Europe

RIGA, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Latvia’s government has adopted new coronavirus regulations to make epidemiological requirements and restrictions simpler and easier to understand.

THE HAGUE, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN’s top court said it will hold hearings on Oct 18 and 19 on the case between arch foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, which accuse each other of racial discrimination.

“The hearings will focus on the request for provisional measures submitted by the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the Hague-based International Court of Justice said in a statement.

A week after Armenia filed an application against Azerbaijan at the ICJ, Baku filed a counter complaint against its neighbour on Sept 23, accusing it of racial discrimination and “ethnic cleansing”.

ZURICH, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Switzerland is offering gift certificates to people who persuade others to be jabbed against COVID-19, the government said, part of efforts to increase the country’s low vaccination rate.

Every newly vaccinated person will be asked to name one person who convinced them to be inoculated, the government said, with that person receiving a 50 Swiss franc (US$53.68) gift token for their assistance.

Local authorities will decide where the voucher can be used, for instance at cinemas or restaurants.

Oct 1 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan this week flagged potential further cooperation with Russia on defence industry projects including fighter jets and submarines even as the United States warned it could respond with more sanctions. 

Turkey received the first deliveries of the S-400 surface-to-air systems in July 2019, prompting Washington to begin removing the NATO ally from its F-35 stealth fighter programme over security concerns.

The following timeline presents the main developments in the programme and Ankara's relations with the United States.

MADRID, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Lava flowed from a newly opened crack in the Cumbre Vieja volcano on Spain's La Palma on Friday, carving a different path from previous flows and raising fears of more destruction, while fine ash forced islanders to don masks and goggles.

A river of red-hot lava snaked downhill from the new fissure, which burst open late on Thursday around 400 metres (1,300 ft) to the north of the primary eruption site.

KYIV, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that hundreds of people had been detained following a shooting incident in which an IT worker and a KGB officer died in Minsk, the state news agency Belta reported.

Belarusian authorities said KGB officers shot dead a 31-year-old man on Tuesday after he resisted law enforcement officers. Human rights group Viasna-96 said 84 people had been detained after the shooting incident. Reuters could not independently confirm the number of detainees.

BERLIN, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- China expects the new German government to continue a proactive and pragmatic policy towards China and jointly promote stable and in-depth ties, Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken has said.

Germany's federal election came to a close last Sunday and the parties have started exploratory talks to form a new government, marking an end to the era of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s chief prosecutor accused member nation Slovenia on Friday of interfering in the EU’s justice system and raised concerns about whether the trade bloc’s budget is fully protected from fraud or corruption.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office began work in June. Its aim is to independently investigate crimes against the EU budget, such as corruption and serious cross-border value added tax fraud. Slovenia is alone among those countries taking part that refuse to name two prosecutors to the agency.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A fire at a hospital in the Romanian port city of Constanta killed at least seven COVID-19 patients, authorities said Friday.

All the victims were in the intensive care unit of Constanta’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases, said Constantin Amarandei, head of the city’s emergency inspectorate.

Interior minister Lucian Bode said Friday that the early official figure of nine dead was “wrongly” reported. “We are talking about seven people … five in hospital and two after being transferred to other hospitals,” he said.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Sharply higher oil and gas prices pushed annual inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro to its highest in more than a decade in September. Economists and central bankers say the jump in energy prices is temporary — but it has governments nonetheless scrambling to ease the pain of higher utility bills for households.

The European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday that inflation came in at 3.4%, up from 3.0% in August and the highest since 2008.