Europe

MOSCOW, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding on implementing a project to build an underwater gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and India, the Russian Energy Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

"The memorandum provides for the identification of authorized organizations through which the project will be supported, including during the development of a feasibility study, identification of the resource base, configuration and route of the gas pipeline," the statement said.

LONDON; 28 Sep 2018; (AP) — An Irish man who missed his flight at Dublin Airport was arrested Thursday for running after the plane on the tarmac in a bid to flag it down.

Witnesses said a man in his 20s broke through an airport door and ran toward the Ryanair plane, which was about to take off for Amsterdam, at around 7 a.m.

Declan Harvey, who was at the airport, said he could hear a man shouting “Wait!” at the plane before he was tackled to the ground by airport workers.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. Moscow is outraged at NATO’s "errant" attacks in Afghanistan, which have become almost a daily reality, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"We are outraged at the fact that NATO’s ‘errant’ attacks in the country have become almost a daily reality, while no one has been held responsible," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. Russia won’t let the Americans carry out biological experiments near its borders, Vladimir Yermakov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, told reporters on Tuesday.

The diplomat commented on a statement by Georgia’s former state security minister, Igor Giorgadze, earlier this month that he had evidence that the United States conducted secret experiments on humans in a Georgian laboratory.

MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. Components of chemical weapons were delivered to Syria’s Idlib Governorate from several European countries, said Director of the Department for Arms Non-Proliferation and Control at the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Yermakov.

"Many things may disclose in Idlib now. Deliveries of components of chemical weapons from European states were carried out there. It all will re-emerge again soon," Yermakov said.

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he was ready to meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump in person.

"I’m ready to talk to US President Donald Trump. I would like it to be a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Nicolas Maduro," he said in a state TV channel broadcast.

The Venezuelan leader also said that sanctions against his country were useless.

TASS, September 10. Siberian researchers have put together a mathematical model of the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk’s transport network and used it to analyze the city’s traffic. The results of the study will help decrease traffic congestion in the city, the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s press service informed.

STOCKHOLM; 25 Sep 2018; (AP) — Sweden’s prime minister lost a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday after an election this month stripped him of his majority.

Stefan Lofven, the leader of the Social Democratic Party who has been prime minister for four years, will continue in a caretaker role until a new government can be formed that has the command of the Riksdagen.

Lawmakers voted 204-142 against Lofven, while three abstained. The vote was mandatory after the Sept. 9 general election delivered a hung parliament.

By NICOLE WINFIELD and JARI TANNER

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that the sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church were driving people away and said the church must change its ways if it wants to keep future generations.

Francis referred directly to the crisis convulsing his papacy on the fourth and final day of his Baltic pilgrimage, which coincided with the release of a devastating new report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in Germany.

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Israel will not raise tensions with Russia over Moscow’s decision to provide Syria with the S-300 air defense systems, while the US will adopt a wait-and-see attitude, experts told TASS on Monday.