Europe

MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/: Russia is ready to discuss the negotiations option with Ukraine, if it capitulates, qualitatively reduces its armed forces and get denazified, says head of the Russian State Duma Committee on international affairs, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky.

"We are ready to consider a negotiations process, if the Ukrainian side is ready for an unconditional capitulation, qualitative reduction of its armed forces, as well as total, absolute and unconditional denazification," Slutsky said in a video, posted on his Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed to give people evacuating to Russia from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic as well as from Ukraine monthly and one-off payments.

Certain categories of people, including disabled persons and elders above the age of 80, will be given 10,000 ($166) in monthly payments. Pregnant women will be entitled to one-off payments in a similar amount.

KYIV, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Moscow and Kyiv traded fresh accusations on Saturday of shelling around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which has been a focus of international concern that fighting in the area could trigger a disaster.

Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been controlled by Russian forces since early March, soon after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Ukrainian staff continue to operate it and in recent weeks the two sides have traded blame for shelling near the plant.

BERLIN, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A German tourist has been detained in Iran, the German foreign ministry said on Saturday, declining to give further details beyond saying the man was receiving consular assistance.

The Iranian interior ministry was not immediately available to comment on the detention.

MALACKY, Slovakia, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Slovakia signed a deal on Saturday under which fellow NATO states the Czech Republic and Poland will police its skies as Bratislava withdraws its Soviet-made MiG-29s from service, potentially freeing up the old jets to send to Ukraine.

Slovakia has said it is ready to send the 11 MiG fighters to Ukraine, whose military has long relied on Soviet-era equipment and which has appealed for more supplies from NATO nations to boost its ability to battle invading Russian forces.

GENEVA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Millions of tonnes of food from previous harvests in Ukraine still need to be cleared to make room in silos for the next one, the U.N. coordinator for a grains deal said on Saturday.

More than 1 million tonnes of grains and other foods have so far been exported under a grains deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative has started creating some space but much more grain needs to shift to make space for the new harvest," said Amir Abdulla, U.N. Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

ATHENS, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rejected on Friday opposition parties' calls for a snap election over the recent revelations of the phone tapping of an opposition leader by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP).

"We will get through this difficult winter together," he said during Parliament's first plenary debate after the summer break.

The conservative government's four-year term ends next summer.

LONDON (AP) — Stinking piles of garbage on the streets of Edinburgh are threatening the health and safety of the public, a health authority warned Saturday as strikes by garbage collectors in the Scottish capital moved into their ninth day.

The warning from Public Health Scotland came as garbage collectors in Newham, a borough of London, also walked out for a week over a pay dispute.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — With a solemn ceremony to create new cardinals, Pope Francis was poised Saturday to formally expand the ranks of churchmen now eligible to vote for his successor in case he dies or resigns — the latter a step he has said he’d consider if the need arises.

Of the 20 churchmen being raised to the rank of cardinal in St. Peter’s Basilica, 16 are younger than 80 and thus eligible to participate in a conclave — the ritual-shrouded, locked-door assembly of cardinals who cast paper ballots to elect a new pontiff.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concern about the potential for a radiation leak at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant persisted as Ukrainian authorities said Saturday that Russian forces fired on areas just across the river and Russia claimed Ukrainian shelling hit a building where nuclear fuel is stored.

Authorities were distributing iodine tablets to residents who live near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in case of radiation exposure, which can cause health problems depending on the amount a person absorbs.