Europe

LONDON, Aug 20 (APP): British Member of Parliament, Naz Shah has strongly opposed granting the Order of Sheikh Zayed award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who once recognized as the butcher of Muslims of Gujrat and now oppressor of people of occupied Kashmir.

In a written letter to Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheik Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan of United Arab Emirates (UAE), British Kashmiri MP Naz Shah asked the Crown prince of UAE to reconsider the grating of prestigious award of their country to Modi.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: Winning at least one of the matches at the upcoming 2019 World Rugby Cup in Japan is the main goal of the Russian national rugby team, Vasily Artemyev, the captain of the Russian squad, said on Monday.

The Russian team qualified for the Rugby World Cup series for the first time ever in 2011. The 2011 Rugby World Cup was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand and Russia did not clear the group stage losing all matches. The national rugby squad missed the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, as it did not qualify for the global competition.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: Consular access to Paul Whelan, a US citizen detained in Russia on espionage charges, will be provided on August 27, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.

"We provide regular consular access to Whelan. The next visit is planned for tomorrow. We wouldn’t call it isolation," the ministry said.

KALININGRAD, August 26. /TASS/: The combat teams of the Baltic Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile systems practiced striking enemy surface ships in drills on the Baltic coast of Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"The combat teams of Bastion coastal defense missile systems practiced assignments to detect and track notional targets, and also performed electronic missile launches, notionally destroying precision weapon ‘carriers’ represented by the simulated enemy’s surface ships," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: The project for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is 75% complete, the project operator Nord Stream 2 began laying the final part, the company said on Monday.

"1,855 km of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. This is 75% of the total length of the two lines. Thus, Nord Stream 2 AG proceeded to laying the final quarter of the gas pipeline," the statement said.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: The United States has warned participants in the upcoming international exhibition in Damascus of possible sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"We have heard that the United States threatens participants in this exhibition with sanctions, saying that any presence at this event would mean support to the Syrian regime, as it put it," he said. "It is a familiar rhetoric we hear in respect of Syria and a number of other countries which have their own stance rather than dance to someone else’s tune."

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: The Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (part of Tactical Missiles Corporation) has carried out work to restore the Soviet underground coastal defense missile system Utyos in Crimea and will eventually rearm it with new missiles, Company CEO and Chief Designer Alexander Leonov told TASS on Monday.

The repair work on the Utyos coastal defense missile system was completed just recently and was required because the compound operated by the Ukrainian Navy in 1996-2014 had fallen into disuse, the chief executive said.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: The Kremlin thinks it impossible to speak about the revival of the Group of Eight format without consensus of all the Group of Seven nations on that matter, Russia president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concerns about the slow growth of real incomes.

"Given the increase in wages in the economy, real incomes of people are growing slowly. This raises concern," the Russian leader said, opening a meeting on economic issues.

At the same time, the president noted that there are positive factors. In particular, he said, inflation is gradually approaching the target. "Now it is about 4.5% in annual terms," he stressed.

BIARRITZ, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) - As the G7 summit entered into its second day, leaders of the world's wealthiest countries club went through a packed schedule Sunday to build consensus, but their divisions on such issues as trade and Iranian nuclear deal were hard to bridge.