Europe

AKTAU /Kazakhstan/, August 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has highly estimated the results of the fifth Caspian summit that ended with the signing of the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

"Naturally, this even will go down in history as the one that took place in Kazakhstan. It is a great event we have been heading to for two decades, have been trying to find a solution. And now it is found. Naturally, it will encourage closer cooperation in the Caspian region," Putin said at a meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Sunday.

GLASGOW /the United Kingdom/, August 12. /TASS/. Russia’s national team tops the overall medals standings of the 2018 European Championships, with 66 medals.

Russia has won 31 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze medals to be awarded the European Championships Trophy, a 650mm tall and 400mm wide cup on a 22-carat gold footing.

Second is Britain’s team, with 71 medals, of which 24 are gold, 25 are silver, and 22 are bronze.

MOSCOW, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement Sunday for collective use of the Caspian sea after two decades of negotiations, the Kremlin said.

The presidents of the five states inked the landmark convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea at the Fifth Caspian Summit in the Kazakh city of Aktau.

BERLIN, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Germany's adolescent population aged between 14 and 17 stood around 3.2 million at the end of 2016, a drop of nearly 470,000 within 10 years, data by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) show.

The proportion of the 14-17 year olds in the total population decreased from 4.4 percent in 2006 to 3.8 percent by the end of 2016, according to the Destatis.

Within 10 years, the share of young people without a secondary school graduation certificate had declined significantly from 8 percent in 2006 to 6 percent in 2016, the Destatis said.

MINSK, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The intergovernmental agreement on visa-free travel between Belarus and China came into force on Friday.

From now on, Belarusians can stay in China without a visa for up to 30 days in one trip, but not more than 90 days a year. The same rule applies to Chinese citizens.

If a person wants to stay in the country for more than 30 days or engage in educational and professional activities, he or she needs a special visa. Visa-free travel covers private trips, business trips and tourist trips.

KRONOTSKY NATURE RESERVE /Kamchatka/, August 10. /TASS/. The possible tightening up of economic sanctions against Russia may be treated as a declaration of economic war, which must be responded by all economic, political and other means possible, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during his visit to the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

During his visit to the Kronotsky State Nature Reserve, Medvedev was asked what sanctions could be imposed on Russia in the future and how they can affect the country’s economy.

London, Aug 9 (AP): A British inquiry has concluded that sexual abuse at two leading Roman Catholic schools in Britain was considerably higher than is reflected by conviction figures, with monks hiding allegations to protect the church's reputation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse issued a scathing report Thursday, saying that monks at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset hid allegations of "appalling sexual abuse" against pupils as young as seven.

Berlin, Aug 8; AFP: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned today that US President Donald Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran could further destabilise the Middle East and boost radical forces in the region.

Trump brought back the punishing sanctions after unilaterally pulling out of a landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and Western powers to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"We still think that it is a mistake to give up on the nuclear accord with Iran," Maas said in an interview with the daily Passauer Neue Presse.

7 Aug 2018; DW: Even 23 years after the Battle of Vukovar, a divide remains between Croats and Serbs in the city. In school, children are separated according to their ethnicity. Srecko Matic visited the eastern Croatian city.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Russia’s first heavily upgraded Tupolev Tu-22M3M strategic missile-carrying bomber has been outfitted with new radio-electronic equipment, Tupolev Aircraft Company CEO Alexander Konyukhov told TASS on Tuesday.

"As a result of deep modernization, we have actually got a new plane, Tu-22M3M. It features absolutely new onboard radio-electronic equipment," the chief executive said.