Europe

04 August 2019; DW: A German-flagged NGO rescue ship carrying 40 migrants has been given the all-clear to dock in Malta. The vessel Alan Kurdi set sail for the Mediterranean island group after being turned away by Italian authorities.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced Saturday that 40 migrants aboard the NGO ship Alan Kurdi would be allowed to disembark in Malta, following a request from Germany.

04 August 2019; DW: Dozens have been arrested in Nantes during a protest over police tactics. The death of Steve Maia Canico at a local music festival has become a rallying cry for those criticizing French police for using excessive force.

LONDON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A plea was made Sunday to Europe's top Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to urge European Union leaders to re-open negotiations with Britain to avert a no-deal outcome.

The call was made by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, one of the few top ministers to keep his job in the biggest ever cabinet reshuffle following Boris Johnson's arrival at 10 Downing Street.

MOSCOW (AP) — Police in Moscow cracked down hard on an unsanctioned election protest for the second weekend in a row Saturday, detaining more than 800 people at a rally against the exclusion from city council contests of some independent and opposition candidates, an arrest monitoring group said.

2 Aug 2019; MEMO: NATO does not plan the integration of Russian S-400 anti-air missile system into any air and missile defense system of the alliance, NATO Secretary General said Friday. 

"There are no plans to integrate the Russian S-400 into any NATO integrated air and missile defense system," Jens Stoltenberg said in a news conference on the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in Brussels.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will visit Turkmenistan on August 11-12, where he take part in the first Caspian Economic Forum and meet with Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the press service of the Russian government said on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russia hopes that Turkey will fully implement within the next 24 hours the agreements on the withdrawal of militants and weapons from the Idlib de-escalation zone in response to the Syrian government’s initiative to cease hostilities in the area, Major General Alexey Bakin, the chief of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides in Syria, told reporters on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: The second round of US sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Skripal case is a blatant provocation designed to create a propagandist effect, Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary published on Friday.

LUGANSK, August 2. /TASS/: Ukrainian forces have shelled the positions of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) five times in the last 24 hours, spokesman for LPR people's militia Yakov Osadchiy said on Friday.

"Ukrainian forces continue provocative shellings of positions of LPR people's militia. Today at 9:45pm, the 54th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the settlement of Kalinovo from grenade launchers of different types," LuganskInformCenter quoted Osadchiy as saying.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: At least one person died and four others were injured in an earthquake of 6.9 magnitude that rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Friday, Detik news portal reported citing local law enforcement agencies.

According to Detik, the person died from a heart attack caused by shock sustained as a result of the earthquake.

Local police said that 139 houses and two mosques were damaged in the earthquake, and over 1,000 people were evacuated from the affected area.