Europe

Aug 2 (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday denied Russian claims that the country had destroyed six U.S.-made HIMARS missile systems since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Interfax, said on Tuesday that Russia had destroyed the HIMARS after Moscow deployed tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24.

"We are aware of these latest claims by Minister Shoigu and they are again patently false," Todd Breasseale, the Pentagon's acting spokesman, said.

BERLIN/ZURICH, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Swiss government imposed further sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine on Wednesday, in line with the European Union's latest measures on gold and gold products, the cabinet said.

The government said that it had made two new exceptions with respect to transactions related to agricultural products and oil supplies to third countries, which the EU has as well, in order to avoid any disruptions in payment channels.

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is recommending Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine carry a warning of the possibility of two types of heart inflammation, an added burden for a shot that has so far failed to win wide uptake.

The heart conditions - myocarditis and pericarditis - should be listed as new side effects in the product information for the vaccine, Nuvaxovid, based on a small number of reported cases, the EMA said on Wednesday.

GENEVA (AP) — In the 134 years since league soccer started in England, the European game has never scheduled such a disrupted season.

FIFA’s decision to move the World Cup in Qatar from the normal offseason months to November and December in order to avoid the desert heat will slice into the European domestic season in a way not seen outside of international traumas like war or pandemic.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Myanmar on August 3 for talks with the country’s top diplomat Wunna Maung Lwin, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Tuesday.

"On August 3, the Russian top diplomat will make a working visit to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. He is expected to hold talks with the country’s foreign minister and meet with Myanmar’s leadership," she noted.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: The Russian Supreme Court has designated the Ukrainian Azov nationalist battalion as a terrorist organization and outlawed its activities in Russia, TASS reports.

"To satisfy the administrative motion of the prosecutor general and to recognize the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Azov as a terrorist organization, banning its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation," the judge read out the decision.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich, who is the reigning president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), will certainly be reelected for another term at the helm of the world’s governing body of chess, Anatoly Karpov, the 12th World Chess Champion, told TASS on Tuesday.

"Dvorkovich will be reelected. The only obstacle is his possible inclusion in the list of sanctions. In this case, it will be over and he will be unable to exercise his powers," Karpov said in an interview with TASS.

BRUSSELS/BARCELONA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Tuesday it had signed a joint procurement contract with Spanish pharmaceutical firm HIPRA for the supply of its protein COVID-19 vaccine, which will be available if approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The European Union's executive said in a statement that 14 countries are participating in the agreement, under which they can purchase up to 250 million doses.

MOSCOW, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The Kremlin told the United States on Tuesday that time was running out to negotiate a replacement for the "New START" nuclear arms reduction treaty and that if it expired in 2026 without a replacement then global security would be weakened.

The New START Treaty, struck in 2011, obliged the United States and Russia to limit deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Russia on Tuesday said that the United States, the world's top military power, was directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine because U.S. spies were approving and coordinating Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian forces.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.