MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is self-isolating as a precaution after several members of his entourage fell ill with COVID-19, but is “absolutely” healthy and does not have the disease himself, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Putin, 68, will therefore not travel to Tajikistan this week for planned regional security meetings which he will take part in by video conference instead. The Kremlin said Putin took the decision to self-isolate after he had met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Kremlin on Monday, in consultation with doctors. Putin also met Russian Paralympians and travelled to western Russia on Monday to observe joint military drills with Belarus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been in touch with several people in his entourage who had fallen ill with COVID-19. Asked if Putin had tested negative for COVID-19, Peskov said: “Of course yes. The president is absolutely healthy.”

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BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) -- China’s first C919 narrowbody jet to be delivered to launch customer China Eastern Airlines is about to enter final assembly, China’s aviation regulator said, with delivery due before the end of the year. The C919, being built by state-owned planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), will mark a milestone in a decade-long program to rival aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing. The C919 program’s certification board met in Shanghai on Sept. 10 and reviewed COMAC reports on batch production of the jet, the Eastern Region Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on its social media account. COMAC hopes to obtain a type certificate, which certifies the model as airworthy, by the end of the year. The board also approved proposals to adjust the current plans for obtaining the aircraft’s production certificate, which is required for mass production, the regulator said, without giving further details. The C919 is currently in the more limited batch production phase.

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LONDON (AFP) -- Britain on Tuesday said it would push back its implementation of full post-Brexit borders checks on goods from the European Union, as the pandemic, red tape and new immigration rules fuel supply problems. Plans to introduce full controls in areas such as the import of food and animal products had been due from next month but would now start from January next year under a “pragmatic new timetable”, Downing Street said. Britain will still introduce full customs declarations and controls on January 1, 2022, as planned. Certification and physical checks on food and animal goods designed to protect against diseases, pests and contaminants -- due to be introduced on January 1 -- will now be introduced in July 2022. Requirements for Safety and Security declarations will be also be pushed back to July. The pandemic and the effects of leaving the EU single market have left Britain short of truck drivers, causing supply problems, particularly in the food and drink sector.

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OSLO (Reuters) -- Norway’s Labor Party began coalition talks with other members of the center-left bloc on Tuesday seeking to form a government after their parliamentary election victory, with the focus on climate change and oil. Labor leader Jonas Gahr Stoere must address voters’ concerns over global warming and a widening wealth gap, while ensuring any transition away from oil production - and the jobs it creates - is gradual. Stoere’s goal is to convince both the rural-based Centre Party and the mostly urban Socialist Left to join him, which would give his cabinet 89 seats, four more than what is needed for a majority in the 169-seat assembly. Norway produces around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, accounting for over 40% of export revenues. But most major parties also believe oil will play a smaller part over time, and hope the engineering know-how of oil firms can be transferred to renewable energy, including offshore wind.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad has arrested a convicted militant and suspected leader of an Al-Qaeda-linked group that has been blamed for a string of past bombings in the country, Indonesia police said. Abu Rusdan was seized late Friday in Bekasi near the capital of Jakarta, along with three other suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan said. Indonesian authorities consider Rusdan to be a key figure in the Jemaah Islamiyah. The shadowy Southeast Asian network is widely blamed for attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia — including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Indonesia’s police counterterrorism unit, known as Densus 88, has swept up 53 alleged members of the Jemaah in the past weeks, across 11 different provinces.

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had hoped to secure a majority in parliament when he called a snap election, but a lackluster campaign and public anger over a vote during a pandemic are putting his chances of victory at risk. Trudeau, in power since 2015, decided to gamble on an early vote and capitalize on his government’s handling of the pandemic, which included massive spending to support individuals and businesses and high vaccination rates. But with just a week to go until the Sept. 20 election, Trudeau’s Liberals are nowhere near the 38% in public support needed for a majority and could even lose to the Conservatives, led by the relatively unknown Erin O’Toole.