Europe

BRUSSELS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) is still willing to offer a period until December for Turkey to take positive actions to deescalate the recent tension in between, a spokesman for the European Commission said on Monday.

According to media reports, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made verbal shots towards his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, after the latter condemned the killing of a French history teacher as an "Islamic terrorist attack."

GENEVA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Tuesday said global foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by nearly half in the first six months of the year, with the biggest declines in Europe and the United States, warning of a highly uncertain outlook depending on the duration of the pandemic and the effectiveness of policy interventions.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday accused each other of violating a new cease-fire announced the day before in a bid to halt the fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, in just four weeks.

MINSK, October 26. /TASS/: More than 1,000 people are taking part in a march of pensioners in Minsk against the current Belarusian authorities, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Russia over the past 24 hours has increased by 17,347, bringing the total to 1,531,224, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Monday.

According to the crisis center, the relative daily growth over the past three days has been at 1.1%.

The lowest daily growth rates were registered in the Republic of Chechnya (0.3%), the Chukotka Autonomous Region (0.4%) and the Republic of Dagestan (0.5%).

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is prepared to refrain from deploying in its European part the 9M729 missiles, which Washington regards as a violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, but on the condition of reciprocal steps by the NATO countries. In that connection, Putin suggested considering different verification measures, including those regarding the Aegis Ashore systems at US and NATO bases in Europe and Russia's facilities in the Kaliningrad Region.

PARIS, Oct 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Several Arab trade associations have announced the boycott of French products, protesting the recent comments made by President Emmanuel Macron on Islam.

Earlier this month, Macron pledged to fight “Islamist separatism”, which he said was threatening to take control in some Muslim communities around France.

He also described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is continuing to look into the behaviour of Thailand’s king, who tends to spend long stretches of time in Bavaria, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, as opposition protests in Thailand gain speed.

“We are monitoring this long-term,” Maas said. “It will have immediate consequences if there are things that we assess to be illegal.”

In Bangkok, protesters planned to march to the German embassy on Monday to present a petition to Berlin to investigate the king’s use of his powers while in the European nation.

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier is due in London on Monday for talks with Britain to find out whether a deal on future relations can be struck to avoid widespread trade disruption at the end of the year.

The United Kingdom left the European Union in January but the two sides are trying to clinch a deal that would govern nearly a trillion dollars in annual trade before a transition period of informal membership ends on Dec. 31.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that U.S. Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden’s assessment of Russia as the biggest threat to U.S. national security was wrong and encouraged hatred of Russia.

The comments come just over a week before Biden faces Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. Biden is ahead in the polls.

“We absolutely do not agree,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call, when asked to comment on Biden’s assessment.