Europe

BRUSSELS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The European Commission's chief executive warned Poland on Tuesday that its challenge to the supremacy of European Union law called into question the very foundations of the 27-nation bloc and could not go unpunished.

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled last week that parts of EU law are incompatible with the Polish constitution, undermining the legal pillar on which the union stands and raising fears that Poland could eventually leave the bloc.

MOSCOW, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Russia will not officially recognise the Taliban for now and wants the Islamist group to make good on promises it made when it came to power in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Lavrov was speaking in southern Russia on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Valdai Discussion Club and ahead of talks in Moscow on Wednesday which will be attended by a Taliban delegation.

He said the group's promises included, in particular, those on political and ethnic inclusivity in the make-up of the government.

BERLIN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The liberal FDP party has followed in the footsteps of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Greens by agreeing to enter into official coalition negotiations to form a new government, German media reported on Monday.

On Friday, the SPD was the first of the three parties to speak out in favor of negotiations. The Greens followed suit on Sunday, agreeing to negotiate the formation of a so-called traffic light coalition.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Russia registered cyberattacks from the US, Ukraine, and Germany, among other places, during the State Duma Elections days, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview for TASS.

"We have indeed registered a spike in interference on state informational systems during the preparation and the process of the September 2021 voting days. We registered cyberattacks at the Central Elections Commissions servers during the voting days from US, Ukrainian and German address space, among other places," Syromolotov noted.

KIEV, October 18. /TASS/: Naftogaz of Ukraine presented an application for participation in certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline operator, CEO of the company Yuri Vitrenko said at a briefing on Monday.

"We submitted an application for participation in certification of the Nord Stream 2 operator," he said.

MINSK, October 18. /TASS/: French Ambassador to Belarus Nicolas de Lacoste left Minsk before completing his assumption of office procedure, Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced Monday, adding that Belarusian Ambassador to France Igor Fisenko has also been recalled for consultations.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Foreign investors are invited to participate in the jubilee St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to be held on June 15-18, 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday at the Foreign Investment Advisory Council’s meeting.

"Certainly, our communication is not limited to the Advisory Council’s framework. I would like to take an opportunity and invite you, dear participants in today’s meeting, and your colleagues, business partners, in early summer of the next year to our northern capital, St. Petersburg," Mishustin said.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: An envoy from a NATO member state in Moscow may maintain urgent contacts with the Russian side on the bloc’s behalf, following Russia’s tit-for-tat response to the alliance’s decision to withdraw the accreditation of eight Russian diplomats, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said in a statement on Monday.

ATHENS, Oct 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four Tibetan activists were removed from outside the archaeological site of ancient Olympia and detained on Monday, an hour before the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics torch lighting ceremony.

The activists, three women and one man, were taken to the police station in ancient Olympia, a spokesperson for the group of activists said. The spokesperson said they had neither protested nor unfurled any banners.

An ancient Olympia police station official said the four had been detained, but not arrested.

GENEVA, Oct 18 (NNN-TELESUR) — Director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reported that the number of deaths per week in the world due to COVID-19 continues to fall and stands at 50,000, the lowest figure recorded in almost a year.

However, the head of the WHO warned that the figure remains unacceptable. He stressed that the real figure may be higher, as in several countries there are deaths from the virus that escape the counts of health authorities.