Europe

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — The annual Nobel Peace Prize shines the brightest of lights on the person or group thought to have done most to promote peace. But guessing who it will be is just a stab in the dark.

That’s because the secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee never drops any advance hints. In the past decade, winners have included diplomats, doctors, dissidents and presidents. Who were the other candidates? We can’t know for sure — the panel keeps their ruminations in a vault for 50 years.

30 Sep 2021; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's controversial bid to take over Newcastle United Football Club could be sanctioned on the condition that the government in Riyadh is not involved as a director in any way. A final decision is not expected until early next year when arbitration proceedings between the club and the English Premier League will decide whether the blocked buyout can proceed.

BRUSSELS (AP) — A round of free trade talks between the European Union and Australia has been postponed by one month in the wake of a dispute over the Australian government’s decision to cancel a multibillion-euro French submarine deal, EU and Australian officials said Friday.

BIALYSTOK, Poland (AP) — After enduring a decade of war in Syria, Boshra al-Moallem and her two sisters seized their chance to flee. Her brother, who escaped years earlier to Belgium, had saved enough money for their trip, and word was spreading online that a new migration route into Europe had opened through Belarus.

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: The gas price in Europe during the September 30 bidding again renewed its historical record and came close to $ 1,190 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the ICE exchange data.

The cost of November futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands reached $ 1,187.45 per 1,000 cubic meters or 99 euros per MWh (based on the current exchange rate of the euro to the dollar, prices for ICE are presented in euros per MWh). The overall rise in gas prices since the beginning of the day is more than 13%.

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: Shipments of US military equipment to Moldova additionally complicate the settlement of the Transnistria conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexey Zaytsev said Thursday.

"We believe that such steps that fit in the general line of Washington and Brussels of pulling Moldova in Euro-Atlantic structures are unlikely to improve the trust between the two shores of Dniester, and will additionally complicate the already stalling settlement process," he said.

BUDAPEST, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Murad Sharifi, a refugee from Afghanistan, works at a kebab place and lives in a shelter for the homeless in Budapest's outskirts. His tiny room is filled with dozens of paintings depicting a colourful but ominous world, of Afghan women clad in long black burqa gowns, surrounded by hostile men.

Sharifi, who fled to Hungary during the 2015 migration wave with tens of thousands of other asylum-seekers, says it is his "obligation" to show the oppression faced by women in his home country, worsening since the Taliban takeover in August.

LA PALMA, Spain, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Residents of Spain's La Palma were struggling on Thursday to come to terms with the devastation wrought by the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been ejecting a destructive cocktail of ash, smoke and lava for more than 10 days.

Carmen Rodriguez, who lost her home in the village of Todoque, was caught off guard by the advancing column of molten rock.

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The editor of a Russian news outlet that angered the Kremlin with its investigations, including into the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, said the authorities had declared him a wanted man.

Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, told Reuters the authorities had accused him of illegally crossing the border to leave Russia.

He said he was currently outside Russia and did not want to disclose his location. He did not say how he had left Russia.

30 Sep 2021; MEMO: The European Court of Justice on Wednesday annulled an agreement on trade and a fisheries deal between the EU and Morocco from Western Sahara, citing the region's right to self-determination, Anadolu reports.