Europe

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish man convicted of murdering a Swedish journalist on his homemade submarine was remanded to custody Wednesday after he confessed to threatening several people as he attempted to break out of a suburban Copenhagen prison.

VLADIVOSTOK, October 20. /TASS/: Pacific Fleet missile boats delivered a strike with cruise missiles against a notional enemy’s naval group during drills in the Sea of Japan, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The missile boat strike group of the Primorsky flotilla of all arms forces of the Pacific Fleet operating in the waters of the Sea of Japan launched an attack with cruise missiles against the targets that simulated a group of the notional enemy’s surface ships during a tactical exercise," the press office said in a statement.

MURMANSK, October 20. /TASS/: The crew of the Northern Fleet’s frigate Admiral Kasatonov deployed to the Barents Sea for anti-submarine warfare drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"Today the crew of the Northern Fleet’s frigate Fleet Admiral Kasatonov started practicing assignments of anti-submarine warfare drills in the Barents Sea in compliance with the Fleet’s combat training plans for the summer training period," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/: Two Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers performed a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Arctic and the northern part of the Far East, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

"Two Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers of long-range aviation performed a scheduled flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Chukchi, Beaufort, Bering and Okhotsk Seas. The flight lasted about 12 hours," the statement says.

20 Oct 2020; MEMO: The son of an Iraqi refugee who emigrated to Belgium in 1970 has become the country’s new minister for migration and asylum.

Sammy Mahdi, 32 of the Flemish Christian democrats has served as the leader of the Young Christian Democrats and nearly became Flemish Christian democrat leader last year.

Mr. Mahdi said in statements to local media that he intends to increase the number of deportations of asylum seekers whose files had been rejected by the Belgian authorities.

LONDON, October 20. /TASS/: The UK Foreign Office claims that Russian intelligence services tried to organize cyber attacks in order to derail the Tokyo Olympics before it was postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic, the statement by UK Foreign Office published on Monday reads.

BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU’s diplomatic chief welcomed President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is ready to remove Sudan from a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

The move, a major boost for Sudan’s civilian-backed government after decades as an international pariah, came after Khartoum agreed to a $335 million compensation package for victims and relatives of past attacks, Trump wrote on Twitter.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain stood firm on Tuesday in rebutting a European Union offer to discuss draft legal texts of a potential post-Brexit trade deal unless there were fundamental changes as their high-stakes diplomatic poker game risked a chaotic finale.

Failure by the world’s largest trading bloc and sixth richest economy to reach a deal by the end of the year to govern $900 billion in annual trade would send shockwaves round Europe, just as the coronavirus also pummels jobs and businesses.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish regulators on Tuesday banned the use of telecom equipment from China's Huawei [HWT.UL] and ZTE 000063.SZ in its 5G network ahead of the spectrum auction scheduled for next month.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) said here the setting of the licence conditions followed assessments by the Swedish Armed Forces and security service.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it would be ready to freeze its total number of nuclear warheads if the United States did the same in order to extend their New START nuclear agreement by a year.

The New START accord was signed in 2010 and is due to expire in February. It is the last treaty limiting the two countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals.

The United States last week rejected a Russian proposal to unconditionally extend the pact for one year, saying that any such proposal that did not envisage freezing all nuclear warheads was a “non-starter”.