Europe

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Prince Harry can take some of his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group to trial but allegations of phone-hacking were too late, the High Court in London ruled on Thursday.

Harry, younger son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over multiple alleged unlawful acts he says were carried out on behalf of its tabloids, the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s until 2016.

MADRID, July 26 (Reuters) - An Iranian chess player who moved to Spain in January after she competed without a hijab and had an arrest warrant issued against her at home has been granted Spanish citizenship, Spain said on Wednesday.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, better known as Sara Khadem, took part in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships held in Kazakhstan in late December without the headscarf that is mandatory under Iran's strict Islamic dress codes.

MOSCOW/LONDON/NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - A Liberian-flagged oil tanker set sail in May from Russia's Ust-Luga port carrying crude on behalf of a little-known trading company based in Hong Kong. Before the ship had even reached its destination in India, the cargo changed hands.

The new owner of the 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude carried on the Leopard I was a similarly low-profile outfit, Guron Trading, also based in Hong Kong, according to two trading sources.

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - When 22-year-old American student Amelia Dias completed her final year of studying international relations and law at the University of Edinburgh this summer, she was handed an apology letter instead of a degree certificate.

The letter told Dias that, as Edinburgh was among the more than 100 British universities hit by a staff boycott of marking and assessment this year, the assignments she had completed had not all been graded, and it could not award her a degree.

CATANIA, Italy, July 26 (Reuters) - A fire early last week at Sicily's main airport is still causing massive disruption for visitors to the island, laying bare the disorganisation and poor infrastructure that challenge Italy's tourism ambitions.

The fire broke out on July 17 at Catania airport, below Mount Etna, which acts as a hub for the east of Sicily and attracts more arrivals than the capital Palermo.

ATHENS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Three people have died in wildfires that continued to rage across Greece on Wednesday.

A woman was found dead in a trailer near Volos where a major wildfire broke out on Wednesday, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported. Her husband was seriously injured.

Meanwhile, a 45-year-old shepherd was found dead a few kilometers away, according to the report. He had rushed with his brother to move their animals to safety.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Some African leaders arrived in Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as he seeks allies amid the fighting in Ukraine, while the Kremlin accused Western powers of “outrageous” efforts to pressure other African heads of state not to attend.

Putin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.

MOSCOW (AP) — Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto NATO’s doorstep.

The declared deployment of the Russian weapons on the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine and another bid to discourage the West from increasing military support to Kyiv.

ATHENS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Large areas of the Mediterranean have sweltered under an intense summer heatwave in recent weeks and Greece, Algeria and other affected areas are battling wildfires together.

Hundreds of firefighters, helped by counterparts from Türkiye and Slovakia, have been battling blazes that have raged on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia since Wednesday amid hot, windy conditions, while emergency planes have been flying out tourists.

FIRE-FIGHTING PLANE CRASH

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A fire on a freight ship carrying nearly 3,000 cars was burning out of control Wednesday in the North Sea, and the Dutch coast guard said one crew member had died, others were hurt and it was working to save the vessel from sinking close to an important habitat for migratory birds.

Boats and helicopters were used to get the 23 crew members off the ship after they tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze, the coast guard said in a statement. The cause of the blaze wasn’t immediately known, and it wasn’t clear how the crew member died.