Europe

BERLIN, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A German tourist has been detained in Iran, the German foreign ministry said on Saturday, declining to give further details beyond saying the man was receiving consular assistance.

The Iranian interior ministry was not immediately available to comment on the detention.

MALACKY, Slovakia, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Slovakia signed a deal on Saturday under which fellow NATO states the Czech Republic and Poland will police its skies as Bratislava withdraws its Soviet-made MiG-29s from service, potentially freeing up the old jets to send to Ukraine.

Slovakia has said it is ready to send the 11 MiG fighters to Ukraine, whose military has long relied on Soviet-era equipment and which has appealed for more supplies from NATO nations to boost its ability to battle invading Russian forces.

GENEVA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Millions of tonnes of food from previous harvests in Ukraine still need to be cleared to make room in silos for the next one, the U.N. coordinator for a grains deal said on Saturday.

More than 1 million tonnes of grains and other foods have so far been exported under a grains deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative has started creating some space but much more grain needs to shift to make space for the new harvest," said Amir Abdulla, U.N. Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

ATHENS, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rejected on Friday opposition parties' calls for a snap election over the recent revelations of the phone tapping of an opposition leader by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP).

"We will get through this difficult winter together," he said during Parliament's first plenary debate after the summer break.

The conservative government's four-year term ends next summer.

LONDON (AP) — Stinking piles of garbage on the streets of Edinburgh are threatening the health and safety of the public, a health authority warned Saturday as strikes by garbage collectors in the Scottish capital moved into their ninth day.

The warning from Public Health Scotland came as garbage collectors in Newham, a borough of London, also walked out for a week over a pay dispute.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — With a solemn ceremony to create new cardinals, Pope Francis was poised Saturday to formally expand the ranks of churchmen now eligible to vote for his successor in case he dies or resigns — the latter a step he has said he’d consider if the need arises.

Of the 20 churchmen being raised to the rank of cardinal in St. Peter’s Basilica, 16 are younger than 80 and thus eligible to participate in a conclave — the ritual-shrouded, locked-door assembly of cardinals who cast paper ballots to elect a new pontiff.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concern about the potential for a radiation leak at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant persisted as Ukrainian authorities said Saturday that Russian forces fired on areas just across the river and Russia claimed Ukrainian shelling hit a building where nuclear fuel is stored.

Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in case of radiation exposure, which can cause health problems depending on the amount a person absorbs.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Ukrainian separatists who support Russia yesterday released an Israeli citizen whom they had held captive in Ukraine's Luhansk region, the Times of Israel reported, citing Russian state media.

Vladimir Kozolevsky was transferred to the Russian border and is expected to be returned to Israel.

Kozolevsky lived for many years in Ukraine and was arrested at the end of June.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Communications Directorate, on Thursday, organised the sixth panel in a series on UN Security Council reforms in the Swedish capital city Stockholm, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The Council needs to be reformed in order to make the UN more democratic and better-functioning, political scientist, Hans Agne, said at the event, titled "United Nations Security Council Reform: A New Approach to Reconstruction of the International Order".

27 August 2022; MEMO: French President, Emmanuel Macron, said on Friday the ball was in Iran's court to revive a nuclear deal with world powers, and that the offer on the table, even if it would not resolve all differences, was better than no offer at all, Reuters reports.

Iran received Washington's response to an EU-drafted final offer for salvaging the 2015 deal, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran said on Wednesday, giving no firm indication of how close remaining gaps were to being narrowed.