Europe

LONDON, Aug 13 (APP): Stella Creasy, Labour and Co-operative member of parliament (MP) for Walthamstow, while expressing her deep concern on disturbing human rights situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) has called upon United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to raise the matter at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: Washington is persistently trying to intervene in Russia’s domestic affairs but it is bound to fail, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said, responding to a statement by US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer over the opposition rallies in Moscow.

"He described those detained during unauthorized rallies as ‘political prisoners,’ hurling allegations that the so-called ‘regime’s crackdown’ on them ‘ought to alarm the world’," Slutsky wrote on Facebook.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: NATO’s F-18 jet tried to approach the plane of Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the international waters of the Baltic Sea only to be forced away by Russia’s Sukhoi-27 fighters, a TASS correspondent reported from onboard the Russian defense minister’s plane.

Shoigu’s plane was on the way from Kaliningrad to Moscow with an escort of two Sukhoi-27 of the Baltic Fleet. NATO’s F-18 tried to approach it over the international waters of the Baltic Sea but Russian fighters forced the jet away.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: Moscow believes that the Russian missile systems are unique and outshine their foreign rivals, despite the development of such weapons in the United States, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

The Russian presidential spokesman thus responded to a question about whether Moscow was aware of such development work in the United States.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: The level of radiation in Severodvinsk following the August 8 incident at a military test site was 4-16 times above the natural background, the Russian weather watching service Rosgidromet said on its website referring to the northern directorate for hydrometeorology and monitoring of the environment as its primary source.

"As at 12:00 on August 8, 2019 the Arkhangelsk territorial system of radiation control registered gamma radiation levels 4-16 times above the background rate of the ambient dose equivalent for the given territory," the report says.

KIEV, August 13. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has ordered the government to draw up a bill on simplifying the procedures to obtain Ukrainian citizenship for Russians, who are "persecuted on political motives."

The decree was published on the Ukrainian president’s website on Monday. "I ask to draft a Ukrainian law on short notice aimed at easing the procedure of obtaining Ukrainian citizenship for Russian nationals, who have been subjected to persecution for their political views," the document says.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: The Kremlin believes that the disproportionate use of force by police is unacceptable, but justifies tough actions of law enforcement agencies for curbing riots, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"We believe that it is absolutely unacceptable when there is disproportionate use of force by the representatives of authorities and believe it is absolutely justified when law enforcement agencies take tough actions in order to curb civil disorder," Peskov said.

13 August 2019; DW: The imminent US tariffs on Chinese goods are expected to throw up some unexpected winners in Europe, a study shows. The gains for the European countries are only likely to increase if China's choses to retaliate.

Move over Vietnam and Taiwan. The latest round of US tariffs on Chinese goods set to kick in on September 1 would also benefit the European economies, albeit moderately, a new report showed.

13 August 2019; DW: A video clip of a Russian riot policeman punching a female protester has gone viral, provoking outrage on social networks. Russia's Interior Ministry has promised that the "guilty will have to face responsibility."

13 August 2019; DW: London and Washington are ready to strike a post-Brexit trade deal "in pieces" in order to speed up the process. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Brexit must be delivered by whatever means possible on October 31.

The United States and the United Kingdom will be looking for a quick, piece by piece, trade deal when Britain leaves the European Union.