Europe

Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that five Russian servicemen and three Turkish citizens were on board a Be-200 firefighting aircraft that has crashed in Turkey, Interfax news agency reported. The plane crashed near Adana when it was about to land, the military said. There were no details on any …

The Czech Republic was evacuating its two diplomats from its embassy in Kabul on Saturday as the security situation in Afghanistan worsened, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday as Taliban rebels pushed closer to Kabul, capturing …

Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Saturday he will nominate Liberal lawmaker and economist Dan Vilceanu as finance minister. Citu, who sacked former minister Alexandru Nazare in early July saying ministry projects to tap European Union funds and combat tax evasion were delayed, has been acting as interim minister. …

A BBC journalist said on Saturday that Russia was expelling her and had told her she could never return in “devastating” treatment showing the country she reported on for years was turning inwards. In an unusual move at a time of already poor bilateral ties, Russia said Sarah Rainsford – …

France has suspended a deal on military cooperation with Ethiopia, two sources close to the issue said on Friday, as concern intensifies over the conflict in the country’s north. The deal agreed between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Emmanuel Macron in March 2019 was suspended at the beginning of …

A second person has died in southwestern Russia following an explosion on a city bus that also injured another 17 people, officials said on Friday. Authorities said Thursday’s blast on the bus in the city of Voronezh was caused by leaky gas equipment. No trace of chemical explosives was found, …

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday appointed a new minister in charge of recovery from natural disasters in a bid to defuse growing anger over the struggle to curb wildfires that have charred thousands of hectares of forest. Mitsotakis has this week apologised for delays in the firefighting effort …

Belarus has told the United States embassy in Minsk to reduce its staff against the backdrop of the latest sanctions imposed by Washington, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry says. Anatoly Glaz, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that Minsk had informed the US it wanted the embassy …

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended his government on Thursday as public anger grew over the response to wildfires that have ripped through thousands of hectares of forest over the past 10 days. On Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, where some of the worst fires have occurred, rain provided some relief …

Russia has detained the head of a research facility that specialises in hypersonic technology in Moscow on suspicion of state treason, the TASS news agency cited a source as saying on Thursday. Russia’s Federal Security Service will ask a court to hold him in custody for two months, the report …

Italian firefighters said Thursday they had battled more than 500 blazes overnight as another death was reported, taking the total toll linked to wildfires to four over the past week. An anticyclone dubbed Lucifer is sweeping across Italy, sending temperatures soaring and causing what is believed to be a new …

Russia on Thursday reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the start of the pandemic, as a third wave persists despite an intensifying vaccination drive. A government tally reported 808 fatalities over the past 24 hours — the first time Russia has crossed the 800-mark for daily virus deaths …

Post-Brexit trade frictions have “significantly altered” freight traffic between Ireland and Britain and sparked a steep rise in volumes to and from Ireland and other European Union members, an Irish government agency report said on Thursday. The introduction of checks on some goods since neighbouring Britain left the EU’s trading …

A helicopter carrying 16 tourists and crew on a volcano sightseeing trip in Russia’s far east crashed into a lake on Thursday, leaving eight people feared dead and two others in serious condition, local officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter crash-landed into Kuril Lake in the mountainous Kamchatka peninsula amid poor …

Russia and Moldova have agreed to lift trade restrictions and are ready for mutually beneficial ties, senior Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak said on Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported. Russia in 2013 banned imports of Moldovan wines and spirits, one of the ex-Soviet republic’s main export earners, in a move that …

Ukraine has called on the United States to send troops and anti-missile systems to the country, in a controversial move that has prompted Russia to warn of retaliation. According to Press TV, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Reznikov had made the request during a visit to Washington. “It is important to …

Ukraine has called on the United States to send troops and anti-missile systems to the country, in a controversial move that has prompted Russia to warn of retaliation. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Reznikov had made the request during a visit to Washington, he said in a statement on Tuesday. …

Pope Francis said on Wednesday that he was greatly pained by the killing of a French priest, allegedly by a Rwandan immigrant already under investigation for setting the Nantes cathedral on fire last year. Father Olivier Maire, 60, head of the Montfortain Missionary Order at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre, was found dead in …

German police arrested a British man on Tuesday who worked at the British embassy in Berlin on suspicion of passing documents to the Russian intelligence service in exchange for cash, prosecutors said on Wednesday. German prosecutors said that the apartment and workplace of the man, identified only as David S., …

About 96,000 farmed salmon are believed to have died when a leak in a nearby tank sent 15,000 liters (4,000 gallons) of chlorine into a fjord in Arctic Norway. Roger Pedersen, a spokesman for the salmon farming company Grieg Seafood, said the leak happened at one of its fish slaughterhouses …