters) - President Andrzej Duda said on Saturday that Poland saw a need to maintain Western sanctions against Russia over its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine.

He also said Ukraine should have closer relations with the European Union and the NATO military alliance.

The EU and the United States have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict.

HELSINKI, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Friday reaffirmed the EU stance on the full implementation of the existing Iran nuclear deal.

Mogherini made the remarks at a press conference in Helsinki after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The EU foreign ministers reviewed the ongoing dialogue with Iran, following Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared in France on eve of the G7 summit that took place there last weekend.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Two people were killed in a crash landing of an An-2 aircraft on Friday near Lake Silyan-Kuel in Russia's Yakutia, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry's regional directorate informed.

Earlier reports informed of one killed and five injured.

"According to the latest information, there are two people killed. There were seven people on board. The aircraft carrying the injured will land in Yakutsk at around 21:20 (15:20 Moscow time). Psychologists are attending to the injured," the message by the ministry reads.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a separate meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum on September 5, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.

"A separate meeting [will be] with the Prime Minister of Malaysia and this will be a fairly important meeting," Ushakov said. Moscow expects that the visit of the Malaysian Prime Minister to Vladivostok "will give an impetus to cooperation, including in the Far East," he added.

PARIS, August 30. /TASS/: The Council of Europe expects Russia to pay 54.7 mln euro to the organization’s budget within the next few days, CoE Spokesperson Daniel Holtgen told TASS on Friday.

"We understood from contacts with Russians that the payment will be made in the coming days," he said. He stressed that the resolution of the issue "means Russia’s full integration into all sectors of the organization’s activities, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe."

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 29. /TASS/: Six foreign customers have sent in requests for purchasing Russia’s Mi-28NE attack helicopter since 2015, the press-service of the federal service for military technical cooperation said at the international aerospace show MAKS-2019 on Friday.

"Since 2015 the federal service for military-technical cooperation has received six requests for the helicopter Mi-28NE. Among the partners who have shown interest in this machine are countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and CSTO members-states," the press-service said.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: A Tu-22M3 missile bomber has been transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry after repair, the press service of the Tupolev aerospace and defense company said in a statement on Friday.

"Tupolev, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation, reports about the transfer of another Tu-22M3 to the Russian Aerospace Force’s long-range aviation after major overhaul," says the report.

"After being transferred to the customer, the aircraft flew to its base," the report says.

ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 30. /TASS/: Russia’s holding company Shvabe has developed a new, lighter version of the thermal night vision weapon sight, which is to complement the soldier’s field combat gear Ratnik, Shvabe’s first deputy CEO for research and development and innovations, Sergei Popov, told TASS in an interview.

Currently Shvabe provides older versions of thermal night and day vision sights for the gear Ratnik and keeps working on their upgrade. As far as thermal vision sights are concerned, it is essential to reduce their mass.