Europe

BERLIN (AP) — German police and security officials faced criticism Tuesday following violence during a far-right protest in the eastern city of Chemnitz that left at least six people injured.

The protest late Monday, sparked by the killing of a 35-year-old German man in an altercation with migrants over the weekend, erupted into clashes between neo-Nazis and left-wing counter-protesters.

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN; 26 Aug 2018; AA: Germany’s economy minister voiced support on Sunday for Turkey amid market worries after U.S. President Donald Trump slammed sanctions and raised tariffs on Turkey.

Responding to questions by citizens during an open house event of his ministry, Peter Altmaier underlined Turkey’s importance for Germany and for the European Union.

“We can have no interest in the destabilization of a country like Turkey with 80 million population, which also hosts around 4 million refugees,” he said.

BERLIN, August 27. /TASS/. The US’ sanctions policy against other countries which are EU partners makes Europe react to Washington’s actions, said German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas in his speech at the annual conference of the heads of the German diplomatic missions abroad on Monday.

"Washington’s sanctions policy makes us search for a European answer, and the urgent launch of nonspecific sanctions against Russia, China and other EU’s trade partners by the US has a considerable effect over Europe and Germany," Maas stated. "We have to react to it," he noted.

DONETSK, August 26. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military violated the ceasefire regime 2 times in 24 hours, shelling the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, according to Donetsk People's Republic’s Representative to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) Ruslan Yakubov.

According to him, "The total number of violations by the Ukrainian military reached 2 instances. The total number of ammunition used by the military is 3 pieces."

MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United States and its allies are planning to carry out new missile strikes on Syria on the pretext of a provocation that the Syrian government is behind a "chemical attack," the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.

EKATERINBURG, August 23. /TASS/. The one-piece 1.6-kg emerald found in the Sverdlovsk Region earlier this year was sold for 4 mln rubles ($58,700). A Russian company engaged in gem cutting purchased it, press service of the Mariinsky Mine told TASS on Monday.

"The emerald was sold. The sum is over 4 mln rubles ($58,700). A Russian cutting company purchased it," the press service said, without detailing the buyer’s name.

KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, August 24. /TASS/. The most advanced Katran rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle publicly shown for the first time at the Victory Day parade in Moscow in the spring will enter flight tests before the end of the year, Russian Helicopters Group told TASS at the Army-2018 forum on Friday.

"Currently, the Katran drone is undergoing ground trials that will be concluded in the autumn of this year, after which the Group’s specialists will start the program of the Katran’s flight tests to be completed in 2019," the press office said.

GENEVA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- A meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton and his Russian counterpart, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, concluded Thursday afternoon here in Geneva without reaching a joint statement though both sides cited "progress".

Speaking to journalists at a press briefing inside the U.S. mission in Geneva, Bolton said that they had made some progress, and identified specific areas "in which it is possible to restore communication lines and conduct more work within the relevant departments".

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN; 22 Aug 2018; AA: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday proposed measures against U.S. dominance in global finance amid a growing row between Washington and Berlin over the Iran nuclear deal. 

In an article he wrote for daily Handelsblatt, Maas slammed U.S. President Donald Trump for imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran, without consulting European allies. 

MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. The Western countries are known to have made at least a hundred chemical agents similar to the Novichok nerve gas since the mid-1990s, as follows from a report published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

The Foreign Ministry recalled that on January 13, 1993 Moscow was one of the first to have put its signature to the Chemical Weapons Convention and promptly began its implementation.