Europe

KOSTOLAC, Serbia, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Serbia are painstakingly brushing sand and soil off the ancient woodwork of a Roman ship discovered by miners in a vast opencast coal quarry.

After an excavator at the Drmno mine uncovered some timber, experts from the site of a nearby former Roman settlement known as Viminacium rushed to try and preserve the skeleton of the ship, the second such discovery in the area since 2020.

VIENNA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal poses a serious risk to regional and global security, according to a joint report released on Wednesday by a Chinese and a Russian think tank at a seminar here.

The report, called "The AUKUS submarine deal: risks for the nuclear non-proliferation regime and global security", was published by the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and Russia's Center for Energy and Security Studies.

OSLO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation with China has been benefiting Norway and the government has interest in expanding such cooperation, two senior advisors from the Norwegian government said on Wednesday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling on Thursday damaged a landmark church in the southern city of Kherson that once held the remains of a renowned 18th-century Russian commander.

Ukraine’s emergency service said four of its workers were wounded in a second round of shelling as they fought the fire at St. Catherine’s Cathedral. Four other people were wounded in the first shelling attack, which also hit a trolleybus, the prosecutor general’s office said.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Thursday imposed fines on Apple and the host of Wikipedia for failing to remove material deemed to be “false information” about Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/:  The dollar exchange rate rose by 1 kopeck since Tuesday’s close, selling at 92.34 rubles on the Moscow Exchange as the trade opened on Wednesday.

The euro grew by 19 kopecks, reaching 101.37 rubles.

In turn, the yuan rate gained 1.7 kopecks, trading at 12.86 rubles.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated paratroopers and veterans of Russia's Airborne Forces on their professional holiday.

Putin said in a telegram published on the Kremlin website that many generations of the soldiers and officers of the Airborne Forces "have added impressive, unforgettable chapters to the heroic chronicles of our country’s armed forces, performing their duty with dignity and remaining loyal to the oath and their military brotherhood."

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russia is ready to promptly return to the grain deal but it should be implemented in part pertaining to Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Russia, and President Vladimir Putin has already repeated that one hundred times, is ready to promptly return to the deal proper. Not only to talks but to the deal itself. [It] is ready to do [this] immediately. The deal should be simply implemented in part pertaining to Russia. This has not been done up to now," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: The Kiev regime’s terrorist methods aggravate the Ukrainian crisis and delay a peace settlement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing.

"The use of terror methods by the Kiev regime is a factor that aggravates the Ukrainian crisis and delays a peace settlement. Also, it is known that weapons and equipment supplied to Ukraine by Western sponsors are often used to carry out terrorist attacks, which makes them direct accomplices to all these crimes," she said.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a telephone conversation agreed to prepare for a potential personal meeting, the Kremlin press service reported.

"[The sides] agreed to continue contacts at various levels, including in the context of preparations for the potential meeting between the two leaders," the statement said.

The Turkish leader’s office earlier said that Erdogan and Putin had agreed on the Russian president’s visit to Turkey.