Europe

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: TASS Director-General Andrey Kondrashov on Friday handed over to Maxim Kharlamov, the chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a certificate of the agency's special correspondent on the International Space Station (ISS) for cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who will become a fourth TASS correspondent on the orbital outpost.

The certificate was handed over at the TASS headquarters in Moscow. Earlier, Oleg Kononenko was handed the agency's space mascot - a soft toy Inotasia, which will go with him into space.

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Russia warns Moldova not to get too involved in the process of "supporting" Kiev as such actions endanger security in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary.

"I would like to <...> warn official Chisinau against getting too involved in the process of 'supporting' Ukraine, as this will not only jeopardize stability and security in the region, but will actually make Moldova an accomplice to the Kiev regime's war crimes," the diplomat said.

COPENHAGEN, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Denmark on Friday said it plans to ban Koran burnings after a string of desecrations of Islam’s holy book in the Scandinavian nation sparked anger in Muslim countries.

The government will present a bill that will “prohibit the inappropriate treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told reporters.

He said the legislation was aimed especially at burnings and desecrations in public places.

AMSTERDAM, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The Dutch supreme court ruled on Friday that two Israeli former military commanders, including ex-defence minister Benny Gantz, are immune from civil prosecution in the Netherlands in a case brought over the deaths of six Palestinians in an Israeli air strike.

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said that Western suggestions Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie" while declining to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.

Russia's aviation authority has said that Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was on board a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow with no survivors.

LONDON/CHICAGO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

The Omicron offshoot carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared with XBB.1.5, the dominant variant through most of 2023 - a number roughly on par with the Omicron variant that caused record infections compared to its predecessor.

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday Ukraine had fired a missile towards Moscow and attacked Crimea with 42 drones, in what would be one of the biggest known coordinated Ukrainian air attacks to date on Russian-held territory.

The Russian defence ministry said a modified S-200 missile had been shot down over the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region. The city of Kaluga is less than 200 km (124 miles) from Moscow.

"The missile was detected and destroyed by air defences over the territory of the Kaluga region," the defence ministry said.

ROME, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Italy's northern city of Milan registered a new record high average daily temperature of 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday as a heatwave which began around mid-August reached its peak, the regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said on Friday.

It was the hottest day since the Milano Brera weather station started recording temperatures in 1763. Milan's previous record of 32.8 C was set on Aug. 11, 2003.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The prime ministers of India and Greece pledged to boost their countries’ trade, business and defense ties Friday during a visit to Athens by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s visit is the first to Greece by an Indian prime minister in 40 years since Indira Gandhi visited the country in September 1983.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the two countries enjoyed relations stretching back to antiquity.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s internal security officers were searching for the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease which has killed seven people and infected more than 100 others in the strategic city of Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine, authorities said Friday.

Rzeszow region, in Poland’s southeast, is a key transit hub for international military support for Ukraine, following Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are also stationed in the area.