Europe

MAGAS, August 7. /TASS/: Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has declared a counter-terrorist operation regime in the Voznesenskaya settlement in the North Caucasian Ingushetia region.

"Head of the FSB branch in Ingushetia announced a start of a counter-terrorist operation in the Voznesenskaya settlement in the Malgobeksky District at 4.30am Moscow time," the regional FSB headquarters said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov is due to pay a visit to Pyongyang next week to hold consultations, North Korea’s Embassy in Moscow told TASS on Wednesday.

"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Morgulov is due to depart for Pyongyang next week to hold meetings with his counterparts," a spokesperson said.

TSKHINVAL, August 7. /TASS/: South Ossetia is working on achieving official recognition by many countries in spite of Georgia’s attempts to block this process, South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov told TASS on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Turkey has launched the process to accept the first batch of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems at the Murted airbase in Ankara, a source in military and diplomatic circles told TASS on Wednesday.

"The Russian technicians who flew to Turkey in early August and the Turkish military personnel who have been trained in Russia have started the delivery/acceptance of the first batch of the S-400 regiment set delivered by air transport to Ankara in July this year," the source said, specifying that this process "would last about two months."

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Firefighters are working on extinguishing wildfires in Russian regions on a territory of 163,100 hectares, the Aerial Forest Protection Service said on Wednesday.

"As of 12am on August 7, active firefighting efforts are underway to extinguish wildfires on a territory of 163,175 hectares in Russian regions, including 78 wildfires on an area of 110,082 hectares in the Irkutsk Region and 69 wildfires on an area of 46,976 hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Region," the service reported.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: A gunman who plotted a terror attack has been killed by the law enforcement personnel in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) told TASS on Wednesday.

"A counterterrorism operation has been carried out in Ingushetia, during which a gunman who had been plotting a terror attack was neutralized," the NAC reported.

KIEV, August 7. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has told reporters he had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Donbass.

"This morning I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin," Zelensky told a briefing following an urgent meeting with security forces, convened after four Ukrainian troops were killed in the Donbass operation zone. "I called him on short notice. I said that this is not bringing us closer to peace."

07 August 2019; AFP: Britain was seeking to fast-track a crucial post-Brexit trade deal with the United States on Wednesday after new Prime Minister Boris Johnson dispatched his top diplomat and foreign trade minister to Washington.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was due to hold talks with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo at the State Department while the International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has lined up meetings with top American trade officials.

07 August 2019; DW: A man has reportedly been arrested in Turkey for posts he shared on Facebook. A series of arrests of German citizens in recent years has strained relations between the two countries.

Another German citizen was arrested in Turkey on charges of spreading propaganda, several news outlets reported on Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — At first glance, the handwritten postcards and letters look innocuous, even warm, sometimes signed off by “Uncle T.” or “Your uncle, Father Ted.”

But taken in context, the correspondence penned by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to the young men he is accused of sexually abusing or harassing is a window into the way a predator grooms his prey, according to two abuse prevention experts who reviewed it for The Associated Press.