Europe

PARIS (AP) — They were animals, many of them say. Prey that had lost all sense of time. Targets who were no longer human to either their hunters or themselves.

For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State group’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015. They stand just a few steps away from 14 men accused in the bloodshed — the deadliest in modern France.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: Russia is ready to maintain dynamic and versatile military cooperation with Iran, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Hossein Bagheri on Tuesday.

"Our relationships are developing very dynamically and are versatile, which can be vividly demonstrated by our large-scale joint fight against international terrorism. We are ready to continue making every effort to keep the pace of developing our relationships," the Russian defense chief said.

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/: The Americans are urging Moscow to boost gas supplies to Europe, while simultaneously opposing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said in a live broadcast of the Solovyov Live YouTube channel on Tuesday.

SIMFEROPOL, October 19. /TASS/: About 5,000 paratroopers of the Novorossiysk air assault formation went on alert and moved to training grounds in this year’s final inspection in Russia’s south, the Defense Ministry of Russia reported on Tuesday.

"Units of the Novorossiysk Guards Mountain Air Assault Formation went on alert and moved to practice ranges in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Regions and in the Republic of Crimea where they began accomplishing combat training assignments," the ministry said in a statement.

SOCHI, October 19. /TASS/: NATO’s reaction to Russia’s decision to suspend the work of diplomatic missions in Brussels and in Moscow demonstrates that the Alliance understands its losing position and reveals the lack of diplomatic culture, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu told TASS earlier that NATO regrets Russia’s decision to suspend diplomatic missions in Brussels and in Moscow but remains open for dialogue, including through the Russian-NATO Council, at the same time continuing its policy of containing Russia.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, October 19. /TASS/: Special approaches to support investments in the development of public transport should be developed in Russia to prevent the withdrawal of such funds to other sectors and abroad, as it happened in the housing and utilities sector, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

KYIV, Oct 19 (Reuters) - No third country has a veto on Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a briefing on a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, when asked about Russian objections to Ukraine's entry into the military alliance.

Austin said "no third country has a veto over NATO's membership decisions. Ukraine, as you heard me say earlier, has a right to decide its own future foreign policy and we expect that they will be able to do that without any outside interference."

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The brother of a suicide bomber who killed 22 people in Manchester in May 2017 has left Britain ahead of a scheduled appearance on Thursday at a public inquiry investigating the attack, the inquiry was told on Tuesday.

Salman Abedi blew himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena venue, as parents arrived to collect their children. Among those killed were seven children, the youngest aged eight, while 237 people were injured.

MADRID, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Survivors of a mass food poisoning four decades ago occupied Madrid's El Prado art gallery for a few hours on Tuesday, threatening to commit suicide if their demands for aid and attention were unmet.

A photo showed six people - one in a wheelchair - holding a banner in front of "Las Meninas", a painting by Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. Others gathered outside.

Police detained two of the protesters and the others left the museum around noon, the association "We Are Still Alive", which defends victims, told Reuters.

GENEVA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Ten thousand Yemeni children have been killed or maimed since a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group ousted the government, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

"The Yemen conflict has just hit another shameful milestone. We now have 10,000 children who have been killed or maimed since ... March 2015," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told a U.N. briefing in Geneva after returning from a visit to Yemen.