Europe

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/: Law enforcement officers have apprehended two suspects in attacks in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan in 1999, who were allegedly members of Basayev’s and Hattab’s gangs, the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Public Relations Center told TASS on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/: The Kremlin has rejected the possibility that the artificial lung ventilators that Russia had shipped to the US in the spring could have been of inferior quality, Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday, commenting on FEMA’s reported disposal of the Russian lung ventilators in the United States.

ROME, Oct 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – The European Union (EU) recovery fund should kick off as soon as Jan, to provide the necessary relief to European economies hit by the COVID-19 crisis, Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, urged yesterday.

“In the European Council a few days ago, we restated our expectation that the Next Generation EU programme, as well as, the Multiannual Financial Framework, could start by Jan 1, 2021,” Conte told a press conference after meeting his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A United Nations judge on Wednesday ordered that Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who has been in a French jail since May, be sent to a detention unit in The Hague out of health considerations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision means Kabuga, 84, is likely spend at least several months in The Hague and be brought before an international judge there for an initial appearance in his war crimes case, rather than in Tanzania as planned.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Health Minister Jens Spahn tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday and placed himself in home quarantine, the Health Ministry said.

It said Spahn, 40, was suffering from cold-like symptoms and that people he had been in contact with were being informed.

Spahn had told Chancellor Angela Merkel of his diagnosis and she had wished him a swift recovery, a spokesman said.

Spahn attended a cabinet meeting earlier on Wednesday, but a government spokesman said other cabinet ministers would not necessarily have to go into quarantine.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Negotiators from the European Union are expected to travel to London on Thursday to resume talks with Britain, two EU sources said, a move, that if confirmed, would mark a new push to protect billions of dollars worth of trade.

Both the EU and Britain have spent days calling on the other side to offer more concessions in talks, which have been all but deadlocked since the summer, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson walked away from the negotiations last week.

MOSCOW, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Wednesday confirmed its readiness to continue negotiations with the United States on the extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

"This topic is of strategic nature and global significance. It is in the interests of not only our two countries but also global security and stability," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a daily briefing.

He said Russia hopes that the dialogue with the United States will continue and their differences will be overcome.

BUDAPEST, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech company Huawei celebrated its 15th anniversary of operation in Hungary here on Tuesday, reaffirming its strategy of "in Hungary and for Hungary."

"Fifteen years ago, we opened our operation in Hungary. Thanks to the open and fair business environment, we keep on investing and developing in Hungary," said Cai Lingyu, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Technologies Hungary Kft at an event marking the anniversary, as well as its 20th anniversary of operation in Europe.

GENEVA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations report on Wednesday forecast a 7 percent to 9 percent year-on-year drop in the value of global trade in 2020, despite signs of a weak rebound in the third quarter led by a recovery in China.

MADRID (AP) — A Madrid court on Wednesday acquitted the heads of Catalonia’s regional police of charges of sedition and disobedience for what state prosecutors had argued was their alleged role in the northeast region’s 2017 secession attempt.

Spain’s National Court ruled in a 2-1 decision that police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, officer Teresa Laplana, and political heads Pere Soler and César Puig hadn’t supported the illegal secession referendum organized against court orders by Catalonia’s government prior to its unsuccessful declaration of independence.