Europe

KIEV, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine and the European Union on Tuesday signed an open-skies agreement that will establish a joint aviation space, the Ukrainian presidential press service said.

The agreement, inked at the 23rd Ukraine-EU Summit in Kiev, will open up the air markets of Ukraine and the EU and bolster air safety, air traffic, and environmental protection, the presidential press service said in a statement.

The open-skies agreement must be ratified by Ukraine and each EU member state to take effect.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union announced plans Wednesday to open a representation in the Arctic and vowed to protect environment in a region the bloc says is of key strategic importance.

The 27-nation bloc said it will open a European Commission office in Greenland and use EU funding to promote sustainable development in the Arctic.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The great Brexit brawl is heading into its next standoff on Wednesday when European Union concessions to improve trade in Northern Ireland look likely to be deemed insufficient by the United Kingdom.

Officials said that the EU’s top Brexit official Maros Sefcovic is to propose major practical changes in the Byzantine system of customs and checks in Northern Ireland, which is U.K. territory but remained part of the EU’s borderless trading market when the U.K. left the bloc last year. Under the new rules, goods must be checked between Britain and Northern Ireland.

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — Hundreds of people on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands woke up Wednesday fearing for their homes and property after a new river of lava from an erupting volcano threatened to engulf another neighborhood on its way toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Island authorities ordered the evacuation of around 800 people from the coastal town of Los Llanos de Aridane on Tuesday after the lava took a new course and put their homes in its probable path of destruction.

ROME, October 12. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates up to 82% efficacy against coronavirus variants, Andrea Antinori, director of the clinical research department at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases, which conducted the study on Sputnik V, told Italy’s Rai 3 TV channel late on Monday.

"Sputnik’s efficacy against [coronavirus] variants has been proved to be 82%. Compared with the 88% efficacy of Pfizer’s shot, it is not much lower. It is a high efficacy, at least against the Delta variant, which was proved by laboratory tests," he said.

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have begun talks in the Kremlin. This is their fourth face-to-face meeting this year.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday Putin and Pashinyan would have a conversation and a working dinner.

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/: Russia’s eighth State Duma delegates elected Vyacheslav Volodin as chairman at their first session on Tuesday. His nomination was supported by 360 out of 450 delegates. His contender Dmitry Novikov from the Communist Party garnered 61 votes.

Volodin was nominated by the United Russia party. He served as chairman in the seventh State Duma as well.

The vote was open. Other factions did not nominate candidates for this post.

BELGRADE, October 12. /TASS/: The Serbian defense company Yugoimport unveiled its latest Lazar III A1 armored personnel carrier outfitted with the latest Russian combat modules at the Partner 2021 international defense show running in Belgrade (Serbia) on October 11-14, TASS reported from the scene.

FRANKFURT, Oct 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German rail operator Deutsche Bahn and industrial group Siemens on Monday unveiled the world’s first automated, driverless train in the city of Hamburg, billing it as more punctual and energy efficient than traditional trains.

Four such trains will join the northern city’s S-Bahn rapid urban rail network and start carrying passengers from December, using the existing rail infrastructure.

PARIS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - France wants to be a leader in green hydrogen by 2030 and build low-carbon planes and small nuclear reactors as part of a 30 billion euro ($35 billion) investment plan, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

Macron said the road map, dubbed "France 2030", would ensure France decarbonises its industry and brings innovation and production in key areas, from cars and biomedicine to semi-conductors, closer to home by the end of the decade.