Europe

TRENCIN, Slovakia (Reuters) - Long queues formed outside coronavirus testing centres in Slovakia on Saturday, as the country embarked on a bid to test most of the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants over a single weekend.

Up to 20,000 medics plus support teams including soldiers staffed around 5,000 sites to administer the antigen swab tests.

MADRID, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish authorities have decided to close four more regions in the country to contain the rampant coronavirus amid worsening situation, local governments said Wednesday.

Movement in Andalusia, Castile-La-Mancha, Castile and Leon, and Murcia regions have been restricted due to the worsening epidemiological situation.

Murcia closes borders for 14 days, while Andalusia, Castile and Leon, and Castile-La-Mancha until Nov. 9.

ATHENS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Greece expressed their condolences and offered aid to Turkey on Friday after a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, causing casualties, injuries and extensive damage in both countries.

Two high school students died and at least nine people were injured after the wall of an old building collapsed in a narrow street on Samos, the Greek authorities said.

NICE, France (AP) — Mourners lit candles and prayed silently Friday to honor three people killed in a knife attack at a church, as France heightened security at potential targets at home and abroad amid outrage over its defense of the right to publish cartoons mocking the prophet of Islam.

MINSK, October 30. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called on the national security officers and all people to defend the sovereignty of the country amid the ongoing situation in the republic and ensure its consecutive development for future generations.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry have discussed bilateral relations and coordination of efforts to resolve conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa over the phone, including Syria and Libya, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: Both coronavirus vaccine components have been received by 10,000 participants in the trials in Moscow, Moscow Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said Friday.

"We can currently say that we are past the equator, first component was received by 20,000 participants, and 10,000 of them had the second one. In other words, 10,000 [people] have already received the full vaccine," she noted. According to Rakova, doctors are dynamically watching all the participants, they all feel well and report no significant side effects.

KAZAN, October 30. /TASS/: Police officers of the Kukmorsky District of Russia’s Tatarstan have shot dead a man who threw bottles with explosive liquid at police vehicles and attacked one of the officers with a knife, the region’s interior ministry department informed.

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/: The attack carried out by a teenager on police officers in Tatarstan and the attack on church goers in France’s Nice have no connection between them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov believes. According to him, the nature of the crimes is totally different.

"The events in France are events in France. Here we have one of the crimes, absolutely a criminal offence. What connection is there?" he said Friday when asked whether the incidents are connected in any way.

LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil prices moved in and out of negative territory on Friday but remained on course for a second monthly fall as rising COVID-19 cases in Europe and the United States heighten concerns over fuel consumption.

Brent crude was down 3 cents at $37.62 a barrel by 1140 GMT after touching a five-month low in the previous session. The December Brent contract expires on Friday and the January contract was trading broadly flat.