Europe

KYIV, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The head of Amnesty International's Ukraine office has quit the human rights body in a disagreement with it after the group accused Ukraine's armed forces of endangering civilians by basing troops in residential areas during the Russian invasion.

Amnesty made the comments in a report published on Thursday that drew fierce criticism from the Ukrainian government. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy led denunciations of Amnesty's allegations, accusing the group of "trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim". 

CIVITANOVA MARCHE, Italy (AP) — Black Italians marched through a well-to-do Adriatic beach town Saturday demanding that authorities reverse themselves and recognize the role of race in the brutal daylight killing of a Nigerian immigrant.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces began an assault Saturday on two key cities in the eastern Donetsk region and kept up rocket and shelling attacks on other Ukrainian cities, including one close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military and local officials said.

Both cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka have been considered key targets of Russia’s ongoing offensive across Ukraine’s east, with analysts saying Moscow needs to take Bakhmut if it is to advance on the regional hubs of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

05 August 2022; MEMO: A top aide to Turkiye's President said on Friday the international community cannot end the war in Ukraine by ignoring Moscow, as Tayyip Erdogan headed to Russia to meet his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports.

The meeting, less than three weeks since they held talks in Tehran, comes after Turkiye helped broker a deal to resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports which were blocked by Russia's invasion.

05 August 2022; MEMO: A United Nations panel yesterday ruled that France had violated an "international human rights treaty" by preventing a Muslim woman from wearing her headscarf in school.

The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) said in a statement that the French move had violated "rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)."

The Committee's decision had come after a complaint that was filed by a French Muslim woman in 2016.

05 August 2022; MEMO: Russia is turning to Turkiye as it tries to decrease the harming level of Western sanctions to its economy following its invasion of Ukraine, Washington Post says in an in-depth news analysis piece.

According to the analysis, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is set to meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Sochi on Friday to strengthen economic ties with a NATO nation that has not joined in imposing sanctions on Moscow.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 18,555 over the past day to 18,672,422, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Friday.\

The country records over 18,000 daily cases for the first time since April 1.

As many as 1,906 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 0.5% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients increased in 40 regions, while in 40 other regions the figure decreased. The situation remained unchanged in five regions. A day earlier, 1,916 people were rushed to hospitals.

VIENNA, Aug 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Negotiators kicked off a fresh round of talks over Iran’s nuclear programme in Vienna on Thursday, seeking to salvage the agreement on Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

Officials from world powers and Iran were meeting in the Austrian capital for the first time since March, when negotiations, which began in 2021 to reintegrate the United States into the agreement, stalled.

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations food agency's world price index declined again in July, edging further away from record highs hit in March.

The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 140.9 points last month versus a revised 154.3 for June. The June figure was previously put at 154.2.

The July index was still 13.1% higher than a year earlier, pushed up by the impact of the invasion of Ukraine, adverse weather and high production and transport costs.

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, saying a leak of radiation had been avoided only by luck.

It said that as a result, the generating capacity of one unit had been reduced and power supply to another had been cut. In addition, the nearby city of Enerhodar was suffering from problems with its power and water supplies, it added in a statement.