Europe

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister said Friday that European Union drug regulators may authorize the use of vaccines that are each effective against two variants of the coronavirus.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he expected the European Medicines Agency to meet Sept. 1 to consider a vaccine that would provide protection against the original virus and the omicron variant, also known as BA.1.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A search and rescue operation was conducted on Friday for a third day for migrants reported missing after their boat capsized south of the Greek island of Rhodes, the coast guard said Friday.

A Greek frigate and three merchant ships were searching the area roughly 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers, 46 miles) south of Rhodes and 33 nautical miles southeast of Karpathos, the coast guard said Friday.

LUX, France (AP) — Once, a river ran through it. Now, white dust and thousands of dead fish cover the wide trench that winds amid rows of trees in France’s Burgundy region in what was the Tille River in the village of Lux.

From dry and cracked reservoirs in Spain to falling water levels on major arteries like the Danube, the Rhine and the Po, an unprecedented drought is afflicting nearly half of the European continent. It is damaging farm economies, forcing water restrictions, causing wildfires and threatening aquatic species.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, part of the state tech corporation Rostec) will demonstrate the Russian Su-57 fifth-generation multirole fighter at the Army 2022 international military-technical forum, the UAC announced on Thursday.

The cutting-edge aircraft will be on display at the entry to the Congress and Exhibition Center in the Patriot Park outside Moscow, it said.

TBILISI, August 11. /TASS/: Georgian authorities are not planning to join a war against Russia and open a second front, they also welcome Russian tourists, the secretary general of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party, Kakha Kaladze, told journalists on Thursday.

"We have repeatedly made statements that Georgia is not launching a war (against Russia - TASS) and it does not join a war. There won’t be a second front in Georgia, Georgia does not join the sanctions. And this is very important. We welcome the tourists," said Kaladze, who is also Mayor of Tbilisi.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Competent authorities in Russia and the United States are in talks to discuss potential prisoner swaps, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev said at a briefing on Thursday.

VILNIUS, August 11. /TASS/: The Estonian authorities have made a decision to ban Russian citizens with Estonia-issued Schengen visas from entering its territory, Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told a government news briefing on Thursday.

"In a week from now the sanction will be applied to Schengen visas issued by Estonia. Visa holders from Russia will be subject to restrictions. They will be denied entry to Estonia," he said.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: The Parliament of Latvia (the Saeima) has declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the parliament said in a statement published on its official website on Thursday.

On August 11, the Saeima adopted a statement, which recognizes activities of Russian troops in Ukraine as terrorism and declares "Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism."

"The Saeima's statement calls on EU countries to immediately suspend the issuance of tourist and entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens," the statement reads.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Sweden's government has decided to extradite a man to Turkey wanted for fraud, it said on Thursday, the first case since Turkey demanded a number of people extradited in return for allowing Stockholm to formally apply for NATO membership.

NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden's bid to join the Western alliance in June after weeks of tense negotiations where Ankara accused the two Nordic countries of harbouring what Turkey says are militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

SUMY REGION, Ukraine, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine's interior minister said on Thursday that Ukraine had to be ready for any scenario at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been hit shelling, including evacuating people from the area.

Ukraine and Russia-installed local officials blamed each other for a new volley of shelling on Thursday at the nuclear power plant - Europe's biggest - which lies in southern Ukraine.