Europe

MINSK, July 25. /TASS/: Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey said on Thursday he sees no political motives behind the attack on his country’s diplomat in Ankara.

"Investigation is underway. There are no political motives behind the incident," he told journalists.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Moscow is investigating the circumstances of Ukraine’s decision to detain a Russian tanker to take appropriate steps, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Thursday.

"We are studying the details of what has happened to take appropriate measures," the Russian diplomatic agency stressed. "If the Russians were taken hostage, then this will be qualified as a brazen violation of the international law and consequences will ensue quickly."

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Russian and Pakistani special forces will hold joint military drills dubbed Friendship-2019 at the Molkino practice range near the city of Krasnodar in south Russia in early October, the press office of Russia’s Southern Military District reported on Thursday.

KIEV, July 25. /TASS/: Wexler Group, the largest importer of petroleum products in Ukraine will stop importing of diesel fuel from Russia from August 1, due to introduction of duties by official Kiev, the company s announced on Thursday.

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree "On the abolition of some special economic measures against the Turkish Republic."

The document published on the official website of legal information, in particular, instructs Russia’s Foreign Ministry to notify the Republic of Turkey of the partial renewal of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on conditions for mutual visits of citizens of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Turkey dated May 12, 2010."

25 July 2019; DW: Germany's Muslims feel increasingly threatened after a number of recent bomb scares at mosques. Now, the heads of the country's leading Muslim associations want the government to take protective action.

25 July 2019; DW: Ukraine has alleged that the Russian tanker took part in a November confrontation in the Kerch Strait. Relations between the two former Soviet nations has been strained since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine has seized a Russian tanker in the Black Sea, alleging that it was used in an operation to block Ukrainian vessels from sailing through the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Thursday.

25 July 2019; MEMO: UK ordered Lebanese development bodies to ban both the political and military wings of Hezbollah in order to continue receiving economic aid, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported yesterday.

25 July 2019; MEMO: The UK’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Priti Patel as Home Secretary despite the fact that she was forced to resign two years ago after holding secret, unofficial meetings with Israeli ministers.

25 July 2019; DW: The British prime minister has vowed to push through Brexit — even without a deal. Johnson has backed an October 31 deadline to leave the EU, describing it as the beginning of a "new golden age for the United Kingdom."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday told Parliament that he was committed to the October 31 deadline to leave the EU "for the purpose of uniting and re-energizing our great United Kingdom and making this country the greatest place on earth."