Europe

LONDON (AP) — Facebook said it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform that promises to connect people virtually but could raise concerns about privacy and the social platform gaining more control over people’s online lives.

The company said in a blog post Sunday that those high-skilled workers will help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion for connecting online that uses augmented and virtual reality.

17 Oct 2021; MEMO: Rebuffing controversial statements by France's president about the colonial period in Algeria, the nation's parliament Saturday said that on a single day in 1961, some 300 peaceful Algerians were massacred by the French police, Anadolu reports.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: The reentry module of Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, carrying cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday, according to a live broadcast by Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos.

Rescuers helped the crew members out. The actress and the film director arrived to the ISS on October 5 and spent 12 days in orbit. Novitsky’s space mission began on April 9.

MOSCOW, October 17. / TASS /: The Nobel Peace Prize has been discredited by the fact that it was awarded to the politicians, who allowed their countries to collapse and unleashed conflicts and wars, Chairman of the State Duma (lower house) Vyacheslav Volodin stated on his Telegram channel, noting that the trust could be regained after introducing a procedure for withdrawing the award.

The Russian lawmaker noted that "the credibility of the Nobel Prize in the field of fundamental sciences was beyond the question" since it was awarded for real achievements.

MOSCOW, October 17. / TASS /: The Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 was scrambled to escort the US B-1B Lancer bomber over the Sea of Japan, Russia’s National Defense Management Center reported on Sunday.

According to the Center, Russian airspace control system detected an aerial target over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan approaching the state border. The Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 from the Eastern Military District’s air defense quick reaction alert forces was scrambled to identify it.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 cases climbed by 34,303 in the last 24 hours to 7,992,687, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/: There are yet no prospects for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, since Kiev seeks to withdraw from the Minsk agreements, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"So far, no prospects for these talks are seen because of the Ukrainian leadership’s actions. It is the Kiev authorities that do not fulfill the Minsk agreements," Peskov said.

KYIV, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation on Europe has suspended its monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine following protests near its headquarters in separatist-controlled Donetsk, the chief monitor said on Sunday.

About 200 pro-Russian protesters confronted OSCE monitors on Saturday to demand the release of a rebel officer captured by the Ukrainian military last week. The mission had faced previous protests organised by Moscow-backed separatists, but this time demonstrators appeared to block the entrance to the hotel where the monitors are based.

BUDAPEST, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Hungarian small-town mayor Peter Marki-Zay, an outsider with no party affiliation, was ahead of leftist Klara Dobrev with about a fifth of constituencies reporting in an opposition primary run-off to pick Prime Minister Viktor Orban's challenger.

In next year's parliamentary election Orban will, for the first time since he came to power in 2010, face a united front of opposition parties that also includes the Socialists, liberals and the formerly far-right, now centre-right Jobbik.

ZURICH, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Austrians have turned on the conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP), the senior partner in their coalition government, after party leader Sebastian Kurz quit as chancellor over corruption allegations, according to a poll published on Sunday.

Support for the conservative OVP has crashed from 34% to 26% in the wake of the affair, according to the survey published by newspaper Kurier on Sunday.